Woolacombe to Braunton

Our high opinion of Bellacombe (the B&B we were staying in) didn't diminish this morning - Julia served an excellent breakfast. Then we headed back down to Woolacombe to buy provisions for lunch (another village with no obvious baker, so we bought sandwiches in Londis). We didn't leave Woolacombe until about 9.45am, climbing up above the beach to take a path into the dunes. The instructions talked about eventually climbing up to a track - we did this a bit too soon (not surprising - there were many paths through the dunes and it was not clear which one to take!) so ended up on a track used as a car-park, but with superb views back to Woolacombe, forward to Baggy Point and down to hundreds of surfers in the sea. They looked for all the world like black and white birds or seals bobbing up and down in the water, and they only very occasionally got to their feet to surf a wave.

The track climbed still further as it approached Putsborough and joined a brief section of road, which was not particularly pleasant to walk along because of the large number of cars approaching us and then descending to the car-park by the beach (presumably for surfing). But we were soon on Baggy Point, with very easy walking amongst the gorse. There were more people about than on previous days (presumably because it was a Saturday) and as we approached Baggy Point itself we were approached by a large group of children and adults in fancy dress, and a particularly large number of batmen!

After Baggy Point we walked towards the village of Croyde and followed the main path onto the beach, past the toilets, cafe and surf school. Officially, the path crosses the rear of the beach, close to the dunes, but we took the advice of one of the guidebooks and walked on the firmer sand closer to the sea. Once again there were lots of surfers, and as we left the south end of the beach we realised that the surfers at this end appeared to be in a competition of some sort, and were actually quite good. Stopped for lunch at a bench with a fine view to Lundy.

We rounded the corner to views of Saunton Sands, with the sand dunes and nature reserve of Braunton Burrows behind the long sandy beach. We followed a narrow path above the road then, just before the Saunton Sands Hotel (which became something of a landmark for the rest of the holiday) we chose to take an alternative path up onto Saunton Down, rather than walking along the road. This was a good choice - the climb up was steep, but the views from the top were superb and the walking easy, and the descent by Saunton Court was very pretty, with wildflowers everywhere.

We were now less than 2 km from Braunton, but the path takes a long loop around to get there, initially following the length of Braunton Burrows. I didn't particularly enjoy this stretch of the path - I was relieved that we didn't have to walk across the dunes themselves, but we instead followed a path across a rather ordinary golf course and then a track across a Ministry of Defence training area. The MoD weren't there, but we were on a wide stony track which wasn't particularly attractive and seemed to go on for ever. And my legs hurt!

Towards the end of Braunton Burrows we followed the optional spur along a boardwalk through the dunes and down onto the beach at the mouth of the rivers Taw and Torridge. I'm pleased we did this - things suddenly felt much better. We had good views to Instow (which we would reach tomorrow, after walking round the Taw estuary) and also to Appledore and Westward Ho! (to be reached the day after tomorrow, after walking round the Torridge estuary).

We retraced our steps along the board walk then along the track to the car park and the White House beyond, then things got better again! The rest of the journey to Braunton was along a dyke beside the estuary, firstly of the River Taw and then up the side estuary of the River Caen. It was low tide but there were attractive views across the sand and mud, including to the Oil Installation where we would turn off the path tomorrow. We followed the estuary right up to Velator Quay, just before Braunton, and the end of today's walk along the Coast Path.