11th May

We have had a great last day, we drove back to Simonsbath and started with a bit of a trek up onto Exmoor.  The weather was dry but colder and very windy, so we got gloves and hats on and got going quite quickly with the first 3 miles or so.  The navigators had a bit of work to do as it was open moor again for a while.  

Cows with their bottoms to the wind!

We managed to find a sheltered spot for coffee.  

We carried on covering quite a lot more moor until there was no more moor!  We then started a bit of a descent into woodland and rivers, where we actually found some picnic tables for our lunch spot.  

So on we went and by now we could see the sea.

We started zigzagging down through woodland towards Lynmouth, then we started zigzagging up again!!  not to worry though we soon started downwards again, although of course walking down is quite hard going on the old knees.  

Eventually we got back to see level and into Lynmouth.   We found the bus at the bottom of the path, but no Phil and Carol - we found them having tea at the cafe on the harbour just at the true and of the walk.  

A few spots of rain arrived, but fortunately we had had a dry 10 mile walk.  The whole walk was about 117 miles. 

The stones we had carried from Wembury 11 days ago were thrown into the sea.

Ok, so Carol and Phil did have a walk up to the Valley of the rocks - I think they did cheat slightly in that they got the cliff lift up to the start of the walk.  The lift is powered by water filling a tank of one car which goes down and the empty tanked car goes up to the top.  Very clever.

The plan was to have fish and chips later, so we all went either for tea , beer, or looking round for a couple of hours.  We found an interesting museum that showed information on the flood that devasted Lynmouth in 1952 - about 34 people died and many injured.  Also found that the information centre was showing a short film about the Devon coast to coast,  it was lovely to see where we had walked from some ariel photography.  

Fish and chips were superb, and we came out to a brilliant rainbow.

 I 'm writing this sitting on the bus as we have about an hour and a half journey Back to base.  - Some people though have a sleep!

Steve W had an idea - to stop your head from flopping forward when trying to sleep, remove your belt and secure around the headrest and your head!

Cheese and biscuits with port and prosecco await back to the house

Home tomorrow,  so I'm signing off for this year.  Thanks for reading the blog, it's great for us too as a reminder, as when you're walking every day one day blends into the next! 

Tim and Pat trying to read the message from Carol.

First glimpse of Lynmouth

10th May

Just a quick blog tonight as we were late back and I was on cooking team.
Distances are increasing again as it is very difficult to get to the start of the walk each day; we’re going out on main roads and motorways as it’s quicker than trying to navigate round tiny thin roads!

Absolutely beautiful 10 mile walk today; from Tarr steps Simonsbath along the river Barle.  Lovely river walk to Withypool, then still following the river, up over the moor and then down again to come into Simonsbath.  We had a bit of rain today which meant we had to put waterproof coats on; but it was only a couple of showers

Last day tomorrow and it promises to be dry until mid afternoon; so hopefully we will finish at Lynmouth by then ready for fish and chips.

Rain!!

9th May

We walked from Knowstone to Tarr Steps today, which was a lovely varied walk.  We reached the beginning of Exmoor which was a real milestone!  We walked about 11.5 miles.

Shortly after leaving Knowstone and walking over a number of fields, we found this tree with a hole in - Tim tried to get in the picture (you can just see his elbow)! 

When we reached Exmoor itself we found the other half of the stone sculpture with holes in it; this one made quite a good noise when you rubbed your hands over it.

A Peter Randall-Page sculpture

Quite a lot of up and down today, but the views at the top were tremendous.

We also had to wait for a digger and dumper truck to move off the road to get through as there was no other way - putting in water pipes I believe.

Road closed!

Lunch was taken in the porch of the quaint church of St Giles, as it was a bit colder today and we wanted to shelter from the wind.  This church has a history going right back to the 13th century, and had a good set of 6 bells that get used quite a bit I believe - 2 of the bells are medieval.

St Giles' church Hawksworth

We met Phil and Carol at Tarr steps and we all had ice creams :)

I've got my eye on you!

8th May

Today was the easiest day of all, it was just about 8 miles and quite a lot on roads which made quick walking. We did have some mud and a nice walk through wooded areas.  We have seen lots of wild flowers on the walk including marsh orchids and bluebells in all colours.

  In Tim’s book, it told us that on one road we probably wouldn’t pass any traffic - well - we encountered 2 huge tractors pulling muck spreading things; a tanker type lorry and a couple of cars!  At one point we were almost running to a wider part in the road to allow the tractor to go by.

Yesterday we passed a shop in a small village and Walt decided he might like a pie - but - the shop was shut! 

Outside the shut shop!

Today when we were dropped off at  Witheridge there was an open shop that sold pies, so Walt bought one for lunch.

'Yes, I've got my pie'

The other place we passed was a 'naturist' club - Steve W was nearly in there!

We actually finished the walk by lunchtime, so we met Carol and Phil at Knowstone and all lunched together; but it did start to drizzle or ‘mizzle’ as it is sometimes called.  Much colder today, what a contrast to yesterday.

We only actually had to travel about 15 miles as the crow flies, but the drive home took over an hour as we had to go about 32 miles through country lanes, avoiding on coming cars, tractors and lorries.  Poor Phil and Carol have had some interesting driving; tomorrow we may return to the starting point via the A30; M5 and another A road - about 30 miles longer but should be quicker and smoother!

I had a nice swim this afternoon after the usual tea and cake; one or two seem to have sneaked off for a little shut eye I think!

7th May

About 11 miles today, and should have been quite an easy route.  We are between moors, and we all found it a bit ‘samey’ in that it was field after field, gate after gate, hill after down, not much light relief - and it was hot!  So we all felt a bit drained after the walk today and everyone was asleep on the bus back, so thank you Carol for staying awake to drive us!

We do have a couple of tales to tell; firstly Alan took a tumble and grazed his knee (no more damage though).

Alan's knee!

 Some farmers really don’t want walkers across their land so they make it quite difficult; there was one point where there obviously had been a bridge across some very muddy land, but it was completely overgrown, so we had to pick our way through the mud!  Then there was a place at the top of the field where it was just crusty mud and cow dung and poor Stuey got a boot full!  If only the farmer had kept the bridge up and directed us to the correct route we would have been off his land a lot quicker.
At lunch today there was a lot of boot washing in the stream.

Boot washing

Towards the end of the walk we came to a part that Carol and Phil were walking as part of their circular walk from Witheridge.  We found they had put a couple of large arrows for us, and left a couple of biscuits for us (the sort you get when you have had coffee - now where did they have coffee today?)

Stick arrow and note!

The walk ended about 2.30 and typically the pub was shut again; so home for tea and cake - yum.

Today's walk had a lot of little ups and downs as you can see - 30 hills Tim!! (The scale of this does look quite dramatic as it does squash up - the flat bits are coffee and tea breaks)

         

6th May

Can you believe another sunny day!  It was beautiful again today and although it was hot in places there were other times when we walked by cool streams and through wooded areas.

Today we had a 5 minute journey to Drewsteignton;

 then we walked 12 1/2 miles to near a village called Copplestone.  There were a few ups and downs, but nothing too bad - we have left the Dartmoor national park now and are walking the part between towards Exmoor.  We also passed the halfway point somewhere on today’s walk.

About 5 minutes after setting out, we had to wait for the farmer to move his sheep!

This was a huge stone put in the woods by artist Peter Randall-page and is called the '2 Moors Way' sculpture.  Hopefully we may see the other half of  this later in the walk.  If you rub your hand over it quickly you can make a singing noise - we did try but it wasn't too successful. 

We passed over the main A30 from Exeter to Oakhampton, and also a railway line (used once in a blue moon, thank goodness for Stuey!)

Opening the electric fences.

Carol and Phil had a great walk from Fingle Bridge around the valley that we did yesterday and up to Hunters tor.

5th May

We started today with only a 20 minute drive up onto the moor where we finished yesterday.  the weather today has been fabulous, not too hot, but just beautiful.  We made our way back up onto the ridge of the moor, then very gradually back down again into the valley eventually finding the river Teign and walking along it for some way. 

We past through Chagford where there is an outdoor public swimming pool, it opens at the end of May, but it was very big; longer than a usual 25 metre pool.  It was opened in 1933, dug by hand by local residents on land entrusted to the village by the Hayter-Hames family.
It is the largest open-air, fresh-water swimming pool in the south west, being fed by the River Teign.


Today had much more of a downward theme to it, with not too many big hills.  We had to however climb up from the river towards Castle Drago and around a beautiful valley and then climbing and dropping into Drewsteignton.  It was allegedly a 12 mile walk again, but it actually came out at 11 1/2 - so quite happy!

A lunchtime paddle

At Drewsteignton we stopped at the pub for a drink at the end.  Phil and Carol met a friend for lunch today at Widecombe and had to avoid hundreds of cyclists who were racing over the moor.

The trip home was only 5 minutes,  so plenty of time tonight to relax a bit.  Walt’s daughter Megan joined us last night for the weekend to walk with us, as she is thinking of running the 2 Moors Way - that just seems mad!  (I think she may be having second thoughts too) but she does do a lot of running including marathons, so maybe one day.  She did however bring a very delicious apple cake with her that was devoured this afternoon. 

yesterday's walk

Today's walk