Saturday, 4 August 2012

Coastwalk , South West Coast Path

Bigbury-on-Sea → Salcombe

cockleridge.png Distance: 13.7 miles
Ascent: 735 metres
Duration: 5 hours 7 minutes

Taxi service
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The two-day gap that we have between Wembury and Salcombe is particularly tricky. It involves crossing three rivers, so is dependent on tides and ferry services. Today we tackle the "second" half of the walk since the ferry across the River Avon near the start of this walk doesn't operate on Sundays and we'd like to complete both walks this weekend.

Public transport in this part of Devon ("South Hams") is pretty lousy too, so it's lovely to have Mum with us acting as taxi service. She joined us on the walk down to the ferry before heading back to the car.

avon-ferry.pngAt Cockleridge we bellowed "Ferry!" in the rough direction of the village of Bantham and before too long a boatman replied with the same word, pointing at a beach upstream where he'd land.

bantham-surf.pngBantham seemed a popular spot for surfers, but those out today seemed unable to remain on the board for long. From here to the inspirationally-named twin villages of Outer Hope and Inner Hope, the path raced along low cliff-tops.

approaching-salcombe.pngWe had a brief lunch with Mum whilst we sheltered from a sudden rain storm, then headed on to the higher cliffs that led to Bolt Tail and Bolt Head. The further east we got the more strenuous the path became until eventually we reached Starehole Cove and picked up a very well-worn rock path to the road which led in to Salcombe.

Posted by pab at 18:25 | Comments will be back one day. Please email me instead!