Showing posts with label UK-England-Devon. Show all posts

Tuesday 30 April 2019

Round the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove: Day 34 of the South West Odyssey (English Branch)

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.

Nearing the End - The First of Three Days Walking Along he Devon Coastal Path

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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…

Up the stream bed to Bigbury

…up to the village of Bigbury.

Bigbury

A field path heading east….

Leaving Bigbury

…then gave us our first view of the Avon estuary, though with the tide out there was little water.

The Avon estuary

Our descent involved staring down a herd of young bullocks – skittish, exuberant but entirely lacking in malice (or brains)…

You want to get to that gate? (Picture: Brian)

…and passing several banks of bluebells.

Bluebells above the Avon (Picture: Brian)

We reached the river….

The Avon estuary (Picture: Brian)

….and followed the tidal road (tide tables had been checked)…

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).

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…

Along the lip of Siddicombe

…before eventually dropping us swiftly back to sea level...

Down into Siddicombe

…at Siddicombe Creek.

Siddicombe Creek

The climb up the other side was relatively gently and took us through the most magnificent wild garlic wood.

Wild garlic in Siddicombe Wood

Walking along the top of the bank gave wonderful views across the estuary…

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.

Burgh Island (photo: Brian)

We continued to Bantham, where the Sloop Inn….

Bantham (photo: Brian)

…provided us with a pint of lunch.

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.

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.

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….

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.

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.

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.

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.

The South West Odyssey (English Branch)
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
+
The Last Post

That's All Folks - The Odyssey is done.

Thursday 26 April 2018

Ugborough to Ringmore, In Sight of the Sea: Day 33 Of the South West Odyssey (English Branch)

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.

Devon

In the morning I followed Mike down to Ringmore on the coast (nearly) to bring him back after he had parked his car. The weather looked more promising than the last two days, the walk was shorter (it is a long drive home from South Devon) and the coastal South Hams, while undulating, does not involve repeated steep up-and-downs like the rest of non-moorland Devon. It would be the easiest of our three days.

The South West Odyssey, Day 33 (in purple)

But first - after breakfast, anyway - we had to drive down to the end of yesterday’s walk in Ugborough and then follow a route which climbed back up to Annapurna (our B&B). That suggests a fearsome ascent, but fortunately the owners named it, they said, not for its mountainous location but because when they bought the rambling old farmhouse it required ‘a huge mountain of work’.

If not actually Himalayan, the climb from Ugborough had seemed forbidding yesterday and looked no less worrying as Brian drove us down it this morning. Alison surveyed the fields on the hillside opposite. ‘It’s like a huge battenburg,’ she said, and indeed it was, but where is the marzipan? That’s the best bit.

A big battenburg in the fields beside Ugborough (picture: Alison)

Ignoring Francis’ directions Brian took his own route into Ugborough and again parked in the central square. Once booted up Francis set off out of Ugborough by the route Brian had driven in, the rest of us following like sheep though it was obviously the wrong way for pedestrians.

Following Francis out of Ugborough the wrong way

Light eventually dawned, we stopped, returned to the square and departed in the right direction.

Following Francis out of Ugborough the right way

In Devon climbs are routinely preceded by a hidden extra descent, in this case to cross the River Erme. Once over the Erme, and the A3121, a minor road started the steady climb.

Minor road at the start of the climb from Ugborough. It was steeper than it looks - honest.

To reach the top of the ridge at Mary Cross required over 3km of road walking shortened slightly by field paths cutting off a couple of corners. On one of these we encountered a field of sheep with lambs a month or two old. Sheep normally ignore walkers, or run away, but the lambs rushed over to us, clearly expected to be fed. They were, I suppose, quite cute, though I had to speak sharply to one that thought it appropriate to nibble the corner of my unfastened jacket. They followed us across the field, Francis being particularly attractive.

Francis leads his little flock, and Brian has a couple of followers, too

In a field corner spring was at work, but the bluebells on the bank behind the broom were still too sparse to make a good photo.

Broom in bloom

From the end of the field we paused to look back to Ugborough. After 40 minutes climbing it was not far below us, but the dip before the the ascent accounts for that.

Looking back to Ugborough from Shilston (picture: Francis)

The gradients were more modest than I had expected and interspersed with several flat sections, even one small descent to the Shilston Brook. I include the photo below largely to amuse Lucinda W but could a 24t truck even get on to this bridge?

Shilston Bridge

The ascent was accomplished without undue pain in just under the hour. We turned right towards Modbury, passed the pub where we dined last night and continued to the town centre. Four roads converge on Modbury town centre, one descending gently, the other three swooping down.

Modbury town centre

Everywhere from Modbury is up and if we did not entirely take the route we intended we did find our way up the hill to the south to a minor road where a convenient pallet in a farm gateway proved more enticing than lingering in a Modbury coffee shop – well why waste a good thermos?

Pull up a pallet. Above Modbury

The minor road took a looping detour to arrive at Hunts Cross, so we planned to cut off the loop by taking a field path up the hill opposite to a farm and then return to the road via the farm drive. Alison then noticed the right of way turned sharply at the farm without linking to the drive, which may or may not have been a problem, but if it was it would be a far longer detour than using the road. Unwilling to risk it, we trudged along the road which at first rose almost as sharply as the field path,…

The road rises towards Hunts Cross

… giving good views back over Modbury.

Looking back to Modbury (picture: Francis)

The weather had behaved far better today, there was no rain and even a little warmth in the sunshine. During the climbs and in the lee of hedges I would happily have removed my jacket, but there was a keen wind in more exposed sections, so I left it on.

We soon reached Hunts Cross and a kilometre later Seven Stones Cross - not all of Devon’s little crossroads have names, but a lot do.

Here we turned right towards the village of Kingston, its pub only 2km distant. Why, somebody asked, would we walk 2km to Kingston, and then 2km more to Ringmore when perfectly good paths would take us straight to Ringmore, which also has a pub, and was only 3km away?

The logic was unanswerable. We left the road to follow field paths skirting round some growing crops…

Field paths near Kington

….and then picked up Renton Lane which we followed for a kilometre to Marwell.

Renton Lane (photo: Francis)

A brief return to road walking was followed by an odd semi-circular field margin which deposited us on the road to Ringmore with only a few hundred metres to go. Here a permissive footpath had been mowed along a field boundary (thank you, whoever is responsible) so we could approach the end of the walk with the sea in sight and grass beneath our feet.

Approaching Ringmore and with the sea in sight

Mike’s car was parked at the village entrance, so we changed footwear and strolled through the delightful village to the appropriately named Journey’s End Inn.

Ringmore

And that, at 1.45pm, was indeed the end of the journey for this year, all that remained was to take a glass or cup of refreshment, return to Ugborough and start the long journey home. For all except Brian, it was a long journey, too, as delays on the M6 led to detours and arrival times around 8 pm.