Day 8 - Barnstaple to Westward Ho! - 11 Miles

I woke up with the people in the room next door. One problem with the B&B being the very sound transparent doors!!!! I decided to get up before the alarm anyway as I'd been asleep by 10.30pm the night before anyway!!! I had a shower and wrote the diary until breakfast time at 8.30am. It was a nice breakfast and so all in all it was a good B&B and highly recommended – especially for the price!

I spent all my breakfast chinwagging to the landlady and her other guest – a retired teacher from London who was actually down in Barnstaple to scatter her mum's ashes somewhere or other!! Breakfast done, I went upstairs to pack my remaining stuff , and set off at about 9.15am. I stopped off at Iceland on the way up the High Street for prawn sarnies, a 2 litre bottle of pop, and some chargrilled steak and peppercorn sauce flavour crisps. I withdrew a bit more cash and then retraced my steps of yesterday – crossing the estuary bridge and heading for the station.

Working Quay on the Yeo Estuary from the bridge as I walk from the B&B back into Barnstaple to start the walk!

Pretty buildings on the quay at Barnstaple.

The weather was less than inspiring for my start!!!! Heavily overcast skies, cold and VERY windy with horizontal rain at times!!! Sigh!!! OH well!! At least it was only 'at times' !!! I left the road and walked underneath it to join the old railway track bed, now a broad tarmaced path and cycle way.

To be honest it was pretty much a trudge into the now head on strong wind, the Taw Estuary off to my right and mainly flooded fields off to the left with a ll the recent rain we'd been having!

Just before Fremington Quay, the track veered slightly away from the estuary. Ie it kinked, which was pleasant in itself meaning that for a while I couldn't see the next three miles straight ahead or the three I'd just walked by looking back!!!! It also blissfully entered a tree lined cutting here, and so for a while I lost the relentless head on cold wind!! The quay was actually quite interesting, though the visitor centre was shut. I crossed the tributary channel running down from the village itself off to the left and into the Taw Estuary and trudged onwards after taking photos.

Looking back along the flat and boring track bed towards Barnstaple not long after joining it at the station.

Looking back at the once busy Fremington Quay.

The old Railway Bridge and now path across the tributary estuary at Fremington Quay.

I came across an older couple sheltering in one of the numerous and variously designed shelters along this stretch of the coast path and stopped for a brief chinwag. They were doing the walk in the other direction and were full of more tales of woe and how difficult the Hartland Quay to Bude section was going to be for me!!! Hey Ho! I'd just have to wait and see!

Just after saying goodbye and good luck to them, there was the option of carrying on along the old railway track bed to Instow or going around the headland right next to the estuary. I opted for the former, thinking it might be more sheltered and also I'd seen enough of the Taw Estuary by now!!!

At the odd two lighthouses… one near the coast and one on the hill side for lining up purposes I presume.. I joined the road and walked into Instow itself, after stopping at some picnic benches for lunch, sheltering behind a closed ice cream shop.

As soon as I glimpsed the Torridge Estuary, it was confirmed that I wouldn't be getting the ferry across it to Appledore on the far side. It only runs 2 hours either side of high water and I think that was at about 6am at this time of year. It was a shame really – getting all nautical when so close to the sea would have been all exciting and appropriate.

I walked down to Instow Quay anyway. A bus was due in about 10 minutes and so I waited. This is NOT cheating!!!! It is an allowed and official deviation if the ferry is not operating!!! Bideford looked quite a nice little town as we passed through on the bus. The journey cost me £1.60. Well worth it to save the legs!! By this point my old front of ankle/shin pain was already apparent, though nothing serious as yet. It was still nevertheless a tad worrying so early in the week's proceedings!

The wonderful multicoloured 'main street' of old Appledore.

I got off the bus in Appledore and walked around the quay and then, after the large car park, took a little lane off to the right. I'd been to Appledore before and thought it rather boring, but the area down here certainly changed my opinion! – A narrow 'main' street with a labyrinth of alleys running off it – multi coloured little cottages and even, surprisingly, two locals type pubs!!! None of this would you know existed from the main road! It was a real gem even in this less than perfect May weather!!!

After the lifeboat station – the proper lifeboat moored out in the estuary on my right – the path left the road for a while, following very mini cliffs and skirted around a muddy bay.

I then took a right off on the little lane that enters Northam Burrows – flat land on the leeward side of the pebble ridge of Westward Ho! It was incredibly tempting, with the horizontal rain and the anticipation of storm force wind along the ridge front, to just carry on to Westward Ho! along the road which would also have been much shorter!! But I ignored temptation, like a good boy, and made my way right around the burrows. At its extreme point I crossed over the ridge and walked onto the beach. It was going to be easier walking than the pebbles or the ridge top. As expected, as I rounded the extreme tip, the very end of Saunton Sands and Braunton Burrows only a few hundred meters away across the estuary!!!!, the full force of the wind hit me. The roar of the waves was more like thunder way off to my right as I walked along the beach. It made a change for me to have horizontal stinging rain and wind on my right side for a while, rather than head on as it had been all day so far!!

Mud flats in the bay behind Northam Burrows, looking back at Appledore.

The extreme end of Westward Ho! beach and ridge. Just across the estuary mouth, Braunton Burrows.. two days walk behind.

A spur for me, was that I could see my B&B for the night half way up the headland all the way along the beach and even from earlier on the leeward side of the Burrows. Thank goodness for the leaflet that they'd sent me with a recognisable photo of the place on it.

At Westward Ho! I left the beach by the large ramp and walked into the rather shut up and desolate looking 'town'. At the first pub (The Waterfront – not exactly on the front oddly??) I went in for a pint, which became two while I wrote this. I had made it to Westward Ho! by 2.30pm ish which wasn't bad going!! My shin pain was slight but nevertheless worrying. God help me on the rest when it gets 'strenuous' etc!!!

As soon as I got towards Westward Ho! the pervading grey became less ominous and threatening ironically! But hey ho! It certainly could have been much worse today!!! The walk so far was hardly living up to the summery, halcyon imaginings I'd had BEFORE setting off from home!

I left the Waterfront and walked up the small hill to the B&B for the night – Culloden House. The room was fine, but maybe a bit pricey for what it was, being at the back of the house with no views. I watched TV for a while and then went out for something to eat. I headed for 'Country Cousins Restaurant' , which I'd seen on the walk in and I'd actually eaten in before on a previous family holiday. I had salmon fillet with a salmon and watercress sauce with chips. It was quite nice, but an odd restaurant though, with an odd foreign head waitress. A trying to be posh, but failing miserably type place, but perfectly fine and all the more charming for failing?

I walked back up the hill to Culloden House, watched TV and went to bed at about 10pm.

Map of the day's walk:(click to enlarge)