Day 9

 I awoke to an overcast but dry day. Whilst it did rain quite a lot yesterday evening and overnight, I don’t think it was as bad as forecast! 

After a cooked breakfast, I set off, only to stop 50m down the road at the village cafe. No I wasn’t having a second breakfast, but I got them to make me up a sandwich for lunch. 

There was a steep climb out of  Withypool onto the moor. I then made a mistake, following GPS and OS maps, rather than the obvious path. This meant that I had a bog to cross and got quite wet in the process! 

When I eventually rejoined the path, it was a lovely walk to Simonsbath. It mostly followed the River Barle valley, with some lovely views. 

I reached Simonsbath just after midday and made my way to the Exmoor Forest Inn, for some liquid refreshment, but just my luck, it was shut on a Tuesday. 


There was another stiff climb out of the village onto Dure Down, which at 480m was the highest point of the day. I stopped to eat my sandwich at the top and made the decision to continue on to Lynmouth. 

I figured that it was downhill all the way now…..how wrong I was! 

 Initially, I was able to make good progress and eventually got my first view of the sea. 

That gave me the impetus to stick some music on my headphones and continue the descent off the moor, singing loudly to myself!

Eventually, I came down off the moor sufficiently to reach the first river valley. 

I’m nearly there, I thought.

 Oh no, this path wasn’t going to let me finish that easily. There were two brutal climbs still to do, after which I was attacked by numerous horse flies, attracted by the sweat pouring off my face! 

There then followed an incredibly steep descent into Lynmouth, that had me sweating again, through having to use all my leg muscles to slow me and the heavy pack down! 

After what seemed like ages, I finally made it to Lynmouth harbour, where the Two Moors Way, officially ends. 



After the obligatory selfie, I walked along the sea defences to the shoreline and chucked the pebble into the sea, that I picked up at Wembury.


So that’s it, The Devon Coast to Coast hike complete. It’s been tough, but thoroughly enjoyable, despite the unseasonable weather! 

I will be putting some videos onto YouTube in the coming weeks ( after editing) so if anyone is interested, keep an eye out on my YouTube channel Andy’s Hikes. 

Addendum:

I have been out for a couple of beers in Lynmouth. I expected to bump into a few salty sea dogs, but instead bumped into a load of sheep shearers of various nationalities, playing every drinking game you could think of. Needless to say I didn’t join in at my age, but it was quite amusing to watch! I also watched the Spain v France game, which was far more entertaining than any of the sh*te I’ve seen England play! 

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