Log No 250. Wed 19th Feb 2014 - Porlock to Lynton, 14 miles (3799 miles walked)

The A39 road between Minehead and Lynton has some very steep sections, Porlock Hill is 1 in 4 with a 1 in 3 hairpin bend while the straight down into Lynmouth is 1 in 5 with an escape road.

I had driven the camper up Porlock Hill 8 years ago and it only just managed to get up, I wasn't taking any chances on it not getting up this time so I had driven round to Lynton by the B roads over Exmoor. These only had 1 in 6 gradients.

With road closures at Lynmouth it was taking in excess of 3 hours to get from Lynton to Porlock on public transport.

The only feasible way for us was to leave the camper in Lynton and get a taxi back to Porlock, it cost £20 but it did mean we were able to start walking by 09.45.

Porlock had a phone signal so I finally managed to update the website while walking along the road to Porlock Weir.

From Porlock Weir it was a delightful stroll through mainly deciduous woodland.

We more or less had the woods to ourselves, the only people we met were looking round Culbone Church.

It was mostly cloudy with the odd spells of very light rain and sunshine but none of it affected us sheltered in the trees.

The footpath was good and dry but there were a few steep sections at the stream crossings to make sure we didn't have it too easy.

The next 3 miles to Foreland Point were through a mix of Rhododendron, shrubs and trees.

The weather and the sea were quite calm and it was very peaceful with the only noises coming from the birds and the sea rippling on the pebbles.

The Coastal Path cut off the top of the headland and followed the contours round to Countisbury Church before the descent to Lynmouth and Lynton.

West Lyn River and East Lyn River meet and flow into Lynmouth Bay, both these rivers have very steep sides.

Lynmouth is on the East Lyn River and has seen serious flooding in the past while Lynton is built up on the side of the hill on the west side of West Lyn River.

A Cliff Railway runs down the steep hill to Lynmouth but we took the long way round on the footpath which zig-zagged up the hill.

The path took half an hour to get to the top and we eventually got back to the camper at 15.45, it had taken us 6 hours to do the 14 miles but it was a very enjoyable walk.