The Walk

If you have good eyesight, the map shows that this was a walk based around the Hartland Quay and Hartland Point area and we followed the red line as shown. The walk was very tough and we are both barely able to walk now that we're home at the end of the day. The wind was very strong and the ground was particularly wet on some steep bridleways where we slithered and slipped in the thick mud. We knew from past experience that there would be some climbing up and down the cliffs and we weren't disappointed.

Although the big cooked breakfast didn't help at the start of the day, we were struggling by the time we limped along the last mile to base camp. We had been up and down so many steep hills, on rough ground and in mud, always accompanied by a strong wind, that we were pleased to have navigated safely back by 3.00pm ish. It started raining during this last stretch which made us realise how impossible the walk would have been if it had rained earlier. 

We ate our picnic lunch in an unwelcomingly chilly porch of St. Nectan's Church at Stoke. The wind took up a ghostly howling quality and although it hadn't been raining that we'd been aware of, the porch was very damp and our behinds became chilled on the wet slate perches. We didn't hang about, but pressed on in the encroaching doom, with sore feet and images of the Hounds of the Baskervilles becoming more prominent with each step.