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.
As if trying to upstage sunny Tuesday, Wednesday skipped the misty start and went straight for the blue skies.
Our start was a little less slick as first we needed to
place a car at the end of the walk near the top of Dunkery Hill on Exmoor. This
involved a lengthy drive, a diversion around closed roads and some epic
reversing on narrow lanes where passing places were few and far between. Setting
off back to Watchet we saw an Exmoor stag sitting in the gorse barely ten
metres away. It was the only one we were to see.
A little later, weighed down by a ‘full English’ we set off up the coast road generously protected by the kind people who organise the signs at the Somerset Highways Department.
Expecting to follow the road for over a kilometre before joining the coastal path, we happily encountered a 'permissive’ path on the edge of Watchet and were able follow that and then the official path almost all the way to Blue Anchor.
Daws Castle sits on the cliffs outside Watchet. Francis
missed it as his binoculars were trained on a bird flapping across the sea but
fortunately Mike was able to describe the ruined battlements, towers and turrets
in great detail. Named for the 16th century owner of the field, Daws Castle is
Iron Age in origin but was rebuilt by Alfred the Great in 878 as a defence
against Viking raiders. Except in Mike’s
imagination it is now a barely discernible earthwork.
Sometimes the path followed the cliff top, sometimes it
traversed the edges of field, many of them sprouting a spring crop of caravans,
but usually it stayed in the belt of woodland in between. It is not a pretty
piece of coastline but Francis managed to photograph the best of it.
Approaching Blue Anchor the path has suffered severe erosion and we were directed inland on an irritating and time-consuming diversion, but it was better than falling in the water.
The Blue Anchor, Blue Anchor |
We reached the road by the 17th century Blue Anchor Inn
which gives its name to the village. The rest of the village and the inevitable West
Somerset Railway station is a kilometre away along a seaside promenade.....
The promenade, Blue Anchor (there were fisherman, honest, even if none of them are in this picture!) |
.... lined
with static holiday caravans on the landward side. Fisherman stood along the
prom dangling their lines in the water.
At the end of the prom the road turns inland and we carried
straight on along the stony beach. We spoke to a fisherman on his way home, pleased
with his morning’s catch of three dogfish. Soon after, we paused for coffee.
I was happy enough with my photo, but someone (who?) suggested I should use the ‘delay’ function and include myself in the picture. I found a suitable rock, put the camera on top and lay on the shingle to line up the shot,….
Lining up the shot (photo, Alison) |
…pressed the shutter, leapt to my feet, like a greyhound
from the trap….
Like a greyhound from the trap (photo, Alison) Not convinced? If greyhounds lived to be over 60 and grew to be 100Kg this is exactly how they would move. |
The original plan had been to follow the path where it turned inland, but instead we stayed on the beach for a further kilometre before turning up Sea Lane towards Dunster. This route was a tad longer but avoided walking 600 metres along the A39.
Sea Lane heads straight to Dunster and provides good views
of Conygar Tower.
The ‘Riverside Jubilee Path’ runs round the edge of the
village of Marsh Street beside the River Avill and leads to an underpass beneath
the A39 from where it was a short step to the High Street of 'medieval'
Dunster.
Conygar Tower, Dunster |
'Jubilee Riverside Path', Marsh Street |
Dunster sets out to attract tourists, so the Yarn Market square has been reduced to a quaint carpark. To be fair the village has many attractions, most notably a Norman castle on an outcrop to the east, a still functioning water mill* and Conygar Tower on another outcrop to the west. Conygar means Rabbit Garden, and the tower may look brooding but is merely a folly, built in 1775 by a man with more money than taste.
Yarn Market, Dunster |
As we sat in the pub garden the church clock struck one. As
one single 'bong' was obviously not enough it launched into a tune that seemed
familiar but no one could recognise, complete with the occasional mid-phrase
pause that mechanical systems specialise in. It went on for five minutes.
Light refreshment to the sound of bells, Dunster |
The rise from sea level to Dunster at around 70m had been painless. The afternoon started with a climb onto the ridge behind the village which involved an ascent of over 200m. The path through the woods around Grabbist Hill (again part of the Macmillan Way West) was well-made and for the most part gently graded and we gained height easily. After a couple of steeper sections we emerged onto the ridge and followed it for some three kilometres to Wootton Common.
Climbing Grabbist Hill |
To the north we could see Minehead and had a good view of 'Butlin's Minehead', one of the three surviving Butlin's Holiday Camps. Despite the warm sunshine the sea beyond was hiding in the mist.
Minehead, Butlin's Holiday Camp is on the right with the 'medieval' awnings |
Dry stone wall overwhelmed by a beach tree (photo, Alison) |
Approaching Wootton Common (Is Francis photographing Minehead or watching a bird?) |
Starting the descent to Wootton Courtenay (it got steeper!) |
The path descended steeply through the trees, and then over fields. Alison suggested that treating ourselves to an ice-cream in Wootton Courtenay would be a good plan, and by keeping this in the forefront of my mind I was able to ignore the pain in my knees.
Wootton Courtney basked pleasantly under the unusually warm
April sun. The Post Office is now a community run post office and general
store and Alison heartily approves of such enterprises, but perhaps not when
they as are resolutely closed as this one was. The village boasts 250
residents, a vineyard and a pottery, but no other retail outlet so we went ice-creamless.
Alison looks at the community notice board, Wootton Courtenay (It probably says when the wretched Post Office is open) |
At the day’s end a climb of over 300m is hard work (and
calling it 1000ft sounds even worse) but stings in the tail are a traditional
part of these walks. We climbed through the belt of trees quite quickly, but
the last two and a half kilometres, on a stony moorland track through gorse and
heather was more challenging.
I engaged bottom gear and got on with the long slow grind. The others soon left me behind, but Mike dropped back and kept me company (thanks, Mike). Like many such paths there were frequent false summits, one every hundred metres for part of the way. 'What do you think we'll see when we get to that one?' Mike asked at one point. 'A stony path heading upwards through the heather.' I said and, would you believe it, I was right. And again and again and again.
A stony path upwards through the heather to another false summit, Dunkerley Hill |
Eventually we emerged onto a flatter area with a higher ridge above. At the top of the ridge we could see sunlight reflecting from the windscreens of parked cars. Briefly it looked like we might have to dip down before the final ascent, but thankfully the path skirted the end of the combe before turning to climb across the face of the ridge at a much gentler gradient than it had appeared from a distance.
It had been hard work, but the top of Dunkery Beacon was now
scarcely a kilometre away and a hundred metres above us; it would be easy when
we were fresh in the morning.
Returning to Watchet we drove back through Blue Anchor. The
same fishermen were lounging against the promenade wall, but the tide was long
gone and they were dangling their lines in thick mud. I presume they were just reluctant
to go home.
Having investigated Watchet's top two restaurants the day
before, we again had to walk only fifty metres, though in a slightly different
direction, to restaurant number three. Trip Advisor comments had tended to
praise the size of the portions rather than the quality though, to be fair, The
Star serves good quality pub food (with
a few pretentious touches) at reasonable prices. Battered cod comes as 'medium'
or 'large' and one comment referred to the fish sticking out over the end of
the plate. Brian proved this was no idle boast. Mike went for a medium, not because
he is less of a trencherman but because (to nobody’s surprise) he wanted to
leave space for a dessert.
It had been a hard day, 20 km with a fair amount of
climbing, but it had also been varied with beach, village and moorland
sections, and the sun had continued its unseasonal but very welcome warmth.
Another top class day.
*Lynne visited the castle and the
mill where she bought some muesli. I had a bowl for breakfast today (16/04/15).
It was fine, if rather ordinary.
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
I did feel a bit mean photographing you returning to the group photo, but I'm glad you seemed to think it was amusing, and I like the comparison with a greyhound springing from a trap. To be picky, the dry stone wall overwhelmed by a beech tree is in the woodland near Brockwell, although we did see similar on all 3 days, so it could have been anywhere. Another good day. Thanks for this record for posterity.
ReplyDeleteBut I want you to feel mean!
DeleteIf I couldn't laugh at myself I would have to be very careful about some of the other things laughed at.
Sorry about misplacing the photograph of the beech tree, but as you say we did see plenty of similar sights all through the 3 days, so I feel I can leave it where it is without serious misrepresentation.
And I would like to enter a spot of pedantry! The fisherman I talked to had not caught anything that morning but three dogfish the previous evening, Butlin's Minehead is now actually called Somerwest World, the bird I saw flapping across the sea was a magnificent peregrine falcon which to me beats some dismal castle ruins and I heard nothing familiar in the Dunster church clock dirge and remember begging for the cacophony to stop. Perhaps I'm getting miserable as I get older but it was another excellent day's walk and is reported by a very amusing blog. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteButlin's Minehead was renamed Somerwest World from 1986-98. Since then it has been called Butlin's Resort Minehead.
DeleteSt George's Church carillon plays seven 'well known tunes' on a weekly rotation at 1, 5 and 7pm. That none of us could recognise the tune says something about us - or about the carillon.
Yes, you are becoming a miserable git as you get older. I recommend you stop working - sometime around late June should do it - and organise a winter trip to Australia.