South West Coast Path – Day 3
Lynton to Combe Martin
20 April 2023
Distance on Coast Path: 22.0km
Total distance: 22.0km; ascent: 790m
Walking time: 5h 34′
Total time: 6h 52′
Overnight: Newberrybeach Lodge, Combe Martin
The Coast Path leaves Lynton along a level track called North Walk which passes over the cliff railway. As it narrows it becomes a well-made paved path which takes you through an area of spectacular rock scenery. This is the coast side of the Valley Of Rocks which you don’t see from a car!
This section joins a public road and then the toll road through the grounds of Lee Abbey – now a Christian retreat. Although a tarmac road, it is quiet with very little traffic. There is a short off-road diversion out to Crock Point and back, and the Path finally leaves the road after Woody Bay.
From here the ups-and-downs become less frequent, but bigger! The drop to cross the Heddon River above Heddon Mouth is substantial, as is the climb on a zig-zag path up the other side. I debated whether to visit Hunter’s Inn (only half a kilometre away) for lunch, but instead stopped for a break at the bridge.
By now my thoughts were focussing on Great Hangman – the highest point on the whole Coast Path – but two substantial hills still intervened. My hope that having gained height to cross the north slopes of Trentishoe Down and Holdstone Hill it would be an easy stroll up Great Hangman was in vain; another substantial down-and-up to cross Sherrycombe intervened. Before the descent started I could see two people on the other side walking up a grassy slope which looked disconcertingly steep. It was a relief to find this was a trick of perspective; by the time I reached the same slope the steepest part of the ascent was over, and easy gradients take the path to the top. The summit itself is unremarkable apart from a sprawling cairn; the summit is too flat to give dramatic views.
Finally it was (almost) downhill all the way into Combe Martin and this time the front gate of my overnight BnB was literally on the Coast Path.
Trail buddies
Although I’ve read about trail buddies in others’ accounts this came new to me. The SWCP is popular so although some sections had been empty, meeting other people wasn’t unusual. With some it’s just ‘Hi’ and you go on your way. With some you stop and chat for a few minutes, maybe exchanging plans and destinations or speculating about the weather, then you part company and never see them again. And others you meet once, part, meet again, maybe walk with part of the way, separate again, then come across them again a few days later.
Sitting in the Focsle Inn later that evening with the evening sun shining through the window I saw at a table outside a young couple I’d overtaken on the way up to Great Hangman. As I came up behind them I’d wondered if they were OK – they were moving slowly with heavy packs and had stout but clumsy wooden poles they had obviously broken out of a hedge. Something about them said ‘inexperienced’; maybe it was the pink Crocs hanging on the outside of the young woman’s rucksack. They told me they were planning to do the whole Path, were camping, and had everything they owned on their backs. Anyone who’s read ‘The Salt Path’ by Raynor Winn will recognise the story, though of course I have no idea how far the parallels went. I went outside and spent a few minutes chatting with them. They stayed on the terrace for a couple of hours with one drink before eventually moving off. I didn’t see them again.
Just as I was finishing my meal I saw the Norwegian woman I’d met two days earlier not far out of Minehead. She was sitting outside having a drink with a young woman who I also thought I’d seen before, so I went out to say ‘Hello’. Introductions made, I discovered her name was Ida and the young woman was someone I had indeed seen before – twice in fact. It was finding out she was in the Royal Navy that gave me the link – when I’d seen her before she had been wearing a top with RN insignia. We had last passed each other the previous day where the optional diversion to Foreland Point leaves the Path – she had been down the road a little way before deciding it wasn’t worth the effort, and she set off ahead of me and was last seen as a silhouette on the hill above me moving at a pace I could only envy! It was her last day in the area, but Ida and I were to meet up again.
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