North Devon - Day 7 - Bideford to Clovelly

Saturday 6th July 2019

Day 7 - Leaving Bideford the path continues alongside the River Torridge until the coast is reached at Bideford Bay. After Appledore and Westward Ho! the coastal walking resumes as we know it with many ups and downs. I wouldn't have said that this was coastal walking at it's finest but it was better than yesterday

We were joined for this leg of the journey by Brian and Robin, unfortunately Robin struggled with the climbs and was not helped by taking the heaviest bag I've ever seen (It was a significant weight when empty !). This contributed to an extremely slow day, but we were all in fine spirits for an excellent time in Clovelly.

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Distance: 18.3 miles

Duration: 8:45 hours

Ascent: 3183 ft

Difficulty: Moderate/Hard

Accompanied By: Davy, Rob, Arch, Brian & Robin

Weather: Hot & Sunny

3D outline of route

Parking

The last of the estuary as we head for the shipyards of Appledore

Re-inforcements arrived last night in the form of my cousin Brian and his friend Robin to inject a bit of pace into the proceedings.

Are we in Scarpa Flow !

Don't think this Appledore Shipyard could have been very good - half the ships appear to sink soon after being launched !

Pretty impressive really.

Appledore

Oh no - not another Golf Course, surely we can't get lost again !

Westward Ho ! Lunch stop

Babbacombe

At Peppercombe looking back to Babbercombe

Outskirts of Bucks Cross

First glimpse of Clovelly

In the woods above Clovelly my GPS ran out of battery. This rarely happens, but the pace was so slow today and I was using it too much to 'guess the mileage' it didn't quite make it. I'd say I lost the last 20 minutes, but I'm going to stick with the readings it gave rather than mess about and add on an extra half mile or so.

Having rung our B&B to warn them that we were running late, they advised us to go straight to Clovelly to get a drink and a meal first as we may not get anything if we went to our accommodation first to get changed. This turned out to be excellent advice Clovelly was a lovely place, full of character and charm - we had a meal in the New Inn and then popped down to the harbour to have a drink in the newly refurbished Red Lion.

It was a very steep descent - they use sledges here to get goods and supplies in and out of the village as no cars can access. Wouldn't fancy doing a hill start here anyway. The pub was interesting as some of the stars were staying here from the movie being filmed along the coast at Hartland Quay.

No cars - sledges only

Lovely place - anyway time to dash - we've got a Toga party to go to !!! You think I'm joking !