Day:121 20/7/94 Dartmouth to Totness

Weather: Fine and hot       Distance: 20km (12.4 miles)    Total Distance: 1503 miles

I caught another early bus from Kingsbridge this time to Dartmouth.  The school children on this trip were particularly noisy and kept badgering the driver.  A short walk along the front in Dartmouth bought me to the Navy College.  I tried to find a way around the estuary side but it was all labelled MOD property and well guarded.  Rather than risk imprisonment I took a long climb up the main road out of Dartmouth before turning into a housing estate which led to a country lane loosing the height I had recently gained.  A couple of water company trucks were finding it hard to manage the sharp bends on the very steep decent.

I cut down a lane which led to some boat yards and then discovered that a path through some woods to the right had a stile and arrow into them appearing to indicate a right of way. The trek through the woods was very difficult and overgrown in parts as well as seeming longer than it was on the map! The last mile was a steep hot climb through a dense path.  I came out on a country lane.

A strange metal platform looking like a ships crows nest overlooked the estuary from here - it was labelled as a fire beacon.  A path then led down through some corn fields and some small woods.  I must have lost the official path because I came out on a track and when I asked the way from a man there I was informed that the path did not drop that far down.  Anyway, he did not appear upset so I continued on my way and was able to direct a couple of walkers heading in the opposite direction, the correct way to go.  I told them about the walk through the woods down at Old Mill Creek, and they sounded like they were determined to head that way - I wondered at the end of the day if they were still in the woods - not only was it tough going but it was not very well signposted in the opposite direction to the one I had walked.

Dittisham was another very pleasant looking village. The estuary villages always look nicer than those on the coast around here.  Out of the village and down by the creek, I saw a heron and a buzzard within a minute of each other.  I sheltered in the shade of a farmhouse at East Cornsworth to have a drink.  The walking had been quite tough and it was now very hot.  I was another mile of road walking before I cut off down a path to the estuary again.  It was along this section that I got badly bitten by horse flies.  There was no breeze and I had to keep walking to stop them biting me even more.  I am not badly effected by horse fly bites, unlike some people are, but they did make my calf muscle tight and uncomfortable the following day.  

I had decided to call into the pub I saw marked on the map at Tuckenhay to cool off a bit and rehydrate.  I was shocked to find it was the Maltsters Arms, Keith Floyd's pub, originally called Floyd's Inn. It took a while to dawn on me where I was and even when he first walked past and said hello, I was not convinced!  It struck me as amusing that people had obviously travelled for miles to visit the pub and I had just stumbled upon it.  I don't know how appreciated I was stumbling in, all hot and bothered, and in my walking gear.  He is a charismatic fidgety man who chain smokes and but likes to be completely involved in the running of his pub.  I was disappointed to hear hime say that he tends not to recall the places where he goes on his trips aboard, they are just a place to go to film.  I sampled his Exmoor Ale, and discussed my coastal path walk with his barman.  I did not eat there since even his pork pies were £2.50!  Had a couple of words with him about his recent trip to Ireland before setting off on the road again to Totnes.

Keith Floyd

 

The next part of the walk was through another quiet village of Ashprington and then down through fields to the river.  I could hear the commentaries on the pleasure cruisers going up the river. If I had gone on such a trip I think I would have wanted it to be silent not commentated on all the while.

The walk into Totnes itself was disappointing; not up the edge of the river but behind a timber yard and then next to yet another marina type development being constructed

I went to the Tourist Information Centre where I had arranged to meet my wife.  I took the opportunity to ask about the route the following day and about buses from Brixham on the last day.  I was relieved to find that there was a regular bus service between Brixham and Kingswear.

My wife was late in the end because my son had been slow in getting off the beach at Thurlestone Sands and the TIC was not well signposted.  I sat on a bench in the shade opposite and watched the people go by - it was still too hot to do much else.  When they arrived we had a drink outside the pub next door in the courtyard before walking back up the main street. We called in a good wood turners exhibition and bought a light-pull for the bathroom.  Totnes looked a pleasant town but it was too hot to explore it in full.

We drove back to Kingsbridge calling in the supermarket on the way to buy tea.

Day:120 19/7/94 Torcross to Dartmouth

Weather: Fine and warm   Distance:  15km (9.3 miles)     Total Distance: 1491 miles

The 7.40 bus took me to Torcross.  The walk along the front at Slapton was pleasant in the early morning.  I kept on the path on the sea side of the road for most of the way until the ground got sandy when I crossed to the other side where the nature reserve was, though I must admit to not seeing much bird life.  The reeds beds at the reserve looked very healthy indeed.

Slapton is famous for being where the Allies practised for the Normandy Invasion, but part of the exercise went wrong and up to 1000 American soldiers had been killed.  Someone had dragged a tank out from the sea in the last ten years and made it into a memorial to those troops who had died there.  The mock landings area had also meant the five of the villages in the area had had to be evacuated.

At the far end of the sands I was lucky enough to find a path that led up on to the top of the high cliffs but from there on my rules meant that the closest right of way to the coast was in fact along the main road for about three miles.  The official coast path goes inland at this stage along much quieter roads.  Anyway, I was in no hurry and could take it very easy, getting out of the way of any oncoming traffic in plenty of time. The road climbed and fell a couple of times, at one stage giving good views over Blackpool Sands, a popular sandy beach even at the time I walked past it.

Once past Stoke Fleming, a side road cut down eastwards.  It was marked closed but I took a chance which paid off since it was some road works taking place on a very quiet bridge, but gave me plenty of room to walk past.  Along the road a bit a black BMW came out of a large estate on the right.  Looking at the map it was these landowners that prevented the footpath from going much closer to the coast which would have been much more pleasant.

From the National Trust car park, a path led down to the cliff top path.  I stopped here to celebrate getting back off the road.  It was around here that I remembered it was my wife's birthday today!  Further along the cliff top I met up with a backpacker and his dog called Gizmo.  He had spent the past couple of summers walking sections of the path and had one more to go after this year to complete the path.  We walked into Dartmouth together.  He was a heating engineer from Taunton and appeared very tanned obviously having been walking for quite a few days up to then.  One coincidence was that he had eaten in the Fisherman's Arms in Averton Gifford a couple of days perviously and enjoyed it very much, so much so that he had had to then take a taxi to Thurlestone where his digs were.

The path came out at Dartmouth Castle, where Gizmo had a drink of water after which we strode along the promenades into Dartmouth. Gizmo was a collie alsatian cross and very lively when he saw another dog.  I left them both heading up to the Tourist Information Office where ha went to find out about accommodation in Brixham - having walked that route in a couple of days time, I pitied them, because it was a difficult section on top of what they had already walked.

I dashed into a newsagent to buy a card for my wife and a pen to write it with and then into a florist before getting a newspaper and sitting down, writing the card and jumping on the bus back to Torcross where I met my wife nad son in the good tea shop I had found on the previous day - this lunchtime it was empty.

After lunch we drove back to Dartmouth, parked on the front and strode along the front.  My son wanted to go on a boat, so we went on the short ride down to Dartmouth Castle.  We did not bother to look around the castle but had a cup of tea instead and a play around before catching the boat back.  My son was ever so quiet on the boat and worried he would loose his hat in the wind.