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