Minehead to Barnstaple

24th-28th September 2003

Highlights:
Views of South Wales and the Severn Bridges, Bossington village, Myrtle Bed & Big Breakfast, Sisters Fountain, Coddow Combe, Valley of the Rocks, the sign at Lee Abbey Hotel, Great Hangman, Morte Point, finding a slow worm, Croyde Bay beach

Introduction.

It had been a year since Jim and I had walked the coast path for the first time between Poole and Weymouth. We'd instantly fallen in love with it and vowed to return. Now, a year on we had our chance. Our initial plan was to continue from where we'd left off and maybe walk Weymouth to Exmouth.

A couple of factors conspired against this plan. Firstly, the excellent Aurum Press trail guides described the route in the opposite direction, running from Minehead to Poole. We wanted to get these guides; they featured the OS 1:25,000 scale maps that we needed, but would be cheaper, more informative and far less cumbersome than getting the maps themselves. It would be much more difficult to follow the guides backwards, and we'd probably miss out on some interesting features in the text of the books. The only problem was that we’d got used to walking with the sea on our left; would we get all confused and lost with it on our right instead?

The decisive factor though was the offer of a free lift to Minehead. It was our parents' wedding anniversary, and they'd decided to return to their honeymoon hotel in Lynton. As they would have to pass through Minehead on the way, it seemed churlish to turn down their offer. So, Minehead to Barnstaple it was then…