Wed 28th April - Day 12, Bucks Mills to Appledore (13 miles)

It looked like rain today so I started off in my waterproofs. The first hour was through woodland where I saw squirrels and deer footprints, there were still a lot of pheasants about.

It was tough going for the initial 6 miles then it eased off, although it never did rain it was a bitingly cold N wind & I needed to keep my jacket on.

This was an uneventful section, I only met 2 other walkers before arriving at Westward Ho! (the sign posts have the "!" at the end of the name) at 12:00, I had made sandwiches for lunch but decided I needed a pub lunch to warm myself up.

The coastline changed now as I was approaching the mouth of the rivers Taw & Torridge.

The cliffs gave way to the low lying Northam Burrows Country Park, a large flat area of sand & grassy dunes which was protected by a long stretch of pebbles.
Oddly enough, this was named “Pebble Ridge!�, signs here said it was an offence to remove any of the stones from the ridge.

The golf course protected by the pebble ridge was founded in 1864 and is claimed to be the oldest course in England.

The mouth of these rivers was only 1 mile across but I was going to have to walk round both these rivers to get there.

Looking at the map it was tempting to cut off some of the walk and go straight to Bideford from Westward Ho!, if the campsites had been better located I might have done but I stuck to the route and camped at the site just past Appledore, the rain started as soon as I got the tent up!

I had done 13 miles and it was only 15:30 but I couldn’t get to the next site today as it was 15 miles away. I should manage more tomorrow as it looks a flatter trail.

174 miles completed.