Today was the start of the final 2 days of tough walking, both in terms of distance and height gain. Starting at Bantham on the other side of the River Avon from Bigbury the weather was extremely windy. We had to delay our start to let the worst of the rain blow through but it was still in the air and the wind was making the sea very rough.
The windy conditions continued to blow spray off the sea as we passed Thurlestone golf course with no evidence of golfers venturing out! Here again there was a connection to Justine's father as the prestigious Thurlestone Hotel was commandeered in 1941 by the Royal Marines for officer training. Apparently in 1940 the hotel had been used by the Raven's Croft Girls School from Eastbourne but when the Marines arrived the girls were moved to the Cottage Hotel at Hope Cove but that was then taken over by the RAF to station the fighter pilots flying spitfires and hurricanes from the airfield at Bolt Head. The girls were finally moved permanently to North Milton in North Devon!
At South Milton Ley Nature Reserve there is the longest footbridge on the SWCP ...
... and soon after alongside a NT car park there are toilets and an excellent seasonal cafe where we stopped for morning coffee. The cafe was well used and offered an extensive range of food and drink and gave us a welcome restpite from the winds which mercifully were now starting to die down.
Hope Cove is quite extensive with Outer Hope followed by Inner Hope where there was an enterprising eatery where people could get together in futuristic pods, presumably introduced during the Covid outbreak.
We then had to get a wiggle on as we had agreed to meet Fiona at the Ocean Restaurant and Hotel at Bolberry Down. David A had planned to stop here and have lunch with Fiona while Justine and I pushed on to Salcombe which was still 5.8miles away with many ups and downs past Bolt Head and Sharp Tor. This is a quite remote but nevertheless beautiful stretch of the coast and the view of the estuary towards Salcombe from Sharp Tor was impressive.
However, we shouldn't have seen this view as the actual SWCP climbs around the base of Sharp Tor along Courtenay Walk. Walking down from the Tor though we ended up in the same area near the NT Overbecks property and then on to South Sands where an impressive hotel and spa has been built with it's own ferry service into Salcombe (tempting).
We thought at this point that we were just a hop step and a jump from Salcombe but we were deceiving ourselves as it took us the best part of another hour of tedious walking up and down on Cliff Road through North Sands before we reached the Whitestrand Quay car park where Fiona and David A had managed to park but not managed to fathom out yet another card and App only payment system. Fiona had bought time with her Blue Badge but fortunately Justine was already registered with this App and was able to quickly pay so that we could pop over the road to the Victoria Inn for a well earned drink before returning to Modbury.