Channel 2 Channel – Day 4
Bridgwater to Stert Point
17 July 2021
Distance recorded: 19.8km (+7.5km)
I changed my plan for today when I arrived in Bridgwater yesterday. At Stert Point where the River Parrett Trail ends there is no road and there are no services, so the only option if you’re on foot is to walk back out. The village of Combwich is 7.5km back. I realised that with a full pack and given the forecast for today – full sunshine and 27° – I wouldn’t finish the walk in time to collect my car from where I’d left it in Taunton before the parking I’d paid for expired. So I booked an extra night in Bridgwater, took the train, collected my car a day early, left most of my stuff in my bedroom in the morning and set off with a light pack and plenty of water.
Joining the Parrett again at the main road bridge on the northern edge of the town, a sign confirmed I had also joined the newly-designated England Coast Path. Following the coast, Bridgwater is the first place you can cross the Parrett.
The tide was out as I set off. I had followed the river, more or less, as it changed from a chirping, gurgling infant bouncing over stones and tree roots at Haselbury Mill, though its adolescence flowing purposefully and steadily through the flatter lands around Langport. But now it had matured into a monstrous serpent whose sinuous curves lay in sweeping arcs between Bridgwater and the sea. Nacreous mud banks shining like dark silver in the sun threatened to swallow anything daring to set foot beyond the bank.
Pausing a little later I saw the tide was flowing in strongly around the sweeping bend.
It’s less than six kilometres as the crow flies from the start of today’s walk to Combwich; it’s more than twice that following the river. I could see Combwich from a long way off, sometimes ahead, sometimes to my right, sometimes on the left. It was hot. There was no shade. I went into the state of mind author Andrew Greig1 calls “amnesiac time”.
Then at last there was a road, houses, mums and dads packing kids into cars to ferry them to Saturday activities. Combwich at mid-day. Some trees. The Anchor Pub.
Sitting inside where it was cooler I drank a ginger beer and devoured a cheese and tomato ciabatta. Seven and a bit kilometres to go – and the same back. I phoned the taxi firm in Bridgwater I’d spoken to yesterday and booked a car to collect me from the pub at 6.00pm.
Beyond Combwich the land is almost all a nature reserve heavily geared towards birders. An area of wetland has been created which prevents walkers from following the river bank all the way to Stert point, so about a kilometre after leaving The Anchor the Trail turns away from the estuary under power lines coming from Hinksey Point power station, visible in the distance along the coast.
The nature reserve has a network of well-signed gravel tracks wide enough to drive down so the going was easy – no grass, but no trees either. I passed two or three newish well-constructed bird-watching hides.
The Trail finally joins a small lane at Steart, which has a farm and a few houses scattered along the lane. So close to the end now, I noted but didn’t stop at a patch of deep shade near the farm entrance where trees overhang the road. The lane became a track, then a path which opened into a rough pasture with thistles and sheep. At the far side a signpost pointed left: “England Coast Path. Minehead.” There was a River Parrett Trail waymark, but no other sign to mark the end – or the beginning – of the Trail.
But the GPS on my phone showed I was still a short way from the coast and Stert Point. Across the field was a strange tall wooden construction. It was in roughly the right direction so I went to investigate.
It turned out to be another bird hide. I climbed the stairs and looked out of the windows. Another 200 metres further was another small hut with an obvious path leading to it. Sure enough, it was another bird hide, Stert Point Hide. Next to it was a closed gate with a sign telling me this was as close as I could legitimately get to the shoreline. It was the end of my Channel to Channel.
I walked back the way I’d come and stopped in the shade at Steart while I prepared for the walk back to Combwich. I took the lane rather than the paths in the nature reserve in the hope that there might be a few trees and shade. There weren’t. In pre-Covid times I might have tried thumbing a lift from the few cars that passed but I knew it wasn’t worth even trying. But I made it back eventually with about an hour to spare before my taxi was due. I sat outside The Anchor – the tables now in shade – slowly drinking a cold San Miguel and munching some salty crisps while at a table behind me some good ol’ boys with SUVs and trucks with giant tyres exchanged their thoughts on the latest stories they’d read in the tabloids or seen on reality TV shows. I was back in the real world.
Afterthought – England Coast Path
Anyone walking the England Coast Path between Burnham-on-Sea and Minehead is faced with the prospect of following the long, wide meanders of the Parrett estuary all the way to Bridgwater and then back again on the opposite bank with nothing significantly new to see. That’s at least 40 kilometres – a very long day for most walkers with very little progress to show for it. Walking the estuary once might be tolerable, even enjoyable in better conditions than I had, but twice? I think not. My advice would be to walk the Combwich – Steart (western/left) side but get the Burnham – Bridgwater bus for the other.
1: Andrew Greig, “Summit Fever“.
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