SWCP Day 24 – 14 Sept 2018

Hartland (via Hartland Quay) – Elmscott

Today was something of a day before the storm.

All I had to do is retrace my steps from the inland town of Hartland – where I made the infamous decision to post away my camp gear last year – back to the wild and woolly smugglers’ outpost of Hartland Quay. Then scramble about 4 km south along the swcp to the Elmscott YHA bunkhouse.

Covering this little bit of the path today would hopefully take a bit of the brunt off tomorrow’s efforts because the 25 km hike between Hartland Quay and Bude is considered the most difficult stretch of the entire swcp. Shall I quote the swcp Association guide book for you?…

…”this is probably the most arduous of all days in the suggested itinerary. It is necessary to cross ten river valleys to complete the length, all of them steep and deep”…

Anyway, back to today…

Thank goodness I didn’t hustle to catch the early bus through to Hartland. Blustery drizzle continued through till about noon while I was chugging across the countryside in far too big a double-decker bus for those tiny Devonshire lanes.

A quick picnic at Hartland, and I was strapping on The Beast for our first 2018 co-walk. Unfortunately, fond memories of years past don’t really help you carry anything, and that was definitely the case today. Crazy me had also decided to haul along a delicious dinner of salad, carrot and coriander soup, and enough nuts (and other assorted trail mix) to please a squadron of squirrels. My reasonable 14 kg load felt more like 20 kg. It was okay though – today would be a relatively easy hike.

This was, quite literally, a trip down memory lane. I past the walled gardens and impressive house at Hartland Estate, wound through the sweet little wiggle the road does around the grey stone steepled church at Stoke, and made a bee line for the blustery point at Hartland Quay where I got someone to take a happy snap of me and The Beast.

At this point I had three hours to get to the YHA before it opened, so the sensible thing, I told myself, would be to rest a while at the hotel.

One pint of ale later…

I was wavering my way up the rough cliff-side stairs of the swcp. Maybe that pint wasn’t such a great idea after all! Anyhoo…

…suffice to say, I lived to tell the tale.

The hour and a half I toodled along was truly fabulous. There were impressive vistas, and waterfalls, and sweet valleys that Hobbits would be pleased to inhabit, and just one down-up to tackle, and a mushroom hunter on a bicycle, and friendly cows, and a welcoming YHA built in an old village school room at the other end.