Week 1 Day 2 - Woolacombe to Croyde Bay

A storm rages all night long, it rains cats and dogs and the tent creaks and groans in the strong winds. However, it survives intact with only a little water ingress near one of the side door zips. At 5 am we venture out to go to the loo and find 3 Germans sheltering by the laundry - their tent had blown out at about 3 am! We thank out lucky stars that we have a good solid tent. The West Lyn river, which runs along the campsite, is very swollen with the heavy rain during the night.

We get up late and it is still chucking it down so we decide to abandon the planned walk from Porlock Weir to Lynmouth. We take a leisurely cooked breakfast in the camp-site cafe - along with the 3 drowned Germans and their friend - and drive into Ifracombe for a look around. On the way, we stop at Hele Bay for Liz to have a nostalgic look at Moles Farm where she used to stay on holiday as a young girl.

Ilfracombe town centre is quite run down and not what one expects of a major seaside resort. However, the sea front proves more acceptable and, after purchasing a bus timetable in the tourist inforation office, we take coffee in the foyer of the Landmark Theatre. With the rain easing off, we decide to try our luck at a half-day walk and Woolacombe to Croyde Bay seems the best bet.


We park in the sea front car park at Woolacombe and set off along the path in the sand dunes behind the beach. We stop on a bench soon after Putsborough, on the cliffs overlooking Morte Bay, for lunch. Although it is dry, it is very grey and the rain arrives as we are finishing lunch. We continue round Baggy Point in a howling gale and spot a RAF rescue helicopter by the cliffs. It turns out they are out on a practice rather than an actual rescue, but the pilot's control of the machine is impressive in the strong winds.

On arriving in Croyde Bay, we rush forward to catch the next bus to Braunton which is just about to leave. Then we realise we will have a long wait in Braunton before there is a bus to Ilfracombe, so we decide to walk back as it would be quicker. Then we notice that there is a special B1 service for surfers and bikers that only runs during the summer months and will take us back to Woolacombe in one go if we wait for about an hour. So we decide to have a cup of tea in the National Trust tea shop before catching the bus to Woolacombe and making our way back to our camp in Lynton.


Distance completed today: 6.3 miles
Total distance completed: 15.8 miles (2.5%)