9 September 2009 - Hartland Quay to Bude
Distance - 15.5 miles
Weather - Bright & sunny
We stayed at - Edgcumbe Hotel, 19 Summerleaze Crescent, Bude, Cornwall, EX23 8HJ Cost - £76.00
We left the Hartland Quay Hotel on a beautiful, sunny autumn day. The first place of note we reached was the lovely twin-spouted waterfall at Speke's Mill. One of the interesting features of this part of the SWCP is the wealth of small rivers and streams that run over the sides of cliffs into the sea. For the first few days we were really impressed, but after a while they just became standard. As I mentioned earlier, the summer of 2009 had been quite wet and we were to witness later just how forceful these seemingly innocent little streams can get when there has been heavy rain. For now though we continued onto Mansley Cliff, where we walked across a flat grass meadow, which gave no hint as to the fractured cliffs on the seaward side.
At Knap Head we had to follow a zigzag path down to the stream, stepping stones and car park at Welcombe Mouth. It was at this point I usually wished there was a rope slide to the cliffs opposite, because as soon as you reached sea level you knew there was going to be a huge climb back up to the cliffs on the other side.
Along this part of the coast there are several picturesque sea stacks showing off striking zigzag strata, which all seem to be called Gull Rock. I'm guessing this part of the world is a geologist's dream. From here, when we looked back, we could once more see the radome at Hartland Point.
The rest of the day passed without incident with lots of descents down to car parks, toilets and tearooms, then sharp ascents up the other side. The sun was pretty low in the sky by the time we crossed Crooklets Beach and skirted around Flexbury before entering the little town of Bude, via a stone footbridge over the River Neet.
It had been a long day and we took a brief pause on a bench overlooking the sea to punch the postcode of our hotel into Google maps on a phone. We were pleased to find it wasn't that far away at all. When we arrived, we found Edgcumbe Hotel was a charming small hotel with contemporary rooms. Alistair nipped outside to take an arty sunset shot, whilst I just lazed on the bed with a good book, after having a taken a lovely refreshing shower.
We discussed the route of our LEJOG and decided that if you were doing it all in three months you would never include the SWCP as part of the route, as it's very strenuous climbing up and down from cliff top to sea level and back up again. What we don't realise at this point is just how often we'll reflect on that as the fortnight unfolds!
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