It took about 1hour to drive from Ilfracombe to Porlock Weir, a place that had many memories for David and Fiona. Fiona's parents retired to Minehead so there had been many visits to Porlock Weir over the years, and to Porlock itself, where they they also had friends who ran the Lorna Doone Hotel. Also David's parents had met in 1937 at the CHA property on the outskirts of Porlock.
The 3 cottages on the harbour at Porlock have been a favourite subject for many paintings over the years, but this time we caught a glimpse of them from the SWCP as it leaves from the back of the hotel ...
It was soon apparent how different the terrain would be compared to South Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. In general it seems more rugged and certainly as far as the walk to Lynmouth was concerned, more wooded. In fact most of the early part of the walk was along wooded paths with only glimpses of the sea along the way.
We soon arrived at the Worthy Toll House ...
... where the path through the smaller arch leads along the coast to St Beuno's Church at Culbone. It is one of the smallest churches in England seating just 30 people but still holds regular monthly services. The Leper's Squint window in the side of the church is where in the 16th century people from the Leper colony in the nearby woods would watch the services. It was time well spent in the peace of the church and the surrounding grave yard.
The path continued along the wooded coastline, looking magnificent with all the autumn colours, passing several waterfalls ...
... and the Glenthorne Estate until, leaving the trees behind, climbed towards Foreland Point with magnificent views in the afternoon sunshine ...
It was about here that DavidA gave DavidL the first of his many admonishments during the week for not drinking enough water!, quite rightly pointing out that it is advisable to keep hydrated BEFORE feeling thirsty.
We were now approaching Lynmouth seen here from Countisbury Hill ...
... before descending steeply to be greeted by Fiona at ground level ...
We were surprised that we had seen so few people during the day considering it was a Sunday. DavidL was pleased that his back, which he had hurt the week before the walk, caused him no problems, so an excellent start to the week with 13.07 miles under our belts.