WB 06: A Week in Devon — charles' walk

Progress

Progress has been good this week, and I have hit each scheduled daily endpoint. I have travelled from Exton, Devon to Plymouth, Devon covering 118 miles & 31800 feet.

Hardships

River Erme crossing, which is described as easily waded across up to one hour either side of low tide. Unfortunately on the day I reached it with a neap tide and wind surge it was not possible to cross. This added an extra few miles of walking inland to get to the first bridge, and meant I didn't reach the scheduled point for that day.

Other than the general muddiness, some wind and a bit of fatigue no specific other hardships.

General

Fortunate Ferries

Down this way there are many rivers that don't really have a pedestrian way across/around them other than with summer ferries. There were 2 particular ones this week, that only had summer ferries, that did not have great (if any) pedestrian route around them. The first of these was the River Avon at Bantham, where based on a tip off at Hope Cove I managed to find Swanny who very kindly took me across in his rib even though it was raining. The second was the crossing from Newton Ferrers, where I got even luckier as The Carters were just taking there boat to the other side and kindly allowed me to join. Both these crossings were very short, and stopped me having to walk up moderately busy roads to get to the other side.

Guests

This week my Dad joined the walk for a day. It required a little admin as I didn't think he would enjoy doing 20 miles of South West Coast Path, but turned out to be a great sunny day. He managed to fit in a full english breakfast, meet me for tea mid morning, have a couple of pints in a remote pub, join for 6 miles at the end of the day, before staying in a pub.

The more guests the merrier, and so far almost all the visitors have had sun.

Weather

I can't complain about the weather this week, as though there was one terrible day there were also several really nice sunny days. So for this time of the year, above average weather.

Late Blog

This blog is very late, almost a week, just due to running out of time.

Daily Diary

Please click links below to find out more detail about each specific day:

Thank You

Specific thank yous:

McCrackens, Paignton – thank you for putting me up for the night and cooking me a lovely meal.

Victoria Inn, Salcombe – thank you for providing a lovely complimentary room for the night.

Dartmoor Union, Holbeton – thank you for letting me pitch in your garden.

Byer's Home, Jennycliff – thank you for putting me up for my rest day, as well as feeding me so much lovely food and cleaning my boots amongst many other things.

Also thank you to everyone who donated last week, hopefully we can reach £5000 this week, and all the kind messages that I received.

The walk can be followed on Facebook and Instagram and any donations are greatly appreciated.