Westward Ho! to Clovelly, 18km + 2km to accom, 913 metres of climbing

‘Walking outside in the fresh air is better than trudging around inside your brain’

We were so happy to be underway at last. A full English breakfast at The Village Inn and then we picked up some food for the day from the local co-op. After getting a local guy on the Esplanade to take our photo we made our escape from Westward Ho! past some bathing huts and holiday chalets along the path of a disused railway. We were almost lulled into a false sense of confidence.

The grassy path climbed up onto undulating cliffs above a pebbly beach. There were steep descents into substantial valleys (coombes) and we had several testing climbs to the cliff tops again. The cliffs themselves are very crumbly and signs warned us not to get near the edge. This continued for the first half of the day, strenuous walking out in the open.

For the second half of the day the path changed from a cliff top clamber to a woodland walk. This was quite beautiful with some huge beech trees and gigantic rhododendron bushes. The ground was covered in Blue Bells, sometimes whole meadows of them. The trees would give welcome shade on a sunny day but today they kept us dry. Leaving Westward Ho! it had been overcast but dry with no wind. By midmorning a sea mist had rolled in we were getting wet in light drizzle.

For the last 5 km into Clovelly the path joined ‘Hobby Drive’ a 19^th century ‘bridleway’ that snaked its way along the cliff side. A wide path surrounded by trees and at a nice gradient.

Clovelly is one of the loveliest villages on the entire South West Coast Path. Four hundred feet of cobbled street rolling down a narrow cleft in the coastline to a tiny harbour, lined on either side by wonderfully preserved cottages.  The gradient of the main street (named Up-a-Long and Down-a-Long) is enough to prevent traffic from using it. Instead goods are brought in by sled from the top and rubbish is taken to the bottom and removed by boat. There is a road linking the harbour at the bottom with the car park at the top which is used by Land Rovers to shuttle the elderly and the lazy.

Clovelly is actually privately owned. The Hamlyn family acquired the fishing village as part of their purchase of the entire Clovelly Estate in 1738.

We passed many people on the path today and got to stop and chat with a few of them. Mostly locals and one guy who was on day 5 of a walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats. He expected to finish in late July.

Going from Clovelly to our accommodation, our route notes had us taking a short cut crossing two paddocks. In the second paddock twenty cows took offence at our invasion of their territory and ran to surround us. We beat a hasty retreat and walked the long way around on the road. Every year in the UK several people get trampled to death by herds of cows. Not us this time.

Tonight we are staying at East Dyke Farm. This is a working farm and we might get some lessons from the owners on how to handle cows. It is a bit upmarket for us and is very, very comfortable. We had a late lunch/early dinner at The Cottage Tearooms in Clovelly and for supper ate the food we had purchased at the co-op.

Today was the same distance as we often walk – home to the Waikanae cinema and back, but today we climbed up and down 500+ metres rather than about 10. We did it okay but it will be interesting to see how our legs and knees feel in the morning.