Stoke Down to Bigbury-on-Sea

We had waited until dusk to set up the tent, as we had just put in the last peg we spotted a pair of lights moving across the fields.

We watched them go field to field closer and closer, we thought it must be a quad bike, maybe we had finally be caught wild-camping! However as the lights ducked behind the last hill and we waited for the inevitable telling off we didn't see them again. 

Then after unpacking sleeping bags and roll mats the lights reappeared, turns out it was a pair of cyclists out late, no wonder the lights were so bright!

We settled in for a pleasant 11 hours sleep, the wind picked up over night, which was good as it should have dried the tent. However we had some early morning rain showers, we delayed packing up but it had already got light and we didn't want to be caught!

We continued along the pleasantly sloped track which apparently had been put in by the Victorians for carriages.

The main challenge of today was crossing the River Erme which is tidal. Annoyingly low tide was at 2pm, as we are on spring tides I thought we might be able to get across at around 11am. Conveniently there was a café open up the road for us to wait out for the next 3 hours. Full English, cake and two cappuccino later we headed back to the slipway.

We managed to wade across the reasonably fast flowing river at knee depth 2 hours before low tide and headed on round the coast. We mostly avoided the sporadic showers and were treated with some great cloud formations and even some rainbows.

We were in Bigbury-on-Sea pretty early, so we found the campsite (1/2 a mile out the village); set up the tent; and headed for the Pilchard Inn on Burgh Island. After 2 pints we were were trapped by the tide but luckily the trusty sea tractor could get us back across!

We ended up having dinner and chatting to a local who said the fancy hotel (£600 a night for a room!) had been bought by new owners 6 months ago. They own both the hotel, which had a heli-pad and the 13th century pub. The previous owners barely opened the pub, closed off bits of the island and would only let hotel guests use the sea tractor. Therefore it has become very unpopular with the locals, but the new owners seem to be much more inclusive.  There were even 30 pirates drinking in the bar!

After an exciting ride back to the mainland on the sea tractor, we headed to the hill back to our tent. 

Instead of a nature fact today: BIG news in Bigbury: A 102 year old ex-racing driver was rescued from his roof after 3 days. He had gone up to fix the aerial and wasn't found until the local milk lady noticed he hadn't taken in the previous 2 days of milk in. Apparently despite this escapade he's doing well in hospital.