It’s been a long cold four months since we were last here.  We journey down in the sunshine stopping at Hestercombe Gardens in the Somerset countryside enroute for a warming bowl of soup and a wander the pretty gardens with stunning waterfall.

Having booked well in advance to make sure we get a room it turns out we are the only guests booked overnight at the Hunters Inn, Heddon’s Mouth.  Dinner is fab, even better the game of pool, then we wake with the glorious view up the valley refreshed for today’s walk.  We have decided to abandon our car in Combe Martin for a couple of days, where we enjoy watching a group of nursery children riding in a trolley down to the beach through the car park, before setting off ourselves.

A new section of pathway takes us straight from the green above the car park out of the village, with the longest high street, and plunging straight into open countryside. Little Hangman hillock is glowing through the trees like a pyramid ahead of us.

The muddy path takes us through lichen covered stunted blackthorn trees and ever-flowering gorse bushes to a more open grassy path.  We opt not to take the detour to Little Hangman but continue up the gradual slope to Great Hangman – the highest sea cliff in England at 318 metres!

Despite the weather being perfect for exploring we see just two runners in the first couple of hours of today’s walk. The sky is a vivid blue with a haze over the horizon.  We have certainly tackled far tougher walks on the English coast and we are soon at the top of Great Hangman popping a stone on the pile and stopping for a snack and photo.

The wide grass pathway weaves through the winter dormant low-lying heather, taking us away from the sea and down into Sherrycombe Valley where we can hear the water gushing through.  I begin to wonder where we are going to cross it. The crossing turns out to be a bridge / waterfall / ford where people have thoughtfully placed stones as the water is slightly too deep to walk through.  I don’t hesitate and step over these carefully placed stepping stones, using my walking poles then turn back to video Nigel’s slightly more cautious and slower steps over.

The path is wide and grassy for another hour or so round Holdstone Down.  We stop for lunch just below the first and only residence of the route, marked on the map as the Glass Box.   You never know what you’re going to discover next on the internet, but I would highly recommend looking up the Glass Box, Trentishoe Down. Apparently, this is a hot spot for UFO spotting, with Holdstone Down known as a “holy mountain” by the Aetherius Society! Personally, I’m not experiencing any “interplanetary beings”, but maybe it’s the wrong time of the day / year??

Our pace picks up for the last half of the walk, where we see just three lone walkers and the two runners from early on returning. The Samaritans Way path takes us back close the edge of the cliff then turns in as we reach the cliff top above Heddon’s Mouth.  The scenery has been quite spectacular with the clear winter blue skies, the sun quite low in the sky, casting deep shadows through the valleys and the trees bare of leaves, the sun shining through.

As we walk up the Heddon Valley the river is gushing through below us, the path winding through the bare trees, then a glimpse of our hotel nestled amongst the trees, and the bar staff waiting to serve us a ginger beer and snack outside before we head in for dinner.