Synopsis: A 2.500 year old hill fort, home of Sir Walter Raleigh, and a pebble heath land. The latter being how Woodbury Common is described on the various information boards I passed today.
Walk! Devon
This walk is route 16 from the book Walk! Devon. This is a favourite book of mine, as the walks are very well written up, easy to follow, and each is provided with Ordnance Survey 1/25,000 maps. All the walks are ‘GPS Enabled’, by which is meant that each has a table of waypoint grid references that can be loaded to a GPS unit to facilitate easy navigation. To see other walks from this book that I have completed, use the link under Tags to the right.
It was a bit of a challenge making it by car to the start point, although it is less than 10 miles from home. My old banger was overheating and I felt I was lucky to make it to the start. More trouble ahead for next week, but that could wait for now.
There was quite a lot of early morning mist about, as forecast, but this was already starting to burn off as I set out on my walk a little after 10am. Soon into the walk I was afforded excellent views out over the Exe Estuary.
Seagull heaven!I think the quarrying must have been extended since the book was compiled as I couldn’t follow exactly the route in the book. There were large lakes to be seen as I crossed through the strange landscape of the quarry workings. Seagulls seemed unperturbed by their strange surrounding and even found the lakes rather accommodating, judging by the numbers of them.
There were several fishermen out with their tackle on Squabmoor Reservoir. It never ceases me how much equipment it takes to catch a few minnows. They’re obviously very crafty little buggers; the minnows that is!
Babes!
Pigs as far as the eye could see, is what one section of the walk felt like. Certainly some intensive pig farming going on. The little ‘babes’ weren’t as hemmed in as their mothers, as they were able to duck under the electrified wires. The were dashing out onto the track in front of me and then looking a little unnerved as I approached and dashing back to the safety of mum. They would then come back for another look, their curiosity once again getting the better of them.
The walk took me by Hayes Barton, the birthplace and home of Sir Walter Raleigh, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, beheaded by James I. Well, I suppose you can’t win them all! I guess the old cloak and the rain puddle trick didn’t go down so well with James. Stupidly, despite walking right past Hayes Barton, I failed to get a good shot of it, so you'll have to make do with this linked page.
I must be getting walk fit again, as I didn’t feel so exhausted by this walk as others I’ve done this year. I did take note that there were a lot of mountain bikers about, and I could see the attraction. I really must compile a little circuit of my own some time.
P.S. And yes, this was to prove to be the final outing of my Renault 19 Biarritz. I suppose the smoke pouring from the exhaust was a telltale sign that things were not all correct. Still, the car was 16 years old, 13 years of which I had owned it, so I can hardly complain. A couple of weeks after this walk I did receive a cheque for £40 in the post form my garage, the princely sum that my car was worth. I guess Stage Coach will be seeing more of me in the months ahead.
Walk Statistics:
Total Distance: 9.9 miles
Moving Time: 3hrs 46min
Stopped Time: 27min
Total Ascent: 338 metres
Maximum Elevation: 181 metres
Buses: None – just a beat up old car!
