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.
Nearing the End - The First of Three Days Walking Along he Devon Coastal Path
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| Devon |
29-Apr-2019
Slapton Sands and a Pre-Walk Dinner at the Start Bay Inn
The Start Bay Inn, the venue for our pre-walk dinner, is at the southern end of Slapton Sands and the days before had seen the 75th anniversary of the Exercise Tiger disasters.
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| The Start Bay Inn, Torcross |
Slapton Sands is a 5km long bar of sand and shingle separating the freshwater lake of Slapton Ley from the sea. In 1943, 3,000 residents of Slapton and surrounding villages were evacuated and the area used to train the US forces who would later attack the geographically similar Utah Beach.
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| Slapton Sands |
Exercise Tiger was one of the final D-Day landing rehearsals. On the 27th of April 1944, news of an hour’s delay in a live-firing practice assault failed to reach all participants, resulting in the US Navy shelling their own troops, killing several hundred. Worse followed next day when heavily armed German E-boats stumbled across unprotected landing craft preparing for another mock assault. 6-700 more died.
The events were ‘conveniently forgotten’ and the Slapton casualties rolled into the D-Day lists. It has now been unforgotten, a Sherman tank recovered from the sea in 1974 serves as a memorial and commemorations had been held the previous day.
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| Memorial Sherman Tank, Slapton Sands |
Maybe our convivial evening jars a little with the above, but such is life. The Start Bay Inn majors on fish and chips; they have a ‘catch of the day’ board, but seem happiest with fish that can be battered and deep fried. I bucked the trend with tiger prawns in garlic butter but as the prawns were swimming backstroke in an Olympic-sized pool of melted butter, it did little for my cholesterol problem.
30-Apr-2019
Fiddling with Cars
Mike and Alison T were staying in their caravan near Stokenham, while the rest of us shared a large and comfortable cottage buried deep in the South Hams countryside.
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| The cottage near Kellaton |
‘Buried’ is an apt word. Much of Devon is deeply folded and the South Hams – the land south of Dartmoor between Plymouth and Torbay – is more crumpled than most. Imagine a landscape of gently rolling hills scrunched into half its natural area making the valleys deep and steep and the hills narrow as waves. Travelling between rural locations means either burrowing out to an A-road – which may itself become single track through villages – and then burrowing down to the new location, or tunnelling straight through the countryside on minor roads, few of which have two lanes, some are single track with passing places while others have grass in the middle, low walls on either side and no passing places.
Our accommodation was near the end of the three days’ walk, so Day 1 (Day 34 of the Odyssey) required some travelling. Mike’s journey to the end point at Hope (8 miles as the crow flies) would have taken 30 mins but for the broken-down bus blocking Stokenham’s main street. Brian drove the rest of us a similar distance, the sat nav choosing the shortest route without regard to width of road. Sometimes we bowled along at 20mph, but such speediness was rare.
Leaving Mike’s car at Hope we proceeded to Ringmore, the end of last year’s walk - 4 crow miles but 25 minutes’ drive away. After setting off at 8.30 it was 10 before we were ready to walk.
Ringmore to Aveton Gifford a the Top of the Avon Estuary
This report is 600 words in, and finally somebody gets to put their boots on!
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| Boots on at Ringmore |
After walking for 33 days to reach Ringmore, in sight of the sea, we turned our back on the ocean and left the village on a lane heading north-east.
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| Leaving Ringmore |
A ria - a drowned river valley caused by rising sea levels or sinking land - is a large estuary at the mouth of a small river (a large river would have filled the ria with sediment). The English south coast is a ria coast, and south Devon is riven with them. We had rounded two, the Avon and Kingsbridge Estuaries, in our morning’s drive and now needed to walk inland to re-round the Avon.
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| Odyssey Day 34, with a graph of height gained and lost |
We soon dropped into the valley of a small, nameless stream that reaches the sea without a ria.
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| Down into that valley then follow the valley bottom up to Bigbury (in the distance above the field of oilseed rape) |
The right of way followed the stream bed…
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| Up the stream bed to Bigbury |
…up to the village of Bigbury.
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| Bigbury |
A field path heading east….
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| Leaving Bigbury |
…then gave us our first view of the Avon estuary, though with the tide out there was little water.
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| The Avon estuary |
Our descent involved staring down a herd of young bullocks – skittish, exuberant but entirely lacking in malice (or brains)…
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| You want to get to that gate? (Picture: Brian) |
…and passing several banks of bluebells.
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| Bluebells above the Avon (Picture: Brian) |
We reached the river….
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| The Avon estuary (Picture: Brian) |
….and followed the tidal road (tide tables had been checked)…
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| The tidal road to Aveton Gifford |
…to Aveton Gifford where we re-crossed the Avon (we had crossed it on a magnificent clapper bridge on Dartmoor last year).
Down the Eastern Side of the Avon Estuary to Bantham
Climbing the bank on the far side took us from sea-level to 100m (a climb we would repeat several times in the next few days).
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| Up the other side of the Avon estuary |
At the top a minor road and then field paths took us to the edge of Siddicombe, a particularly steep valley but fortunately the path let us descend more gently along the valley lip…
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| Along the lip of Siddicombe |
…before eventually dropping us swiftly back to sea level...
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| Down into Siddicombe |
…at Siddicombe Creek.
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| Siddicombe Creek |
The climb up the other side was relatively gently and took us through the most magnificent wild garlic wood.
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| Wild garlic in Siddicombe Wood |
Walking along the top of the bank gave wonderful views across the estuary…
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| Looking down the Avon Estuary (photo: Brian) |
….and to Burgh Island, a tidal island off Bigbury-on-Sea on the far headland of the estuary. Apart from the art-deco hotel (which Mike said he mistook for a ferry from a distance, and you can see why) the island is known for its Agatha Christie connections. It is the setting for Evil Under the Sun and the inspiration for Soldier Island in And Then There Were None, as it is now known, though it has had other names since it was published in 1939 when casual racism passed without comment – or even recognition. I am hardly a fan of Agatha Christie, but she has featured in this blog twice before, once at her former home near Torquay and again over her 'disappearance' in Harrogate.
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| Burgh Island (photo: Brian) |
We continued to Bantham, where the Sloop Inn….
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| Bantham (photo: Brian) |
…provided us with a pint of lunch.
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| A pint in the Sloop Inn, Bantham |
Bantham to Thurelstone and Hope Cove
Refreshed, we turned east, descended to Bantham Stream which empties into the estuarial mud a few hundred metres away, and climbed the bank beyond - only 80m this time, but a steep little haul.
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| Looking back at Bantham |
At the top we found Thurlestone Golf Course then the village of Thurlestone where we descended past houses, hotels and more golf course to join the South West Coastal Path at Leas Foot Sand. Thurlestone is not a well-known holiday resort (to me, anyway) but it has several large hotels and many of the houses are holiday lets.
To ‘thirl’ is a dialect and largely obsolete verb meaning to ‘pierce’, and a ‘thirled rock’ stands just offshore from Thurlestone sands, hence the name.
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| Thurlestone Sands and Thurlestone Rock (photo: Brian) |
We walked around the back of Thurlestone sands, which will no doubt be busier later in the season, between the beach and more holiday accommodation and later crossed some wetland….
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| Wetland behind Thurlestone Sands (photo: Brian) |
…formed by a small stream which aspires to a ria, but has not yet dug a deep enough valley.
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| Not quite a ria - Thurlestone Sands |
The last of the holiday accommodation is at the end of the sands where we climbed the final ridge of the day. It was a minor sting in the tail, but provided some good cliff top views.
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| Over the headland bewteen Thurlestone and Hope |
We descended to and then walked through Outer Hope to reach Mike’s car, parked between Outer and Inner Hope.
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| Alison strides through Outer Hope |
And that was the end of day 34. It had been a short walk, only 15km according to Alison’s ap. (which also provided the map and graph above) and an early finish, but there was car shuffling still to do.
Dinner at the Bear and Blacksmith, Chillington
Later we all reconvened at the Bear & Blacksmith in Chillington where some ate burgers and others Dover sole. I took the healthy option, sole with mussels, samphire, asparagus, pea shoots and new potatoes. Of course, the sole had been drowned pan fried in generous quantities of butter, so scrub ‘healthy’ from the last sentence. It was the second consecutive evening I had overdosed on butter, I enjoyed it, but sadly this cannot be allowed to continue. With our soles, Lynne, Brian and I shared a bottle of Sharpham Estate Dart Valley Reserve - drinking local is always a good plan, even if it was a little over-priced. A Madeleine Angevine/Bacchus blend, it is well-made and well balanced, though I find Mad Angie a little too floral for fish.
Introduction
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 7 to 9 (2010) Upton-on-Severn to Andoversford
Day 10 (2011) Andoversford to Perrott's Brook
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 done.
A good days walking, the Avon estuary was interesting and some of the properties along its banks were outstanding. I have never walked through such an extensive garlic wood before and the aroma was unbelievable. We were lucky to experience this area before the season has started because, as you commented, it will be very busy later in the summer.
ReplyDeleteYes, a good walk along the Avon then for the first time along the Devon Coast. As usual, an excellent account of the day's activities, David. Five hours walking today and, in total, 3 hours driving!
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