Log No 251. Thu 20th Feb 2014 - Lynton to Ilfracombe, 17 miles (3816 miles walked)

With the rain lashing down on the camper at 6 o'clock this morning it was very difficult to get out of bed, looking out of the window even the exmoor ponies were sheltering by the bank round the car park.

We gave serious consideration to having the day off but in the end decided to drive off the moor and down into Lynton to wait for a while.

The rain had eased off and the sky had brightened up a bit so we decided to go for it and set off in full waterproofs at 07.40.

The coastal path out of Lynton was a tarmac path along the steep slopes and in through The Valley of Rocks, with a resident goat population, to the road to Lee Abbey and Woody Bay.

After an hour the day had improved markedly and the waterproofs had to come off.

We left the road and continued through the trees on the footpath.

Out of the trees the footpath followed the contour along the slope, passing the Hollow Brook waterfall and on to Highveer Point.

To get across the River Heddon we had to detour upstream for half a mile to the footbridge.

The descent from Highveer Point was gentle but the climb back up the other side of Heddon's Mouth was steep and once we had regained the height we stopped for an early lunch break.

The path continued to climb to the top of the slopes then contoured round Holdstone Down where we met Simon & Ron who were out for walk and gave us a donation.

Underfoot was quite muddy particularly on the descent to the stream in Sherrycombe and Mick discovered for himself how slippery it was by losing his feet twice.

Climbing up the other side of the stream Mick's knees started to complain and he was forced to slow down.

We reached the highest point of the day, Great Hangman at 318m on Grit Down, then stopped at midday to finish off our lunch.

A heavy shower started just as we finished and it lasted until we had made the descent to Combe Martin.

With Mick not wanting to punish his knees any further today we stayed on the road for the remaining 4 miles to Ilfracombe.

What had looked like being a poor day for walking had, apart from the one shower, turned out to be fine day, albeit with a cold wind.

With a limited bus service back to Lynton (2 buses) we had done the 17 miles quick enough to catch the 14.21 bus to Barnstaple to get back to the camper for 16.45. If we had missed that it would have been 18.45 before we could get back.

It's Mick's last day with me tomorrow so not much longer for his knees to hold out.

We parked just outside Ilfracombe for tonight and there is still no phone signal.