Clovelly to Appledore

Good mileage today, largely through lack of major climbs, though the last section on level ground almost had me wanting them back. Remaining mileage now down to 80-ish and cumulative ascent nearly at 100,000 ft. I'm starting to brag about it to strangers now, y'know as in "I'm 66 you know". Summary etc as ever on Komoot here.
Today's walk started in the visitor centre in Clovelly. Everything conspires to send you through the centre to pay for visiting, which is fair enough I suppose, but I avoided all this and picked up where we'd stopped yesterday. The first few miles are along the 'Hobby Drive' which is a more-or-less level 3 miles of wooded track. Absolutely beautiful and welcome shelter from this morning's rather lively elements

Presumably this used to be the main drive for the House (and there's a bench saying they extended it by 880 yds in 1901) which means it passes my definition of a posh house, viz one that when you enter the drive you can't see the house yet.

I chatted to an estate worker along the way (he'd no chance: I wanted to get Blog copy) - he used to be a beater for the game shooting here where the guns are taken to platforms in the woods and the beaters have to cover these incredibly steep wooded slopes to put the game up. When you see the terrain it's clear that it was one tough assignment.

They used to get £55 plus a meal, now reduced to £30. Without knowing the detail, it seemed a shame given the likely charges for shooting here but then I get more socialist the older I get (and the better I was).

Very occasionally there's a glimpse of Clovelly itself

If the drive was long, it had nothing on the next section, which wound its way through Barton, Keivill, Worthygate and Sloo woods. They are interesting in being partly ancient forest and much of it is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust but gosh, do they go on - and on. A brief respite as it drops down to Buck's Mills but that is absolutely the last habitation until Westward Ho! itself.

Buck's Mills sits in the parish with the delightful name of Woolfardisworthy and has the site of an Iron Age hill fort nearby at Peppercombe Castle. There was at least one mill here powered by the stream that runs into a waterfall onto the beach. The Lord of the Manor Richard Cole (no, not he of The Communards and Saturday morning radio 4, he’s plural) blasted a section of the cliff now known as the Gut to get access to a small harbour, long since gone.

At this point Ben (see yesterday) caught up with me. He'd been a mess when we left him at Hartland Point and apparently threw up shortly afterwards but recovered enough to make it to Clovelly by the end of the day and was back on the trail trying to catch up with his itinerary. He reckoned it was mostly a combination of lack of sleep and food, plus driving himself too hard that had hit him. He's an ultra marathon runner so certainly has the experience and stamina but even so I wince at the prospect of 30+ miles per day. Basically he covers in two days what I plan to do in a week!

Buck's Mills

It's a feature of this part of the coast that makes it so different from the previous sections, namely that the coastal margin is steep but not sheer cliffs, allowing heavily wooded areas to develop. Also the lack of inlets and coves on a very exposed coastline means very few settlements. It's a completely different feel from the Cornish section and took me rather by surprise.


When finally the woods stop the coastal view is extraordinary:

That grey strip at the top of the beach is comprised of large pebbles, of a completely different character from anything else in view - so where did they come from? The answer, if you remember your geography lessons, is Longshore Drift and the material comes from Hartland a few miles to the West. It's hard to believe as there's so much of it but then, it has had a few millenia to get there.

Approaching Bideford Bay Westward Ho! is the first part of the development that joins it with Appledore, Instow and Bideford and these lie on either side of the Taw and Torrige estuary.
It is quite simply enormous, which you can possibly see from the photo. Since the tide was receding over the shallow beach the whole area was covered with surf and there were plenty of kite flyers out.


It was pleasant to hear the sea again. I realised I'd missed it over the previous few days as the weather has been so quiet there's been no surf to speak of. Not sure why I like it so, it's really only a kind of white noise but it's relaxing.

Lots of new building going on in W Ho!. Standard sea-side town with plenty for kids and families (go karts, crazy golf, playgrounds, etc) and made famous of course by Kingsley’s novel, it is one of only two places I know that have an exclamation mark in their name – the other, which has two, is Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! In Quebec. Hamilton in Ontario briefly had one in 1986 but not any more.

The novel was actually set in nearby Bideford but was so successful that when a nearby hotel was being built it took the name and it was adopted by the area as it developed. The name also features as the title of the song by the band Half Man Half Biscuit (writers of the seminal “Back in the DHSS”).

The directorate of miscellaneous weapons development in 1914-18 developed the Panjandrum here and adapted Bailey bridges were tested as part of the Mulberry Harbour project in WW2.

I moved on to walk around the golf course and country park (quite a hike but much of it along the beach so very pleasant) to Appledore. The final part was hard pounding on roads (and there's plenty of that tomorrow on the Tarka trail) - frankly I'd prefer a 700 ft climb. Honest.

Appledore was a lovely surprise. It's meant as a compliment to say it's like a Cornish fishing village - all narrow streets and tiny houses tucked in to odd corners - and with the huge estuary to play in. I'd love to come back and explore again but out of season.

I'm staying there tonight and thinking of taking the ferry to Instow tomorrow to avoid a long road route to the bridge and back. It's not the standard approved route but then the ferry wasn't there when they drew up the route so I think it's fair enough.
Slightly cheating though.

Am I bovvered?

So tomorrow I should make it to Barnstaple - my aimed-for starting point on the final week.

Just might make it, y'know?

Peter