Day 10: Hartland Quay to Morwenstow

Weather:  Heavy rain and strong wind
Distance covered today: 14.3 km (8.9 mi)
Last night's B&B:  Hartland Quay Hotel
% Complete: Cumulative distance:19.5 %: 197.9 km
Total Ascent/Total Descent: 716 m/599 m
GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 3 (click!)

So much for my long weekend theory! Based on my experience to date, I would have expected the day-trippers to be out in their droves today, the Sunday of a long weekend. Over the length of today’s route I met exactly one couple coming towards me with not another soul on the track. The reason was of course that it was raining. Raining cats and dogs! We haven’t had rain in Southern England for a month or more and the gardens are crying out for it, but I would have preferred it to hold off for a few more weeks….

As it was it rained from literally five minutes before I left the delightful Hartland Quay Hotel until just after I arrived here in the Bush Inn in Morwenstow. The publican took one look at me dripping disconsolately at the bar of his pub and banished me to his utility rooms, much to the amusement of his clientele. There was no article of clothing on me that wasn’t soaked, but fortunately he relented after removing just the outer layers. The rain had been accompanied by a driving wind, reminiscent of similar experiences in Pembrokeshire and the Coast-to-coast. Even my Goretex leather boots were wet through; an uncomfortable experience with sensitive and suffering toes. Fortunately there appears to be no lasting damage, and I’m writing this under a duvet, surrounded by all my clothes on radiators around the room. All will be well!

The English of course don’t do wet coastal walks. All those trippers who last night were telling me of their intended expeditionary exploits for today were tucked up in bed for the morning and in the pub for the afternoon! Sensible people! The young couple I did meet en route were exceptions to the rule and they looked as miserable as I! They were looking for the border between Devon and Cornwall, but without any maps. I was able to assist having just crossed the bridge over the little Marsland Water that separates the two counties on the north coast. I recall seeing a TV documentary hosted by Tony Robinson (Baldrick in Blackadder and host of Time Team) in which he lamented the inauspiciousness of the little wooden bridge. In fact the only way you know you have changed counties is that the word Cornwall is written vertically on a random SWCP waymark on the other side of the bridge. Those readers long-suffering enough to have joined me on my first trip through the South West, actually the start of LEJOG, will know that I ranted frequently about how low-key border crossings are in England and eventually concluded that the only way you can know where you are is by the writing on residents’ rubbish bins – councils only empty their own!

As if the weather wasn’t bad enough, I was also confronted by some fairly difficult terrain. The walk profile below the photos shows that the walk consisted of nine substantial climbs, essentially from river valleys to the top of the intersecting cliffs. It wasn’t easy to climb the substantial trail stairs in wet trousers with over-trousers and I must have looked like a very old man manually lifting one leg up onto each stair and then hauling and pushing the rest of me up to it. Fortunately, there was no-one around to enjoy the spectacle!

The upside was that the views were absolutely spectacular. This is a very rugged coast, with its unrelenting cliffs and it is just extraordinary how just yards from these ominous cliffs one is instantly enjoying England’s green and pleasant land; undulating pastoral fields with sheep and cows minding their own business. I wasn’t really able to do photographic justice to the exceptional landscape as I had to protect my camera from the deluge, so please forgive me if I paid no heed to composition, depth of field, or lighting. These were just snaps. The more observant participant might argue that nothing has changed!

The fact is that I’m feeling much better! I’m hallway through the first pint of Cornish bitter that I have drunk in Cornwall since 2011 and the clientele in here are my age if not older. The canned music comes from my youth and is beginning to sound tremendous.

Things can only get better!

The Hartland Quay Hotel and Museum, viewed from the sea platform

An angry sea tearing at the rocks in the rain

A quick snap of the coastline!

Another!

And yet another, with flowers!

Atlantic rollers on Wellcombe Beach

A rejuvenated waterfall

With stepping stones

The surprising Ronald Duncan Hut, where passers-by are invited to enter and rest.He was a poet and author and the hut was restored by his beloved daughter after his death in 1982.

Ronald Duncan's view

Marsland Water and its little wooden bridge: the Devon/Cornwall border

So this is Cornwall!

Unlike me, these guys were really enjoying the weather. There were thousands of them!

That is Ronald Duncan's hut up on the deserted hill

Another coastal snap

And another, with gorse

And another, without!

Looking back up the coast, showing the impressive promontories

Robert Stephen Hawker's vicarage and his church beyond. Note the strange chimneys. More of this tomorrow

My residence tonight: the 12th century Bush Inn. In fact it was believed to be a monk's rest on the way from Wales to Spain in 950 AD. It was also a popular haunt for smugglers and wreckers until the Rev Hawker came along