Bideford to Westward Ho!

Bideford to Westward Ho! - Monday 4th April 2011

Path Facts - Length: Approx 6.5 miles, Ascent: 430 feet

Woke up early with the noise from the road. Busier in the town today but registering that it was Monday wasn’t immediate. 8am breakfast then checked out to start walking before 9 am. Could be a record.

A few provisions were obtained in Bideford as we didn’t entirely trust the water in the hotel. The path meanders through the suburbs of Bideford for a while. Then after awesome bridge we were clearly in the posh end of town.





There’s a low tide path that goes along the edge of the river which we used for small stretches before arriving at Appledore. From here we could see back to Instow and across to Saunton from the days before.



Not much open in Appledore. Looks like many of the quaint cottages have been bought up as holiday homes which one of the locals gave expression to as follows:



Appledore used to have a thriving ship building industry up to and including 1000 ton dredgers. The list of ships built, particularly around the 1950’s was quite impressive.

Stopped on a bench for a snack. Sunny today but the wind was strong when turning out of Appledore towards the West.



Westward Ho! could be seen at this point but the path takes a 3 mile route around a flat peninsula taking us to the narrowest point near the mouth of the Taw river, a short distance from where we were walking two days earlier.



This was worth resisting the temptation to cut off the corner as its good walking on a barren landscape. On turning back in the direction of Westward Ho! we walked on the beach. Bright sunshine in abundance and super strong wind. We could also see right back to Baggy Point and right out to Hartland Point so this was a good survey of past and future plans.







Arrived at Westward Ho! at about 1pm for a welcome mug of builders tea in the local chippy. Sadly, this wasn’t the much anticipated “Gordon Fly” which was marked on my map but was nonetheless a break from having your face sand-blasted out on the beach.



A brief walk round W Ho! for provisions and general tack before a stop at The Sand Cats tea shop:



Bus back to Barnstaple via Bideford though low on the epic-ometer compared to last time. For that reason, the closing film contains epic Westward Ho! windy beach scenes with exaggerated face pulling which should not be viewed by the faint hearted.