The night’s accommodation was my first without a breakfast included and my pack was a bit depleted after overindulging on Flapjack during the Morte Point stretch. I had two-thirds of a bottle of water and little else as I left Dad at the hotel and took the short stroll back towards the path. I’d seen Saunton on the map and was sure that it looked big enough to have a shop where I could resupply on beer and junk food. Due to only walking the half day to Ilfracombe on the first trip I had to choose a day to ‘go long’ and walk more miles to get back on to the official 52 day itinerary. Today was that day. I needed to do at least 20 miles.
Day 6 - Croyde Bay to Instow. 07/05/24
The walk for today starts on the small headland at the end of Croyde Bay, the first notable feature is Chesil Cliff House, often called ‘The Lighthouse’, a huge white blot on the landscape that is internationally famous after it’s construction was featured on the TV show Grand Designs.
The man who conceived it became obsessed with it even after development costs skyrocketed and the project hit many costly setbacks. His family unit broke down and he lost his wife and bankrupted himself. An important reality check on the nature of obsession as I felt myself and my recovery becoming intrinsically linked with the path and every single step here and beyond.
The house was on the market for ages for 10 million quid and (as of 4th May 2024) will now set you back £5.25m. If I was paying that money I wouldn’t want sweaty ramblers being able to look straight over a wall into my lounge. The poor thing looks like it needs a good pressure wash as the rusted gutter fixings are sending orange streaks down the length of the sea-facing wall, the cliff below it is hanging by its fingertips, plus I think the whole thing is cursed. Who the hell would buy it?
Walking above and parallel to the Coast Road towards Saunton through narrow overgrown hedges I remembered I hadn’t put my tick spray on. I used the rest of the can on the bottoms of my legs and around my socks and cuffs, and prayed the little bastards wouldn’t find me tasty today.
Crossing the road to the massive white-washed Saunton Sands hotel and around the back I decided to double check if there was actually a shop nearby; negative, nope, nada. I circled around the hotel and behind it to a car park, it was 8.25am and none of the tourist bait cafes had opened yet, the sun had started to beat down, I looked at the amount of water in my bottle, it was becoming clear I may need to ration it for a while.
As I pushed up the tarmac road out of the car park a portal to another dimension opened up on the bottom of my right foot, a sharp stinging pain, a burst blister just one and a half miles into todays planned twenty.
After being rudely turned away before I’d even got down a third of the driveway for Saunton Golf Club where I was going to see if they’d sell me a can of coke, I settled in on the packed sand path around the side of the golf course. I’m usually pretty good with getting out of the way of people when I smoke, but after the interaction with the asshole groundskeeper I made the fattest, smelliest one possible and walked as close to every group of golfers as I could.
The next two or three miles were the first example I’d come across of where it felt like they’d ’padded out’ the path, this stretch was very boring and narrow with high trees on either side without any sea view, and without any beer as a livener I started to lose interest.
After another half mile of private road I came upon a car park with a small booth for collecting parking fare. The polite and friendly fella in there had set up a really rudimentary little cafe where he sold drinks and pot noodles and a couple cakes. I gave him £10 for three bottles of water and two cans of tropical Rio, the first bottle of water evaporated down my gullet in one long swig, reviving me from the drudgery of the last stretch, the other two filled my bottle back to the top. Not beer, but it’ll do. After a nice chat with the cafe/parking chap I was back on the path.
As I rounded the next corner I was shocked to see a group of men in full Army fatigues, with oiled faces and machine guns, there was a sign saying that this was an active military range but I didn’t expect to see it all in action. As I went further through the Sand Dunes of Braunton Burrows I saw several other small groups hidden away. The first group I saw had to scour and clear the dunes of the other groups, it looked like a lot of fun, although it was now about 11am and the sun was directly above, I didn’t envy them in full uniform with no shade.
The blister had blurred in with the rest of the general foot pain now so I decided to try to get a shift on into Braunton where there was definitely a Tesco. I walked for a short while, a chinook helicopter flying low to indicate the start of the manoeuvres for the troops behind me, along the sand of the estuary until a dog bounded up for some loving and shortly after I saw the owners, two retired gents called Gary and Alan. They were doing a through hike of the path in one go (with Daisy the dog) to raise money for Macmillan and Pancreatic Cancer UK. We walked together into Braunton, they listened to my story and I listened to theirs, we shared some tender tales of what brought us to the path at very different stages of our lives, what had gone before and what was still to come. I respect them both incredibly along with their partners who are travelling along with them in a Camper Van and probably triaging swollen feet and empty stomachs. As I was writing this (a few weeks later) I found out yesterday they have just reached Lands End, a magnificent achievement, and I truly hope they make it the whole way. I’ll fish out their gofundme link and put it at the bottom.
Tesco didn’t have cold beer but that didn’t matter, eight cans of lukewarm Stella were added to the pack weight and the path headed back out of Braunton along the River Taw on a shared cycle path that runs behind the Royal Marine base at Chivenor.
I’m going to struggle to write much about the next stretch as it was just avoiding bikes on a tarmac surface, drinking warm Stella in the baking heat for 14 miles. The path ran along the estuary to the new bridge at Barnstaple, over the bridge and back down the other side. I was in incredible spirits though as I merrily meandered my way past a never ending series of broken boats stranded at the edge of the muddy Taw Estuary. Plenty of beer, bud and blisters and I was in a catatonic stupor as I headed into Instow. Despite wearing my veteran walking boots the constant impact of the tarmac had shredded my feet and crept into my muscles and bones.
People had told me that compared to what comes before and after that this leg would feel quite dull and boring. They were right to some extent but there was still a lot to see and a lot of wildlife to keep me engaged and moving. There is nothing that will make me fall out of love with this path.
With 21.5 miles done for the day we retreated to the Premier Inn at Barnstaple, which mercifully had an on-site restaurant so I didn’t have to walk anywhere. My calves felt like canvas satchels full of smashed shells and my feet felt like they’d been bludgeoned by a team of angry goblins wielding hamburger mallets.
There was one of the most attention-seeking narcissistic gobshites I’d ever met in the chain restaurant attached to the hotel that evening, acting like it was the first time he’d ever been let out in public. He was annoying me so much I could barely eat my food. Not that I could get up and do much about it with my legs on red health.
I stood up at the end of the meal and both of my knees and shins screeched at me at once, so much that I didn’t feel the blisters. I was impressed with my level of fitness and progress through the day but perhaps I should have told my muscles what the plan was in advance. I could hardly stand straight as I limped along with Dad back to the room. This was unlike anything I’d felt on any walk before. I was
Fucked.
Wednesday 8th May 2024
When I woke up in the morning and headed to the loo the backs of my legs and soles of my feet were still not in serviceable condition so I decided early in the morning that I wasn’t going to walk today and instead just do one more stretch tomorrow. This meant that we had to stay at Westward Ho! tonight and I’d go back to Instow tomorrow and walk back here. It also meant that I’d miss out on one full day of walking on this trip but I just couldn’t force it.
It was a pain in the ass but far outweighed by the pain in my calves.
Today was the Day that had been gently sitting in the rear view of my psyche for a couple of weeks now. Five years today since my entire reason for existing pulled up her stumps and left me here alone.
Me and Dad went to some shopping places. I bought a pair of size thirteen slip-on shoes to relieve my swollen feet. We headed for the beach at Westward Ho and sat for a while, Dad was amazing and walked up and back over a huge pebble bank, I was in shock, we gad a great time, I really needed his company today and I could tell he needed mine. We got through it together.
Heading back to the accommodation we followed the comprehensive booking dot com directions to our digs for the night. A lovely self contained annex at the back of a property with it’s own driveway, a large balcony area for drinking and a fantastic sea view.
I rung the owner to let her know we were here,
she couldn’t see us.
We were parked on the driveway of a completely different place from where we were staying. I was sat on their patio furniture. We turned the car around and buggered off before someone called the law.
Either way, just around the corner; self contained annex, own driveway, large balcony, fantastic sea view, eventually we were in the property that we’d booked. You could see how we’d got it mixed up.
They had one of those foot baths in the property and left me a pair of foot bags full of tea tree oil and other good stuff. I spoilt my feet and then headed to bed.
Drifting off I thought about mum again and everything we’d been through together. I was so incredibly lucky that she’d stuck around as long as she had. I was so lucky that she was my mum.
“I’ve been with you such a long time,
You’re my sunshine
And I want you to know that my feelings are true,
I really love you.
Oh, you’re my best friend”
Love it
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