Day 112: Bideford to Clovelly

I was up very early this morning as I had to get the bus from Hartland to Bideford at 7:05 am. We had had torrential rain all night with very strong winds which were blowing Priscilla around. However, I did manage to get some sleep.

During the bus journey, I dozed in and out of sleep. When I arrived at Bideford, I went straight to a café and had breakfast. I finished sorting out my GPS satellite device and testing it before popping to the supermarket for some more ibuprofen as my heel is really sore today.

I walked alongside the river having to divert at one point for a very large industrial building. Then along a few paths before arriving in Appledore. It’s a beautiful quaint seaside village with lots of narrow streets and colourful houses. I would normally have stopped, but my plan for today was to stop at Westward Ho!

My heel was giving me a lot of jip today so I decided to take a bit of a diversion and instead of going round the wetlands on the headland I walked directly on the road to Westward Ho!

The beach at Westward Ho! was busy because it’s half term. There was a strong onshore wind and the waves were quite large rollers with spray going up in to the air like mist.

I stopped and had lunch and I was glad of the sit down in a café to rest my ankle, more ibuprofen required. I set off along the beachfront and then into the woodlands along the cliffs. It was very muddy and I met a group of young women , Claire, Fran, Katie and Freya the dog who had been walking the coast path from Lands End in sections over the past few years.

Later, I met two young boys on bikes. They were doing amazing. They had set off from Bideford this morning. We had a little chat and then I carried on. I only met a couple of more people all day. Everyone said it was very muddy and be aware of fallen trees.

I thought I had about two and a half hours to go to Clovelly but I met two guys coming the other way. They said it had taken them four and a half hours to get to that point. That was a real shock to my system as I needed to get back to Clovelly in time for the bus. It was difficult to pick up speed because the ground was so slippery with mud and by this time my legs were getting tired. Clovelly seemed to be getting no closer it was always in the distance.

Eventually, I saw a sign for Bucks Mill which was where I was originally going to stop today. It was 2.5 miles to Bucks Mill and a further 4.5 miles to Clovelly. My heart sank. I wanted to sit down and cry. My ankle had become quite excruciating and the pain was going up my calf and into my thigh.

I was desperate for a drink, however there was not a single person around in Bucks Mill. I started fantasising about a pint of lager shandy and this thought occupied my mind for the rest of the afternoon.

After a lot of rapid walking, and limping quite badly, I finally made it to the bus stop with 10 minutes to spare. Then it turned out the bus was a further 10 minutes late, but I wasn’t to know that.

I never got to see Clovelly I had to make do with this poster.

Having been boiling hot all day with a sweat on, once I started waiting for the bus I went really cold and shivering. Once on the bus the muddy state of my appearance became very noticeable.

As I got off the bus and went to Priscilla it just so happened that there was a pub next to the car park. I couldn’t resist. I finally got my lager shandy.