Category: Walking

The sun glaring off the Camel (that’s the river, not the dromedary), we flowed down the tarmac into a slightly quieter Padstow for a takeaway breakfast from the Chough Bakery. Pastries and coffees on a harbourside bench we got chatting to a young lad that had, in the past, walked a big section of the…

Eggs Benedict for breakfast with fresh coffee, but it looked like I wouldn’t be getting my mid-morning cappuccino on the section of coast path through Port Isaac to Polzeath. It’s not a long run around the headlands and into the estuary of the river Canel but it is quiet. The hotel was lovely and an…

A word I’d like to live up to is “capable”. “Having the ability required for a specific task”. When suffering in racing or training one mantra recited is, “one day I will no longer be able to do this but today is not that day”. I feel these are enough reasons to try. And when…

It is part endurance challenge, part we-like-walking and part I-just-want-to-see-everything. It is very much a team effort like our rock climbing is. If one can’t continue the other can’t either. Kim is a better walker than me but she bemoans my mountain skills of climbing fitness and descending confidence. On the flat I can’t keep…

The major road next to the campsite beat the cockerel to the morning wake up call. He crowed anyway but you could tell that his heart wasn’t in it. From 5am cars and motorbikes accelerated enthusiastically, foot to the floor from the roundabout outside the campsite. The boy racers had only stopped showing off to…

Lovely is a word often not used in favour of more revealing adjectives, but it’s the right word for Appledore. From our campsite north of Bideford we dropped back down to the shore and followed it as much as the shipyards, marine engineering and other industrial businesses let us. More hulls lay derelict on the…

Thump thump. Up a bit earlier this morning with the farmer’s over and under sounding out in a nearby field. It’s good to be up earlier in a busy campsite with a small wash and toilet place. Breakfasted, packed and out an hour and a half earlier than yesterday with the promise of a barbecue…

I am now visiting member 1153 of the Braunton Cricket Club. That’s the end of the hills for a bit, says the Ordnance Survey map. The sun was out from the start drying the tent from our sleeping breath. Suncreamed and fully watered packs. You can call me out for it later when the weather…

We’re not going to walk as far today. Probably not. From here the hills are less big and less frequent. It’s more of an ambling coast path for a while. Ilfracombe is next followed by Woolacombe and Croyde. We should be able to stop at any if we want to. An early coffee stop on…

The second day was harder than the first. It just somehow got longer. And we wanted to look at the lighthouse. Plus that detour from the path to stay at that particular campsite. Soreness gone from feet and legs refreshed we left the campsite and climbed out of the valley breezily to return to the…