The South West Odyssey was a long distance walk.
Five like-minded people started in 2008 from the Cardingmill Valley in Shropshire and by walking three days a year finished at Start Bay on the South Devon Coast in May 2019.
For various reasons this year’s instalment of the Odyssey was moved forward to April. Early spring weather is notoriously unreliable so we were prepared for anything, but hoped it might at least be dry. The forecast, though, suggested much better than that. The morning was cool as we reassembled outside the Sun Inn in West Bagborough, but once the mist burned off we were promised a day of unbroken sunshine.
Lynne, the party’s only non-walking member this year, took
the obligatory photograph and then, as we walked west along the road, she drove
off to research family history in the Somerset archive.
West Bagborough (pop 358) sits on the southern slopes of the
Quantock Hills. Bagborough probably means Badger’s Hill and as badgers cannot
tell left from right it matters little that there is no East Bagborough. The
village is best known for the ‘West Bagborough Hoard’, 681 Roman silver coins
buried here in the 4th century and unearthed in 2001.We turned uphill towards the church which is dedicated to St Pancras, not the London railway station but an obscure teenage martyr beheaded in Rome in 304AD.
Pulling out of St Pancras, West Blagborough |
From the church our path contoured along the flank of the
hill. A kilometre later, a right and left round Rock Farm led to more contouring
forty metres higher up until we reached Triscombe.
Contouring from Rock Farm to Triscombe |
From Triscombe we headed up Triscombe Combe (so good they named it twice), a stiff climb up a rocky gully. An even steeper climb on a grassy track around Great Hill cut off the corner to the Macmillan Way West which runs along the top of the Quantock’s southernmost ridge. The path is an offshoot of the Macmillan Way, which we encountered near Chedworth in 2011, a 290 mile route from Boston in Lincolnshire to Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast promoted to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.
Skylarks sang above the grassland as we paused for coffee at a point which the map calls 'Fire Beacon' though there was no obvious reason why.
Coffee at Fire Beacon, Quantock Hills |
We followed the ridge for four kilometres. Sometimes rocky, sometimes grassy it was a lovely path through flowering gorse and heather with fine views over the valley to our left and the rest of the Quantock range to our right.
On the Quantocks (picture, Francis) |
Brian and Francis identified meadow pipits and stonechats perching on the gorse. They hung around long enough for all to get a good look at them, but the chiffchaffs, though easy to hear are harder to see and only the serious birders got a sight of them (they are not that exciting, anyway).
On the Quantocks |
We passed some wild ponies. 'Dartmoor ponies are different from Exmoor Ponies,' Brian informed me before asking 'Are Quantock Ponies different again?' I had no idea, which did not prevent me getting into a complicated conversation which led to our questioning whether Exmoor ponies were a 'breed' or a 'sub-species' (and what, if anything, is the difference).
It was not the first conversation I have been involved in on a subject about which my ignorance is total. Subsequent research tells me that Exmoor ponies are a particular breed related to the primitive wild horse. There is little special about Quantock ponies which have been living wild on these hills only since 1956.
Quantock Ponies |
The Halsway Post, proud to be a post |
Nearing the end of the ridge we swung left onto a track inappropriately called The Great Road; great in neither width nor length, it is a track not a road.
The (not very) Great Road, Quantock Hills |
Alison arrives in Vinny Combe |
Field paths to Williton |
We crossed the West Somerset Railway at Williton Station. With over 20 miles of track between Bishops Lydeard and Minehead, the West Somerset is Britain’s longest standard gauge heritage railway. The line operates from March to October running several trains daily, mostly operated by steam. It is largely single track but the station provides one of the passing places and we were lucky to see two steam trains.
West Somerset Railway steam train leaves Williton Station |
I'm beautiful, and I know it |
Alison picks her way carefully round the mud, Watchet |
‘Yea, slimy things did
crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.’
Our B&B was beside the harbour - and for Lynne and me
there was a sea view, though limited by the sea wall which is high, concrete
and ugly but sometimes very necessary. It had been an excellent day’s walk
under blue skies in a temperature that would have graced early June never mind April.
The Quantocks in the morning had been great walking country, and if the
afternoon was less impressive, the steam trains made up for it.
With a harbour and a muddy shoreline but no beach Watchet,
unlike nearby Minehead, is hardly a holiday resort, indeed walking through the
town’s landward side, it had looked a little depressed. Around the harbour,
though, all we needed was close at hand. A fifty metre stroll took us to the
Pebbles Tavern, which serves no food but is eccentrically rated by Trip Advisor
as the town's best restaurant. Its attraction lies in its range of gravity
served local beers, and an impressive selection of Somerset ciders. Somebody
had to check them out and Brian nobly volunteered to sacrifice himself. I don't
mind cider being cloudy, but some of the rougher, and therefore more highly
prized specimens seem to me to have a flavour of rotten wood. Still at 6+% alcohol,
Brian thrived on them.
Indian restaurant and our B&B, Watchet |
From the Pebbles we made our way to Trip Advisor’s second
ranked restaurant, which does sell food, in fact it was the Spice Merchant Indian restaurant
nextdoor to our B&B. So that was it, a walk in the sunshine, a couple of pints
and a curry - good day!
The South West Odyssey (English Branch)
Day 1 to 3 (2008);Cardingmill Valley to Great Whitley
Day 4 to 6 (2009) Great Whitely to Upton-on-Severn via the Malvern Ridge
Day 11 (2011) Perrott's Brook to the Round Elm Crossroads
Day 12 (2011) Walking Round Stroud
Day 13 (2012) Stroud to North Nibley
Day 14 (2012) North Nibley to Old Sodbury
Day 15 (2012) Old Sodbury to Swineford
Day 16 (2013) Along the Chew Valley
Day 17 (2013) Over the Mendips to Wells
Day 18 (2013) Wells to Glastonbury 'The Mountain Route'
Day 19 (2014) Glastonbury to Langport
Day 20 (2014) Along the Parrett and over the Tone
Day 21 (2014) Into the Quantocks
Day 22 (2015) From the Quantocks to the Sea
Day 23 (2015) Watchet, Dunster and Dunkery Hill
Day 24 (2015) Dunkery Beacon to Withypool
Day 25 (2016) Entering Devon and Leaving Exmoor
Day 26 (2016) Knowstone to Black Dog on the Two Moors Way
Day 27 (2016) Morchard Bishop to Copplestone
Day 28 (2017) Down St Mary to Drewsteignton
Day 29 (2017) Drewsteignton to Bennett's Cross
Day 30 (2017) Bennett's Cross to Lustleigh
Day 31 (2018) Southwest Across the Moor from Lustleigh
Day 32 (2018): South to Ugborough
Day 33 (2018): Ugborough to Ringmore
Day 34 (2019): Around the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove
Day 35 (2019): Hope Cove to Prawle Point
Day 36 (2019): Prawle Point to Start Bay: The End
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The Last Post
That's All Folks - The Odyssey is over
Day 25 (2016) Entering Devon and Leaving Exmoor
Day 26 (2016) Knowstone to Black Dog on the Two Moors Way
Day 27 (2016) Morchard Bishop to Copplestone
Day 28 (2017) Down St Mary to Drewsteignton
Day 29 (2017) Drewsteignton to Bennett's Cross
Day 30 (2017) Bennett's Cross to Lustleigh
Day 31 (2018) Southwest Across the Moor from Lustleigh
Day 32 (2018): South to Ugborough
Day 33 (2018): Ugborough to Ringmore
Day 34 (2019): Around the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove
Day 35 (2019): Hope Cove to Prawle Point
Day 36 (2019): Prawle Point to Start Bay: The End
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The Last Post
That's All Folks - The Odyssey is over
Great day. Great blog.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a great day - after a lot of poor weather since before Easter it was great to have bright sunshine and clear blue skies and if it was a little bit chilly that only helped make it a great day for a long walk along the Quantocks (or Quantox? - no, I think not) to the sea. Good blog!
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