Not only did the farm provide an excellent breakfast but they would serve me at 7.30 so that I could be away by 8 before it got too hot. I retraced my steps down the steep hill to the coast path, which gave a fine view down to the Yealm estuary.
The first section of the walk follows a carriage drive giving an easy and almost level walk for several miles round Gara Point. The second half of the route to the River Erme was more strenuous but this was a fine stretch of coastline, unspoiled apart from a small caravan park tucked away by Stoke Beach.
After a swim on Meadowsfoot Beach, which was busy but almost a tattoo-free zone, I followed the foreshore round to the River Erme below the old coastguard cottages and the crossing shown on the map.
The coast path guides are full of warnings about wading the river and advise that you should only cross within an hour of low tide. It was almost two hours before low tide so I stripped down to swimming trunks before wading across, but I need not have bothered as the water was only knee deep. Later I saw someone wade directly across the mouth of the river from Meadowsfoot Beach, so maybe the river level was lower than normal after more than a month of drought. The crossing point is just upstream of the green patch in the river.
The next section was hard going in the afternoon heat, and I was glad of an ice cream at Challaborough before continuing to Bigbury with its huge beach joining Burgh Island to the mainland at low tide.
I had thought that the hard work would be over at Bigbury so it was a bit of a shock to find a long uphill grind by the road up to Mount Folly, and I was glad that I had plenty of time before the River Avon ferry stopped operating at 4pm. The path ends at this notice board and another lo-tech method to summon the ferry – ring the bell and wave at a thatched house about 300m away – but this seemed to work and I could soon see a small boat heading towards me.
At low tide I could walk most of the way and the boat was only needed to cross a short channel. This photo shows the ferry boat and a view back across the estuary - the notice board is on the far side to the left of the turquoise boat.
The river seemed pretty shallow and I wondered if I could have saved myself £4.95, and later I did see some locals wading the river a little way upstream, though a few hours later the whole estuary was under water. I had a short swim to cool down before checking into the Sloop Inn just up the hill.
Distance today, 25 km.
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