North Devon – By River and Coast

We’d been planning a trip to Exmoor as we’d never really been there but the day dawned, dank, grey and miserable and by the time we’d eaten breakfast there was heavy drizzle falling. Time for a change of plan

We headed to Watersmeet, a series of small waterfalls in a deep wooded valley where the  East Lyn and Hoaroak Water rivers meet – hence the name

I figured down in the depths of the valley and the woods we might get some shelter from the rain and that proved correct

It was pretty dank and dark down there but we enjoyed a nice stroll along one bank and back along the other.

There were some lovely cascades and pools that would have been good for a swim on a more encouraging day

The light was pretty poor though so the photographs didn’t come out too well

We headed into Lynmouth for a spot of lunch (crab salad for me and TJF, cream teas for TBF and TJS). It actually stopped raining and we took a wander about

The longest water powered cliff railway in the UK (possibly the only one!)

And an interesting tower on the harbour wall that made a nice photo subject

We wanted to explore the coast a bit and headed for the Valley of Rocks. I used to love it here when I was a kid. The rocky pinnacles overlooking the coast always seemed so dramatic and exciting (in the days before I discovered mountain walking). We parked up in an utterly miserable spell of heavy drizzle but I spied a bright line on the horizon and we waited for the rain to stop which it duly did

We took an excellent walk around the various features. This is looking back to Rugged Jack

And this is the coastal view from the top of Castle Rock

It looked bright and sunny over south Wales which we hoped was heading our way but it never really arrived (although we’d seen the last of the rain)

Looking back to Castle Rock

There is a walkway that traverses along the seaward side of the rocky ridge and you can climb to the top and scramble along if so inclined

As we’d left TJF in the car we thought we’d better head back and make sure she still had a phone signal to avert any boredom!

The resident goats

And the view of the Valley and the Rocks

We still had a more time to fill so we drove on a mile our so for another walk to a “secret” beach from my Wild guides.

This is Lee Bay where we started from and it proved to be a longer and more strenuous walk than we’d thought

We were heading for this magnificent beach near Crock Point. You had to scramble through an overgrown tunnel through the hedge and descend a slope that had ropes fixed such was the steepness (the book had warned us of this)

It really was steep and near the bottom, even with ropes it felt very loose and exposed so even I decided it was too risky. The photo below shows the ropes but doesn’t really do justice to how steep it was

The views were excellent though and I enjoyed a little bit of adventure to finish the day

When we returned to the campsite there was a Fish and Chip van on site and very good it was too

The sun finally came out and gave us a wonderful sunset

I took a very fine walk around the site and the local fields to enjoy the show

Always good to end a day by the coast with a grand sunset