Challacombe to Simonsbath

10 May 2010 - Challacombe to Simonsbath

Distance - 7.8 miles

Weather - Dry but cold

We stayed at - Simonsbath House Hotel, Simonsbath, Near Minehead, Somerset, TA24 7SH Cost - £157 (DB&B)

Today's walk was quite short, as otherwise, lack of accommodation would have forced a 21 mile walk yesterday. It was also quite overcast when we left Twitchen Farm and I was a bit worried that today wouldn't be enjoyable, but I needn't have been. 

The first part of the walk was on the road and although the views were good, the walk itself wasn't that great. We turned off the road just after Breakneck Hole and walked up through the moorland across Broad Mead to Wood Barrow Gate. There were lots of interesting shaped trees, sculpted by the wind and lots of skylarks. Our surroundings were very beautiful, if bleak, and I was glad we were walking this on a dry day.

Just past Wood Barrow we turned onto the Tarka Trail and walked past Pinkery Pond, which looked like a small reservoir. There was a very cold wind blowing across the moor and we saw a small party of walkers sheltering against the bank of Pinkery Pond enjoying a Thermos flask of tea. We hadn't brought any refreshments with us (other than water) on account of having had a very nice cooked breakfast at our B&B and it being a short day's walking. A little further on we passed by Chains Barrow, topped by a trig point, which we thought a little odd; however, it turned out to be only the first one we found like this.

From the top of Chains Barrow there was a great view over to the sea and we were reminded we could have continued walking on the SWCP to Minehead for our LEJOG; however, Alistair & I chose to walk across Exmoor instead.

A little later we came to Exe Head, which is the source of the River Exe. As you can see from the picture, it was nothing spectacular, just like a muddy puddle, giving few clues as to what it would become at Exmouth. The weather really started to improve by the time we got to the B3223 near Prayway Head. We had a choice here of either walking down the road into Simonsbath or taking the Two Moors Way - we chose the latter. Suddenly the muted greys, fawns and olives of the moor were replaced by the vibrant greens of new grass and beech forests. It was a great bit of footpath, that we really enjoyed walking. 

We reached the pub at Simonsbath and sat outside to enjoy a cream tea, except they had run out of cream teas, so we had to make do with a toasted teacake instead. We had been worried that perhaps we would be a bit too scruffy for the Simonsbath House Hotel, but the staff were really lovely there and even upgraded us to a really great room with a four poster bed! So all in all my fears about not enjoying the day were totally unrealised.