Friday began with our earliest breakfast yet, as Peter had warned us the night before that his friend (and Tarka Walk booklet collaborator) Carol Coombs would be arriving promptly at 10:30 to pick us up for the day’s walk. For anyone who doesn’t know already, Peter wrote a colorful little booklet last year called Tarka Line Walks, subtitled “22 Self-Guided Walks from the Wayside Stations of North Devon’s Scenic Tarka Line”, which has turned out to be so successful that he’s in the process of getting a second booklet published!
The Tarka Line is a little railroad line through the region, and the walks all begin and/or end near one of the stations. So, today we got to experience one of the new walks with the author himself, along with his friend Carol, her two dogs and Peter’s lab Scrumpy. It was another beautiful hot sunny day, and the walk took us down lovely little country lanes lined with tall wildflower-laden hedgerows, past fields of rye, barley, wheat and even corn; over stiles, leats (ditches) and small creeks to the New Inn where we stopped for lunch. Fortunately, the shortest bit of the walk came after lunch (which had included its requisite real ale) and of course we were home in time for tea and cake! After all that, Peter and I needed a nap!
The photo above is of the St. Andrew’s church clocktower, right next door to D&P’s cottage. Late this afternoon, Mallory and I had the honor of a climb to the top of that 15th century structure with Peter! It entailed maneuvering up an amazingly steep, narrow, dark, 101-step solid granite spiral staircase, which got even narrower at the very top and gave me the distinct impression of having stepped back many centuries in time!!
The views from the top were as spectacular as you would imagine, and though I’m afraid you’ll have wait until our return to see pictures from my better camera, you can at least enjoy a couple from the iPhone. The first is of Blackhall Cottage, and the second is of this intrepid blogger/photographer (taken by Mallory), looking like a lichen-covered gnome! Jolly good fun, all around!
