South West Coast Path – Day 8
Westward Ho! to Clovelly
Getting there: Rail strikes, so car to Bude, private drive parking via JustPark, buses from Bude to Westward Ho!
Overnight: AirBnB on Atlantic Way
4 June 2023
Distance on Coast Path: 18.8km; ascent 617m
Total distance: 20.4km; ascent: 707m
Walking time: 5h 25′
Total time: 7h 29′
Overnight: Slerra Hill B&B
Staying in an AirBnB I had to find my own breakfast, but where to find breakfast at 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning in Westward Ho? Google directed me to Cabana. It’s clearly a local institution, busy with early morning swimmers, dog walkers and other early risers who all seemed to know each other and the ladies cooking and serving behind the counter.
From Westward Ho! the Coast Path follows the line of the old railway along the shore past a holiday park and the Pier House hotel, finally reaching open country at a semi-derelict Victorian Gothic house called Seafield.
Once the line of the railway turns inland the path continues along low cliffs. The weather was fine and warm; I realised I could see Clovelly across the bay. The route rises and falls dropping close to the beach at several places and I didn’t see a single person until I was close to Peppercombe, the first steeper and deeper valley of the day. I stopped at Peppercombe bridge for a break and snack.
After Peppercombe the Path climbed steeply through the welcome shade of the first woods of the day. It was a few kilometres further as I was following the track downhill towards the next stream crossing at Bucks Mills that my day took a turn for the worse. To cool off in the shade of the woods I had taken off the wide-brimmed hat I normally wear for sun protection; a low branch caught my bare scalp and I felt straight away I was bleeding. A tissue confirmed it. I carry a small first aid kit but it would be awkward to dress the wound myself, so as I was only a short way from Bucks Mills and houses I decided to try and get help there.
I was lucky. A couple were standing at the gate of one of the first houses I came to and I asked for their help – which they gave willingly. So that is how I came to be sitting at their garden table with a cup of tea while my wounded head was washed and dabbed with antiseptic and a large dressing stuck over the gash. My thanks to them – I did not get their names – and to the kindness of strangers once again.
After heading uphill out of Bucks Mills, hat firmly back on, more woods and open field edges took me over a stile and onto a rough road. This is Hobby Drive, a private road originally built as a carriage road running the last 5km from Hobby Lodge to the top of Clovelly village. It is fairly level and mostly shady. My trail buddy Ida from my previous visit had found it a dull and dreary slog, but she had walked it in the rain and before the woods turned green. For me it was nothing as bad, though I admit to being quite glad to finally get to the end. Leaving the village until later I turned up the steep cobbled Wrinkleberry Lane to my B&B.
Later, showered and changed and with a fresh smaller dressing on my scalp, I walked back down and into Clovelly itself for a beer and a meal at the New Inn. The only other Coast Path walker I had seen all day arrived with her pack at the same time. We spoke briefly while we were both having dinner; I learned she was Belgian and that we were both heading for Hartland Quay the next day.
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