Sunday 31 May 2926

Day 36 of walking
Plymouth to Wembury
Distance: 16.11
Total distance: 715.72
Climbing: 525 m
Total climb: 23,827 m

Another relatively gentle and short day from Royal William Yard in Plymouth to Wembury Village. Breakfast in Bistrot Pierre where we ate dinner last night. Breakfast was slightly different in that you could have a hot drink (tea, coffee), cold drink (juice) and one item from the Menu Complet. Barbara chose Eggs Benedict: the usual poached eggs with ham and hollandaise sauce on a toasted muffin.  I had a Garden Breakfast: grilled tomato, avocado, field mushroom, spinach, potatoes, baked beans, poached eggs on a very thin granary toast. Without the mushrooms.

The official Coast Path route goes through Royal William Yard so we were able to step out the door and join it. It is a 5 kilometre walk from there to the Plymouth/Mount Batten Ferry, through the Yard and an older heritage part of Plymouth, past the vast vehicle ferry terminal where the ferries go to France among other places, and then up over The Hoe.

The Hoe is a green expanse on a hill separating the modern-day city of Plymouth from the sea. it is best known for a game of bowls played by Francis Drake in 1588. There is also the red and white striped lighthouse, Smeaton’s Tower.  Originally this was the third lighthouse to be put on Eddystone Rocks near Rame Head. It was dismantled in 1882 and just the top portion erected on The Hoe. Today, Sunday, The Hoe was host to a Ferris wheel and a major running event. The ‘Race for Life’ a fund raising event for Cancer Research UK, with 5k and 10k events. It is over a hilly (over 600m of climbing) course on and around the Hoe. It seemed a big event with most people decked out in pink and ages from about 5 to 85. Music, merchandise and much more.

Below The Hoe is the lovely Tinside Lido, a saltwater pool built out over the rocks. Alas for us it was too early in the day for a swim. In the same area as our ferry are The Mayflower Steps. Every American and most other tourists know this is where The Pilgrim Fathers set sail in 1620 to settle in Massachusetts America. The steps are not original and it is not known exactly where they cast off but there are steps, a portico and a platform hanging out over the water, built in 1934. Of more interest to us was a plaque in the pavement commemorating ‘The Tory 1839’. This is where The New Zealand Company barque set sail for Port Nicholson, now Te Whanganui-a-Tara, also known as Wellington, to start the settlement of New Zealand. Barbara has been to Plymouth 3 times, and I twice, so we didn’t go the The Barbican or the gin factory or any of the other attractions.

A ferry was waiting for us at the quay and we were the only passengers for the 5 minute, £3 each, trip across the River Plym. There were two crewmen on board, one a young Kiwi guy in the UK on a 3 year work permit. He picked our accents immediately. Once out of Plymouth and Mount Batten the rest of the day is a gentle rustic ramble through the countryside. Plymouth is always looming out over the water on your right but eventually gets left behind. Apart from a couple of holiday parks it is a quiet stretch through woods and meadows. There were a couple of small beaches at Bovisand and Heybrook but they were rocky, exposed to the wind and few people were swimming.

The distances on the signage are generally believable but not today. Not far out of Mount Batten was a large blue marker saying it was 175½ miles to Poole. We walked a further 9 kilometres and a standard timber sign said it was now 206 miles to Poole. Go figure!

By about 1pm we had reached Wembury and stopped at the beach to have our lunch. There is a church, café, toilets, bus stop and marine centre at the beach. It was protected from the wind and though there were a fair number on the beach, only about 6 were in the water, all in wet suits and playing on boogie boards in the surf. I decide to have a swim and it wasn’t too bad. A bit boisterous in the surf but not freezing cold.

Our accommodation is a B & B in Wembury Village, about a kilometre inland and up a hill of course. It is a standard family house in the middle of suburbia converted to a B & B. The only place to get an evening meal was ‘The Odd Wheel’, a pub a further kilometre inland up a hill. Barbara rang them to see it we could get a table for tonight but they were fully booked. It was after 3.30 and the café at the beach closed at 4 and we didn’t fancy rushing back down to the beach and then all the way up again. The very kind man who runs the B & B said he would drive us to the small general store a bit further inland than the pub, and if we got a pizza or something he would heat it for us. We accepted the ride up and said we would just buy something cold and walk back. So some simple food in our room tonight. No pics.

Tomorrow will be a much more interesting day.