Having ended the walk at the sea pool in Bude on our last visit, parking in the Summerleaze car park, we started this walk by parking in the Crescent car park from where we crossed the canal and walked along Breakwater Road on the south side of the canal.
The first deviation from the SWCP booklet and map was that the octagonal Compass point lookout was just a fenced off pile of rubble awaiting what we believed would be a complete rebuild.
The rest of the walk to Widemouth Bay was straightforward noting the well signposted path diversion on to the main road at Upton. The instructions seemed to indicate that the Widemouth Bay Cafe was at the far end of the bay but in fact it was the first cafe we came to and where we met Fiona again for a refreshment break. Being a Sunday it was a very busy car park, cafe and beach. Unfortunately it wasn't very pleasurable to stop for too long as the dog poo bins had been placed alongside the outside seating area providing an unsavoury smell whenever the lid was raised!
Setting off again, but without David A, we came to the other car park at the far end of the bay where there was also another much smaller cafe/kiosk. Hereon there were constant good views back to Widemouth Bay, Bude and GCHQ installation at Morwenstow.
There then followed a tedious up and down stretch of road towards Millook, leaving the road at Bridwell Point before descending to Millook Water, and then back up on the steep road which eventually we left behind to reach a welcome bench at Conclave directly in front of a very attractive relatively new house with seemingly beautiful remote views over the sea, although at the front it must almost back on to the unseen road.
The walk was now mainly in woodland and fields before reaching the Dizzard Point trig point where, having taken in the views back to Bude again, we turned around to find there were now about 20 cows in the field and on further investigation we found at least 20 more making there way up from sheltered trees on the edge of the cliff! With no farm visible in the immediate vicinity we could could only surmise that they were sheltering from the early afternoon sun?
The curved bench seat on Chapman point was interesting and attractive, even if the occupant was looking a bit overdone from the very warm day ...
... followed by a steep and rough series of zigzag steps down with a short white arrow signed alternative near the bottom to avoid the worst of the final descent. Further on the walk down into Cleave Valley was similar but after crossing the footbridge the ascent was a challenge and by now David L was starting to suffer extreme tiredness due to what we subsequently discovered was the virus taking effect and ended up climbing the final steps on all fours as the steps were good but very steep. We were glad that we were doing the walk in the direction of Crackington Haven as to descend the steps in the reverse direction would be like walking off the edge of a cliff into the unknown!
The rest of the walk down to Crackington Haven was OK except that the welcoming sight of the pub seemed never to get any nearer! - the last bit always seems to take longer than you think.