Day 2 Noss Mayo to Bigbury-on-Sea 12

Good Morning Sheep

Another bright sunny day but still that cold wind blowing. An easy start to the walk following an old carriage drive along the cliff top, nice and wide so you didn't have to look where you were putting your feet for a change. After Stoke Beach the path became more undulating on the way to today's river crossing.

No ferries this time. The only way to cross the River Erme is by wading across an hour either side of low tide or walking round, an extra 8 miles. Now you might think that we were lucky to get there at the right time but it was all in Margaret's plan. She had seen that HF were walking the same part of the coast path as us and she expected them to know when it would be safe to cross the river so we timed our trip to coincide with there's! A cunning plan. We never saw the HF group so concluded that it must have been cancelled for lack of interest. Oh and yes we did have a tide table as well just to make sure.
The water wasn't very deep and was quite cooling on the feet. We had our lunch on the other side.
On reaching Challaborough we split up as Margaret really wanted to walk across to Burgh Island that is joined by a causeway at low tide to Bigbury-on-Sea and it was still visible. I had a drink at the pub while Margaret pressed on and got part way across before having to turn back as she didn't want to get stranded on the island.
Our B&B 'Summer Winds' was delightful and directly opposite Burgh Island.

Burgh Island

Agatha Christie spent some time on Burgh Island and it was the inspiration for two of her novels.

We had to walk a short way back to Challaborough to get something to eat and had very good fish and chips and a play on the beach before bed time.

Day 1 Plymouth to Noss Mayo 13

 The weather was dry, sunny periods but a bit cool and breezy (woolly hat weather). time to take a few photos of Plymouth waterfront before the ferry was due.

We crossed over the River Plym to Mount Batten on the ferry.

The path was relatively easy today along the eastern edge of Plymouth Sound, through woods and on to Wembury for a lunch stop at The Old Mill Cafe (National Trust)

'A' party has to climb trees!

424 miles done, 209 miles to go

Our second ferry of the day was across the River Yealm from Warren Point to Noss Mayo. A very beautiful and peaceful part of the coast path journey.

About another two miles and we reached our destination for the night, Worswell Barton Farmhouse. A traditional rambling farmhouse where we were treated to two separate rooms for the night and the sound of sheep from our bedroom windows.

Plymouth 28 April 2018

The train journey back to Plymouth was our first problem.
There was engineering work on the line and we had to take a bus replacement between Birmingham New Street and Gloucester, All seemed to be going well but traffic congestion meant that we arrived at Gloucester station two minutes after our schedule train for Plymouth had departed. As the train to Plymouth was an hourly service we arrived at Plymouth station an hour later than intended and had to wait ages for a taxi. In fact we could probably have walked to the B&B in the time we waited but the suitcase wheels might have protested!
We have claimed a refund from Cross Country trains (watch this space!)
The B&B, Mariners Guest House was very clean and comfortable and we received a warm welcome on arrival. Much better than the one we stayed in last time.

We had a couple of miles of coast path to do between the Cremyll Ferry and the Mayflower Steps but first paid a call to Wetherspoons in the Barbican area 'Gog and Magog' which was absolutely heaving but we were served quite quickly thankfully.

Plymouth Hoe

Francis Drake

Mayflower Steps

Getting ready for Brexit!