Sunday, February 22, 2009

Woolacombe to Saunton/Westward Ho! 17th Feb

Some might be horrified at this, (especially Alastair!) but we decided to walk as far as Saunton, then use the buses to get to Westard Ho! Neither of us were keen to walk the length of Braunton Burrows (especially without you, Alastair) and decided we could miss the Tarka Trail estuary part, and we'd pick up again from Westward Ho! So purists among you look away now!

We began by walking across the beach on the firm sand, which was a lovely way to start the day.



Tim's sense of humour was still alive...



some of the path was severely eroded





and he loved this little coastguard lookout station.

We walked around Croyde bay and ate our roll (delicious onion baguette from the Londis shop) and cake. I'd baked a cake (see an earlier entry) specially for our walk, (lacing it liberally with brandy as is only right) and cut and wrapped it in clingfilm for our lunches. It was yummy and usually very welcome!

We met a muddy section of the path as we came round the headland into Saunton, with wonderful views over Braunton Burrows, and caught the bus into Barnstable, and then on to Westward Ho!.

6 comments:

  1. Oh well, that's it. I'll have to find another blog to read.

    You missed the best bit! All those snails.

    (Actually, I was a bit mystified about how you were going to cope with the Taw-Torridge estuary. Is there a ferry? In winter?)

    It's all Tarka country, of course. The epicentre really, since Williamson wrote the book in his little cottage at Georgeham, sort of inland from Croyde.

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  2. No ferry... that would have been ideal. We met a couple who were doing coast path as preparation for walk across Scotland and they said they found the estuary part from Barnstable exceedingly dull despite liking birds etc, so we were glad we kept our energy for the real coast!

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  3. I'm filled with admiration at your tenacity!
    Meriel. but they keep calling me Anonymous

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  4. Lovely pictures - especially liked the view towards Braunton burrows.

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  5. Ddo you know how far it is to go from Croyde to Braunton by the proper route?
    I have not yet got a map, but wanted to go a bit further than Croyde (starting that day at Ilfracombe).
    Braunton is not far by road, but how many hours round does the coast path go!

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  6. Ann,
    Ilfracombe to Braunton is 23.6 miles... have a look on the South West Coast Path link as they have a distance calculator ! http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/main/walks_content/distanceCalculator.cfm
    Good luck!

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