1st May

Today started well with everyone up early and ready to go.  We had about an hour and 15 minutes drive to do 44 miles - the roads are very narrow and there was a lot of traffic so tucking into spaces to let cars and vans past.  It bucketed down with rain on the way, so we thought we were in for a wet walk, but amazingly it dried up and we had a completely dry walk!

We arrived at Wembury which is just east of plymouth on the coast, and in is a beautiful cove, so we spent a while admiring the view, and taking photos, and collecting a pebble from the beach to carry to Lynmouth, and using the facilities etc. etc.

We did eventually get going on the walk; Phil and Carol tried the coffee at the cafe on the beach (resisting the pies and pasties) then walked a 4 mile walk around the coast path towards Plymouth and had some good views from the top.

Phil at the cafe.

Our walk was beautiful too, lots of fields, woodland with bluebells coming out; lots of wild garlic that Walt picked a bagful to have in his sandwiches tomorrow; also quite a number of ups and downs to get our legs working.  It was only 7.5 miles today, but that was enough really for a first day.  The coast to coast walk is in 2 parts, as it follows the 2 moors way for most of it from Ivybridge to Lynmouth, but to start from the coast we follow the Ermeplym trail (named after 2 rivers) for 15 miles, so we are doing that in 2 days before getting up onto Dartmoor on Thursday.

Apart from getting our legs going, we learnt that we needed to keep an eye on where everyone is, as 5 of us went one way and 5 the other at a junction!  A few phone calls were made as after a while the other 5 were missed; fortunately we found each other again.

Now where did we lose everyone?

We finished today at Yealmpton and were scooped up by Carol and Phil then had just an hour’s trip back to base.  Tea and cakes all round followed by a swim in the rather nice pool at the house; it has a jet that you can put on and swim against which was quite fun.

Cooking team today is Pat, Steve and Tim, to looking forward to curry.