Day 11. Bude to Crackington Haven, 22 February 2023.

 I was away soon after 9 on a bright morning, crossing over the river and the lock gate at the seaward entrance to the Bude Canal, which was used in the 19th century to take sand from the coast to use as fertiliser. 

 

Directly above the lock is the headland of Compass Point, with its octagonal tower, where each side is marked with the compass direction. 

It was a rather easier stage than yesterday, but still with over 600 m of ascent and descent. This is the view of the way ahead from near the start 

and a retrospect looking back north. The white GCHQ satellite dishes at Lower Sharpnose Point are just visible in the distance.

I reached Crackington Haven just before 2pm and took the bus back to Bude.

 

Distance today, 17 km. 

Day 10. Hartland Quay to Bude, 21 February 2023.

If you are following the 52 day schedule on the SWCP website (which has been my basic plan), this is the toughest day of the whole path, 24 km and over 1000 m of ascent, crossing ten valleys. 

It's not only the toughest section but one of the best, a rollercoster along a dramatic stretch of coastline above huge cliffs and remote beaches. There are climbable crags dotted all along the coast, so I had been here many times to go rock climbing, but I had only walked short sections of the coast path. The photos shows the start of the day's walk at Hartland Quay, with the cliffs of Screda Point in the background.

 I was away just before 9am on a dry but grey morning. The first section was a long gentle ascent up to Embury Beacon, the highest point of the day at 157 m, but then the fun started with a steep descent to Welcombe Mouth. Halfway down I came to a well-built stone hut perched on the edge of the cliff.

 This is Ronald Duncan's hut; Duncan was a local writer and poet who built the original hut in the 1960s. It fell into disrepair but after his death it was rebuilt by his daughter as a tribute.

 Inside there are chairs and a bench where you can admire the view out to sea and either write your own poetry, or get out your flask of coffee and have some cake. I expect you can guess what I did.

Soon after comes the crossing from Devon into Cornwall. On the south coast the county boundary is the Tamar estuary but here it is a small stream, crossed by a wooden footbridge that is not quite in the same league as Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash.

 A few miles further on is another hut; Hawker's Hut, the smallest property owned by the National Trust, a primitive wooden shed tucked into the hillside overlooking a wild beach. It was built in the 19th century by Robert Steven Hawker, the vicar of nearby Morwenstow who, depending on which story you believe, used it for smoking opium, writing poetry, liaisons with local ladies, or lighting lanterns to entice ships onto the rugged rocks below.
 

 As you head south you cannot avoid the strange sight of the GCHQ listening station above Lower Sharpnose Point, several enormous white golf balls and huge satellite dishes that can be seen for miles around. It's on an old airfield where my mother was stationed for a time in World War 2. 

The area between Clovelly and Bude is known to climbers as the Culm Coast. I like to think of the rocks as a giant geological millefeuille, with layers of hard sandstone (the culm) interspersed with shale, mud and assorted choss. In most places the strata lie back from the vertical, giving slab climbs suitable for old men with weak arms like me, but Lower Sharpnose Point is completely different - here the millefeuille is lying on its side and the softer layers have eroded away, leaving three huge vertical fins sticking out into the Atlantic. One of the fins is about 40m high and sticks out for 60 m, but is only about 2m thick. It is an extraordinary sight.

Most of the climbs are well above my pay grade, but there are a few routes that I could manage on a good day. This photo was taken on my last visit with Nick Foot in 2021.

 Today I stayed well above all this on the coast path before descending to Duckpool and the first signs of civilisation for a long while, even if it was just a car park, toilet block and a couple of houses. After one more steep climb and descent to Sandy Mouth the going became much easier, a pleasant stroll above low cliffs before coming into Bude past the tidal swimming pool. Unsurprisingly there were no customers on a dull winter day.

 

I reached the B&B at 4.20. The landlord seemed rather surprised when I told him where I had come from. This was the view from my bedroom window looking across to Compass Point.

 

Distance today, 24 km. 

Day 9. Clovelly to Hartland Quay, 20 February 2023.

 The next three days were to be centred around Bude. The drive down was a bit more stressed than I had hoped due to a road closure that Google seemed unaware of, but I made it in time to catch the 9.20 bus to Hartland, where the Cornwall and Devon buses are timed to meet, giving a quick connection to Clovelly where I had left off almost thee months ago.

The first section goes through the wooded grounds of the Clovelly Court estate, passing this Angels Wings shelter.

 

 

After climbing up to Gallantary Bower I followed an alternative path to find this wooden bungalow, in a great position on the cliff top overlooking the foreshore pinnacle of Blackchurch Rock. 

 

After a very steep descent to Mouth Mill I wandered onto the beach for a selfie with Blackchurch Rock in the background. There are some classic climbs on the seaward facing slab; Norman and I had climbed three routes here in 2014.

Now the route emerged from the woodland with some fine open cliff top walking to the lighthouse at Hartland Point and a change of direction for west to south. This signpost showed 106 miles completed and 524 miles to Poole. I could only follow its advice to 'Be inspired, keep walking'.

 

 

The memorial plaque is to the Glenart Castle, a hospital ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1918 with the loss of 153 lives.

Three miles of dramatic coastal scenery took me from Hartland Point to Hartland Quay, which consists of a hotel, a few outbuildings and a car park at the end of a minor road. It's a wonderful location, looking across to the shark's fin pinnacles of Screda Point. 

For walkers like me, it is good that the hotel has not been upgraded to a swanky 'restaurant with rooms' or gastropub charging £300 a night for B&B. Everything is very simple and friendly and reasonably priced. I paid £82 for B&B (in a room with this view) and a pub meal. Though that didn't include a free beer that the landlord gave me as the shower in my room wasn't working and I had to move to another room.

Distance today, 18 km.