9 Miles miles walked since starting ... We’ve checked the weather forecast – heavy rain; we’ve checked the tide – low @4pm and we’ve checked the map – mostly a sandy beach, so I’ve opted for sandals. Leaving Braunton, we soon emerge at Velator Quay which oozes a long history of shipping in the Taw estuary going back to 1870 but now harbours what looks like a collection of abandoned boats. The pathway through is a long, straight mound between the road and the low-level Braunton marsh, with Chivenor barracks on the far side. Cows graze the fields the over side of the road.  Still [...]

6 Miles miles walked since starting ... After an enjoyable evening with Annie and Gary at our Croyde holiday cottage we all motor round to Appledore for breakfast at John’s café. I purchase another slap of John’s squidgy home-made flapjack - I’m going to miss it.  After a mooch around the gift shops and lanes we drive back to Barnstable train station. We use our nose and gut feeling, rather than the confusing signposts, to weave our way over the River Taw to the coast path along the river to Braunton.  Looking back the clouds are now parting over the medieval “Barnstable Long Bridge” and [...]

7 Miles miles walked since starting ... I’ve been yearning for this trip for so long that I’m up and dressed in summer holiday gear (white short dungarees) and we are on the road to Devon by 7am.  Seven hours later, feeling the enthusiasm washed away, we pull into Barnstable train station car park and turn the windscreen wipers off from full speed for the first time today! Thankfully the storm as eased as we jump onto the 21 bus to Instow, alighting a few minutes later onto a pavement full of puddles. The road along Instow Quay is lined with grand dwellings and an impressive looking [...]

6 Miles miles walked since starting ... The campsite was full last night of South West Coast path walkers, many wanting to chat about their experience.  So, after packing up the bell tent and imparting advise to a delightful young guy walking anti-clockwise (strange!), we drive the short distance to Appledore for the last walk of our holiday. We are parked up and ready to go before 9, as we have two timescales to meet – the first ferry back over the river Torridge and a football match (apologies I think it was a World Cup match but it doesn’t interest me) to get back [...]

5 Miles miles walked since starting ... The stagecoach bus drops us where we jumped on yesterday and we make our way down the side street to the seafront.  We now have a good look at the huge, and I mean huge, part completed apartment block between the road and the beach, in varying degrees of completion.  A local man walking his dog stops to give us all the gossip of the developer who took deposits then did a runner with the money before anyone could set up home in their luxury seafront apartments. How sad, for the town and for the potential residents. The [...]

11 Miles miles walked since starting ... The Cornish bus timetable is surprisingly not geared up to early morning walkers so we drive to Clovelly, leave our car and start walking before the donkeys arrive to greet the tourists. Keeping to the higher section of the village we pass through the gates leading to Hobby Drive. “As it winds through the woods, Hobby Drive, gives magnificent glimpses of the harbour and Bideford Bay” states the Clovelly leaflet.  Which I guess is true but we actually found it a really hard hours traipse on hard gravel paths through dark woodland.  We were overtaken by a couple [...]

9 1/2 Miles miles walked since starting ... It’s as if we weren’t meant to achieve this leg of the coast path what with April’s storms and yesterday’s 200-mile detour to sort out a burst pipe at home. But we arrived at the Red Lion in Clovelly last night after a whole day of driving on the hottest day of the year so far. After our overnight stay and breakfast at the Red Lion we drive back up the steep hill to the visitor centre car park to meet our friendly taxi driver.  He turns out to also run the village b and b and gives a [...]

5 1/2 Miles Miles walked since starting ... We’ve been kept awake by the beating rain on the roof of our cosy bedroom in an outbuilding behind the pub, flashes of lightning lighting up the room through the Velux window. Even the landlady says it was exceptionally stormy overnight, as we enjoy our full English breakfast in the now deserted bar. As we leave our delightful lodge at the end of the pub garden it’s as if last night’s downpour never happened. We take the steep track back down the valley to re-join the North Devon coast path then up the other side where we [...]

9 1/2 Miles Miles walked since starting ... Despite many setbacks, including breaking my wrist in January and our car breaking down just three days ago, we return to Bude in a sexy red mini – the garage courtesy car. Our overnight bed and breakfast at the Edgcumbe Hotel in Bude, perched above Summerleaze Beach, is perfect. The lady showing us our room couldn’t have been friendlier, the upgraded sea view room extremely cosy, and the breakfast as good as the one we had enjoyed here last November. The grey and white clouds hang low over Summerleaze and Crooklets beach as we return over Maer [...]