The summer evenings of July still seem to last despite it being past the longest day, so to make most of the beautiful day which had being walking around Ilfracombe it was the perfect opportunity to tackle part of the South West Coast Path.
Unfortunately for part of the path from Hele Bay you have to walk down a coastal road, not too bad because you are easily be distracted by the views. The path takes a very strange route through a small car park, not much of the path if you ask me, just takes you to a view point, but I rapidly discovered that the viewpoint was worth the diversion from the road –
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| From 2009 – 12.07.2009 – South West Coast Path – Hele Bay – Watermouth – Night Walk Devon |
Coming out of the car park to the road (again!) you turn off at the Coastguards house on to the proper coast path. Despite not having any walking boots on, the path was not too bad to tackle – not much mud despite any rain that we had. However, the path is not too well maintained on this route and you definitely feel like Indiana Jones most of the time –
The path winds itself up and down the cliffs, it passes by farmers fields and you end up hiking around the cliffs via a very long route. It was quite amazing to see the sheep and goats being able to graze on such a steep incline if you ask me – must have some sort of in built balance system…
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| From 2009 – 12.07.2009 – South West Coast Path – Hele Bay – Watermouth – Night Walk Devon |
The cliffs seem to be much higher than the Cornwall cliffs that I encountered, and in fact they seemed more challenging – (except the Cornish ones came complete with disused tin mines and danger of death everywhere – I think I covered that in a previous blog) The hike is well worth the struggle, the views are spectacular and amazingly enough the path actually has benches dotted along it. But I didn’t really get time to sit down and contemplate the views, I understand these cliffs are some of the highest in Britian.
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| From 2009 – 12.07.2009 – South West Coast Path – Hele Bay – Watermouth – Night Walk Devon |
I carried on round to see Watermouth bay in the distance – The bay lit up with yacht lights like some sort of Christmas tree.
The path moves away from the coastline because of farmers land, I think by this point I realised the early evening stroll was turning out to be a little bit longer than that, as it was getting very dark – in fact you have to cross a stile, in to what seems like a black hole
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| From 2009 – 12.07.2009 – South West Coast Path – Hele Bay – Watermouth – Night Walk Devon |
The trees completely cover the path and you seem to walking through a tunnel, your in a dark, wild and lonely place, and just as I was walking down the path, two bats shot out of the wall right in front of me! Felt like a personal attack. I ended up walking through a wood which was strange for a coast path if you ask me. The path also follows the roadway at one point which is only separated by a wall. It was then time to come off the path, as I had reached Watermouth Castle – a bit later than planned and well the whole walk was much longer than planned…
It was then time to hike the short way back via the road back to the tent and a well deserved cup of tea
All the photos from the evening walks are –
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| 2009 – 12.07.2009 – South West Coast Path – Hele Bay – Watermouth – Night Walk Devon |
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