Portwrinkle to Plymouth

After a night of luxury in our Airbnb with an electric blanket we headed on towards Plymouth. The morning was pretty uneventful and much of the path was on the road.

We did however pass through an interesting firing range at Tregantle Fort. After getting back onto proper path we headed round Rame Head. On top of the point is an old chapel which looks very picturesque from a distance.

We continued into Cawsand/Kingsand and met Olly's dad and brother for lunch. They are down from London for a few days on a Cornish/Devonian road trip. After a catch up and a pub lunch we headed on towards Plymouth.

The weather was absolutely beautiful and we were enjoying watching all the sailing boats in Plymouth sound.

We chatted to a couple who were also walking the path and before we knew it we were on a walking tour of the Plymouth area. 

After catching the ferry across the Tamar we saw another welcome to Devon sign and headed to union Street (apparently a rough end of town but not the roughest) where our alarmingly cheap hostel/hotel was located. It doesn't seem too bad so far...

We have now passed the 400 mile mark and are officially back in Devon.

Still no caterpillars but a few nature fun facts instead. 

Below is a harlequin lady bird, these are not native to the UK but are now more common that the native European ladybird which has only 5 spots. 

Below is a Spanish oak tree, it has acorns like a British oak tree but the leaves are not the classic oak shape.  

Plymouth to Stoke Down

We left our hostel this morning, and after a stop at the co-op to pick up some provisions, we headed to the ferry. We had a choice between catching the ferry to Mount Batten or walking round Plymouth's various industrial estates; we chose the ferry.

Shortly on we came across a sign at Jenny Cliff which incorrectly lists the distance to Poole. 

We continued on easy paths, overlooking Plymouth harbour, to Wembury Beach. Here we had an enforced two hour lunch break, on the beach. We needed to cross the River Yealm, unfortunately at this time of year the ferry doesn’t run. So we waited for the taxi we booked to take us over to the other side. 

Once over we continued on through National Trust woodland, and then onto open grassland where a flat, gentle gradient, path ran along the hillside. Then we found ourselves a nice flat patch to camp on, overnight.

Bigbury-on-Sea to Prawle Point

After porridge for breakfast we left the campsite, leaving money in the farmhouse porch to pay for our night’s stay. Taxi Mike picked us up. The start of this day’s walk involved crossing the River Avon, and once again the ferry wasn’t running, so instead we took the 40 minute cab journey to the other side.

The walk started through a golf course, and then onto well made paths round to Hope Cove, a picturesque little village. From here we continued up through grassland and fields onto the seaside cliffs. 

The terrain then changed slightly, becoming more rugged with gorse covering much of the headland. After a few steep ups and downs, we rounded the headland and followed the winding path down towards Salcombe.

Just before Salcombe we stopped for lunch at the Winking Prawn. After a hearty lunch, we carried on into Salcombe and caught the ferry across the river. Continuing on, town gave way to woodland, which in turn gave way to rocky, cliff side path. 

We continued on this path to Prawle Point, where we reached the old coast guard lookout station. On the map this had seemed like a reasonable place to camp for the night, however once there we discover the wind whipping around from all sides.

So instead we carried on for a short while, onto the lower more protected path below. Luckily finding somewhere, and pitching the tent, just before the heavens opened.

Prawle Point to Dartmouth

After a slightly rainy night and an extra hour sleep due to the clock change, we woke up to clearer skies.

It's now lighter in the morning, which means earlier wild-camping starts. This morning after an efficient pack down (likely due to the freezing wind) we were walking by 7am. 

We saw other wild campers for the first time this trip, who hadn't risen so early. 

We were reasonably sheltered from the wind until we passed Start Point. This book describes the following section as exposed. I thought it meant a cliff edge, but it actually meant to the elements. The lighthouse was built in 1836 after several ships were wrecked within one blizzard.

We passed the ruined village of Hallsands. This is an interesting story, in short; offshore dredging for gravel to build an extension to the Keyham Naval Dock undermined the beach, causing the village to be washed away in a storm. There is a lot more to it than this including some dodgy dealings and the villagers getting very little compensation.

We passed through the new Hallsands and then Beesands where we had some breakfast. We were lucky to get in at the Cricket Inn as a couple who came in 5 minutes later were told the kitchen was closed! After breakfast we headed along the bay to Slapton.

Slapton Sands is famous as it was the location of operation Tiger. This was a large scale rehearsal for the D-day invasion of Normandy (WWII). 

Communication and coordination problems resulted in friendly fire deaths, additionally an exposed allied convey was attacked by a Nazi fast boat. The loss of life was greater in the rehearsal than in the actual D-DAY invasion. The Sherman tank which was raised from the sea bed in the 1980s is a memorial to all those that lost their lives in the exercise. The tank was designed to float and could move from sea to land. However something went wrong and the crew abandoned it after it began to sink shortly after deployment. It remained in the sea bed until discovered by a local fisherman.

We continued along the long stretch of beach until rounding a couple of headlands before entering the picturesque town of Dartmouth. 

Caterpillar of the day returns! Below is a photo of a speedy White Erimine moth caterpillar.

The adult moth looks like a moth version of Hedwig (Harry Potter's Snowy Owl).

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.