South West Coast Path – Day 9
Clovelly to Hartland Quay
5 June 2023
Distance on Coast Path: 17.1km; ascent: 656m
Total distance: 18.0km; ascent: 656m
Walking time: 4h 41′
Total time: 7h 10′
Overnight: Hartland Quay Hotel
Wherever you are on the trail, “It’s a great walk! It’s the best part of the whole coast path!”, say people about their own local stretch, and particularly around Clovelly talking about the way around Hartland Point. I have to disagree; I found it rather dull. I suspect many of them haven’t actually walked the section they are enthusing about.
After a quick turn round the visitor centre to buy a postcard I left Clovelly from where I first arrived yesterday. The first part of the Path led through woods with very few chances to see the coastline. With ambivalent feelings about Clovelly and its managed estate I was slightly ill at ease until I reached Mouth Mill, which I think is where the estate ends. On the way, approaching the bronze age barrow of Gallantry Bower a very large bird took off from a tree only about 50 metres away. As it rose and turned I saw it was a buzzard. It swept away out of sight.
Blackchurch Rock (below) is a short way past the barrow, where the path has had to be diverted slightly inland due to the cliff slipping away.
After Mouth Mill the path climbs up briefly, then drops steeply before rising again at Windbury Point. This section was unpleasant, with the narrow path making its way uphill through wildly overgrown greenery including my personal least favourite, head-high bracken (because of tick risk). Environmentalists please note – there’s no need to worry about declining insect numbers, they’re all on holiday on the Coast Path.
At the top of the steep drop I saw three people, the first of the day so far, on the path at the bottom. Two came uphill towards me; the other, a woman with a large pack, was going in my direction but she wasn’t in sight by the time I reached open country beyond Windbury.
The next few miles were tedious. The Path follows field edges far enough away from the coast to mean there are no sea views. Inland, the character has changed to a wide sweep of gently undulating fields. To add unwanted character, field after recently-mown field had been generously sprayed with farmyard slurry, now dry but still decidedly smelly. There was no shade apart from an occasional section of overgrown path as the way negotiated a field boundary.
It was on this stretch that I caught up with the walker I’d seen earlier, a Dutch woman also heading for Hartland Quay. We walked together as far as the Hartland Point car park, meeting on the way a group of German day hikers who had come from the car park at Titchbury.
The guide book says “seasonal refreshments” at the Hartland Point car park. We were out of season. My Dutch trail buddy chose the benches outside the closed café for a stop; I went on and found a viewpoint overlooking the lighthouse where I had a rest and a snack. The German group arrived while I was there; we talked a little and their leader offered me an “English strawberry bought in Minehead this morning”. It was very nice.
At Hartland Point the coast turns south and changes character. Lines of rocks jut out to sea in strange, jagged linear formations. Two modest down-and-ups at Blegberry Beach and Blackpool Mill were a mild foretaste of the next leg to Bude.
I caught up with the Dutch camper again and we walked together to the Hartland Quay Inn where we sat on the terrace and had a very welcome beer before she left to find her campsite. We both agreed it had been a dull stretch of Coast Path.
Later, after I’d showered and changed, I was waiting to be served at the bar when the Belgian I had met yesterday arrived. Over a beer I learned her name was Sophie, she was walking the Path on a sabbatical from work and hoped to get as far as Plymouth. Later we shared a table for dinner and sat and watched the sunset over a glass of wine. The company of two trail buddies during the day had lightened what was otherwise a rather tedious day.
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