Day 38  of Round Britain's Coast by tandem

 

 Horns Cross to Hartland

 

Date: Saturday 22^nd May 2010   Distance: 22.03  Miles

 

The day starts with a lovely big breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 3 bacon, hash brown, mushroom and tomato. Off out into the sunshine and sun cream is required. There were masses of flowers in the hedgerows- bluebells, snow in summer, primroses, speedwell and many more.

 

You can really see how the wind blows. The tops of the trees are all shaped making sharp edges. There were oak trees with tiny leaves and Pat saw a May bug. There were many buzzing insects in the trees but we didn’t identify them, and didn’t spend too long looking !

 

We arrived at Clovelly and parked the tandem at the top of the hill while we walked down the cobbled lanes like everyone else. It felt harder going down than going up. The steep main street descends to the pier 120 metres and it is wheeled traffic free. It is a haunt for artists with its quaint wattle and daub cottages set on the rocky outcrop. We had tea at the café, the staff weren’t very friendly there- probably too many tourists. Interestingly the locals carry all their supplies down on sledges. We didn’t see any donkeys!

 

 

We stopped at the New Inn to get a packed lunch as the next miles were very empty of facilities. They didn’t mind substituting fruit instead of chocolate. Pat couldn’t resist the chocolate bread & butter pudding. Well it was 11:45 and so we also made time for a beer! “Very friendly, very quick service,” Pat kept telling people as we were going up the steps and they were going down.

 

Then it was up to Hartland point – a big radar station for air traffic control and a lighthouse. The café with no toilets was inconvenient but perhaps they have one now. The next village Stoke had nice clean toilets but we recommend hand gel as many don’t provide soap. There was a most unusual gate at the church at Stoke, it rotates about a pivot in the centre, then has a weight to return it to closed. It is a lovely church, with  2^nd highest church tower in England. There were stone steps up to a museum.

 

Next it was onto Hartland Quay, the most beautiful place on this 3 day outing. The sea is wild with lots of rocks, the map showed 11 ship wrecks. The sea was almost turquoise, it was a very steep descent and climb out, Lundy was very clearly seen. The beer at the pub at the bottom was good, and very welcome on a hot day. There we met some people from the wedding that made getting our accommodation difficult.

 

It was onwards to the Anchor Inn where we were staying the night. Why were we the only guests when there was a big wedding down the road, and why was the pub empty when the other pubs were thriving? Well more about that tomorrow.