Day 3: Lynmouth to Combe Martin

Weather: Grey to start then glorious sunshine and cool breeze

Distance covered today: 23.8km (14.8mi)

Last night's B&B: Bonnicott House

% Complete: Cumulative distance: 6.1%: 62 km

Total Ascent/Total Descent:  1047m/1057m

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 3 (click!)

Stop the presses!  Today I finally met another long-distance walker on the South West Coast Path! You will not, though, be surprised to hear that she turned out to be a foreigner!  Her name was Laura, and she talked in a curious American accent which I immediately assumed was Canadian; this generally being my experience on these walks. I was embarrassed to learn that she was in fact German. I would have thought I could tell the difference, and as I was falling over myself in apology, she tried to help me feel better about it all by saying that she had in fact learned how to speak proper English in the US. Given the depth of the hole I had dug, I chose to let that pass…..

She was a delightful young lady, but somewhat taciturn and perhaps a little alarmed at the barrage of enquiry emitting from this grey stranger, panting up the combesides (a new word that I have just coined, destined to produce a nervous tick in any walker who hears it uttered, but more of that later).  I managed to establish that she works for the Deutsche Bundespost, but that she has recently received a bursary to study medicine. She hopes to start studying soon in Hungary, which I found mildly surprising.

She also told me that she had “fallen in love” with the long-distance paths of Britain. This produced a predictable soliloquy from me. It must have alarmed her further, but by now I was panting up a particularly steep combeside, and after solicitously enquiring after my health through my rasping breaths, she smoothly accelerated away.  A little later she opted to take an alternative route along the SWCP, which my own researches had revealed would take longer with little profit, so somewhat to her surprise, I leap-frogged in front of her, and she was mightily surprised and probably even more alarmed to find me ahead of her after the paths had re-joined.

This time we did walk together for a while, but I realised I was doing most of the talking, and felt that this whole thing was not going according to plan, so I invited her to press on, which she did, accelerating up the combeside from Sherrycombe to Great Hangman and staying five minutes ahead of me for the rest of the journey.

Meanwhile both at the start and towards the end of the walk, there were plenty of day-trippers on the path, probably because it was Saturday, but also, according to some of them, because both ends offered some spectacular scenery.  Certainly the exquisite tarred path to the Valley of the Rocks enabled less capable people to enjoy the views, but by the time I had passed Lee Abbey, I was back on my very own path. Towards the end of the day’s walk, Great Hangman has the highest vertical cliff face to the sea in Britain at 250m (800ft), not that one can approach that face in any safety. The cairn at the top of Great Hangman is 318m, and one approaches it from a combe just 25m above sea-level. Half-way along the day’s path, one has to cross one of Britain’s steepest valleys, cut by the Heddon River. No wonder the knowledgeable locals avoid these things (there is a carpark and a pub on the road right at the entrance to the valley, so that folk wanting to go to the beach just walk along the river at sea-level). How come I only find out these things while I’m doing them!

You may have noticed above that the vertical climb and descent exceeded 1,000m (3,300ft) for the first time today, very much the result of those combesides! It was truly a punishing day. Crosscombe Lane (appropriately named) provides locals and tourists alike with easy access to parking places relatively close to all the beauty spots and beaches, without having to make much effort.  After the walk while I was buying a light refreshment from a young man in a convenience store, he wanted to know why I was looking so clapped out. I drew myself to my full height, told him my quest, and he threw back his head and roared with laughter. Why, he demanded to know, would anyone do what I had done, when one could access all the best bits by car. The way I was feeling, I couldn’t help thinking he had a point! Seeing my shock, though, he relented and admitted that he had climbed Great Hangman. I muttered that this was a start, paid and left.

Yet after the little gems of yesterday, Lady Lovelace’s tunnels, Porlock Weir and Culbone Church, today was curiously empty; just a very hard slog across unrelenting terrain for not very much reward. I had this feeling especially when I finally made Combe Martin, a rather run-down resort, with little of the charm of Porlock or Lynmouth. Maybe I was expecting too much, or maybe I was just missing Veronica……

Another view of charming Lynmouth

The tarred path along the cliff to the Valley of the Rocks

Castle Rock

Laura powers off with her full pack and camping gear

I thought I only had to beware the Beast of Exmoor (a possibly mythical, panther-like creature who ripped the throats from over 100 sheep). It seems I have also to beware of Fathers with children!

Lee Abbey, a Christian community centre, in its exquisite location

The mist is slowly lifting over the coast. No sign of Wales yet!

I am joyously reunited with the glorious crenelated bridges of Devon!

A view back down the coast from West Woodybay Wood

The infamous Heddon River!

Heddon's Mouth Beach from the top of the valley

Jet-skis below the cliffs. This is a highly zoomed photo, yet I could clearly hear the two people on the bottom boat talking to each other. It must have funnelled up the cliff face

Gorse still life at cliff's edge

That's Great Hangman ahead. From the shore, one can't see the sheer cliff

My backpack and sticks against the Great Hangman cairn, proving I wuz there!

The beach in Combe Martin. Underwhelming....