I’m not too sure how to describe the next two days… it was two days of tarmac bashing, hard on both feet and moral. The first of the two days has little to commend it: we follow the River Taw Estuary into Barnstaple, cross the Taw and promptly do a ‘U turn’ along the other side of the estuary, finishing up at Instow. Mudflats, sand and tide and a very rewarding pint or two in Instow watching the tide slowly creep forward.

Forever closer, the following day started with our lunch stop less than 500m as the crow flies, if only that was how far it was on foot! We could take the ferry, but that might be considered cheating, my head said so, but my feet were of a different opinion. Not sure how my head won the argument…

Useless information – Bideford Long Bridge is 203m long has 24 arches and is Grade I Listed… I hope the river is aware of its Grade I listing.

The walk, similar to yesterday’s along the Tarka Trail/SWCP until at last we bade farewell to the Tarka Trail and crossed the Bideford Long Bridge. We followed the Torridge Estuary and as yesterday the river crossing saw us walking back the way we came, along the West Bank through Bideford and on to Appledore – home to Hocking’s Ice Cream. It’s also where the bow sections of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth along with parts of its flight deck are being constructed (I must be short of things to write about if I’m writing so much useless and irrelevant information). A beautiful village though and one that saw us lingering watching the tide ebb leaving the many small boats high and dry.

‘A blister is a small pocket of body fluid (lymph, serum, plasma, blood, or pus) within the upper layers of the skin, typically caused by forceful rubbing (friction), burning, freezing, chemical exposure or infection. Most blisters are filled with a clear fluid, either serum or plasma’.

What that definition doesn’t explain is how painful they are. Andrew, unfortunately, has a number on the ball of his foot caused, I believe, by ‘forceful rubbing’. He decides to shorten the walk slightly by missing off a fairly irrelevant section around Northam Burrows Country Park, a site of special scientific interest or to us SWCP veterans a peninsula that lengthens the walk by approximately 4 km for no apparent reason! However, it was a great end to a rather flat day, in both its meanings. We walked toward Westward Ho! following its long beautiful sandy beach. Bursting with holiday makers, surfers, kite surfers, body boarders, swimmers and just people enjoying themselves.

How do I describe Westward Ho! and why has it got an exclamation mark at the end of its name? There is only one other place in the world that has an exclamation mark after its name. It’s all because the town is named after a book of the same name. Back to ‘How do I describe Westward Ho!’ A west coast version of Skegness – that actually shows it in a better light than I intend. It is a seaside resort with ‘Kiss me Quick’ hats, candy floss, fish and chips and thieving sea gulls. Popular, you bet! It must be me and my ever-increasing age, where peace and tranquillity are my main aims in life. There is, however, one peculiarity: a derelict house, called Seafield House, at the most southern part of the town built in 1885 as a summer house, with unrivalled views of the Devon coast. I mention it only because it stuck out like a sore thumb, a thing of beauty on the edge of hell! A little harsh, maybe, on Westward Ho! But it’s not a place I will remember with fondness.

Although we didn’t finish at a place that all good walks should, we did end up in the same pub at Instow that we frequented at the end of yesterday’s walk, practising my retirement job… making sure that the tide was in full flow, a fairly straight forward untaxing job and like me, it was.