Can you see the sea yet?

Day 67: Cheddar to Bridgewater

? 34km

?213m

We were expecting it to rain all day, so packed everything up in full waterproofs which worked a treat because it then stayed nice and dry.

The campsite had a camping hut with fridge, so we treated ourselves to a different breakfast of fruit and yoghurt which was lovely.

The days walking started off with a straight forward path along the river, we then joined lots of quiet dead straight roads which ran along the ditches and field boundaries, first dug out around 1500 years ago by the monks of Glastonbury to drain the salt marsh land that frequently flooded. We had lunch by one of the pumping stations, perching on a ledge.

The second half of the day was spent fustratingly bush whacking through rarely trodden paths, we were scratched and stung all over. We finished the day by crossing the M5 for the final time to navigate the outskirts of Bridgwater which was not what I was expecting.

Our accomodation for the night was also pretty basic with some right characters around. We stocked up in Sainsburies and Tom introduced me to Taco Bell, which was average. The highlight of the evening was access to a TV where we got to catch up on day 1 of the Olympics.

Day 68: Bridgewater to Washford Inn

? 37km

?774m

It was a difficult night, foreign party goers meant a distruptive sleep, I guess that’s what you get for £30.
We got going about 07:00, passing through the centre of Bridgwater town which was marginally nicer than the outskirts we had seen the day before.
We passed through some playing fields followed by farm fields which got socks and shoes soaked due to the overnight rain.

We then had some unexpected rain, so covered up in a corn field, before descending into a muddy farm where the farmer told us to go a better, clearer route. Here we met a very chatty man with a Terry Pratchett t-shirt on who knew the area well.

When he finally let us carry on, Tom triple checked the route and realised we had gone wrong so had to back track towards the farmer and follow ‘Terry Pratchett’. He had stopped at the top of the hill and we had no choice to approach and admit our mistake.
He then insisted walking with us to show us how to get to Lydeard Hill. We walked together for a while but he was so much faster with a light pack and lunch to get home for so he left us to it. We climbed the rest up to Wills Neck on our own, joining very light Sunday crowds enjoying the Quantock Hills, had lunch, and put the tent up to dry.

We decended into the village of Bicknoller which was very sweet, we regrouped at the village shop before continuing towards Washford via the MacMillan way which was nice and nettle free, plus the sun started to shine. We got to the Washford Inn by 17:45 and were showered and ordering dinner by 18:15. Recently taken over the owners were keen to hear more about our story and we enjoyed a fun home from home experience.

Day 69: Washford Inn to Slopey Wild Camp

? 35km

?803m

We had decided to have our included breakfast which didn’t start until 0800, so we enjoyed a small lie in until about 06:30, got ready watching Tom Daly win Olympic Gold, did some extra stretching and drying off socks with the hair dryer.

Tom had the small English breakfast and I had avocado on brown with tomatoes, it didn’t arrive quite as advertised but was really lovely all the same and such a treat to have something different.

We were on the road by 09:00 and had planned a route to get to the English Coast Path however this route had been diverted via Washford anyway so it was easy navigation to the sea. 

It was then a straight forward path along the coast to Minehead, where we stocked up at Morrisons and got an ice-cream.

This was now the start of the South West Coast Path which was very exciting and something we had been looking forward to for days. A tough steep climb to start with but, once high, a lovely wide grassy national trust path over the fern and heather moors to Portlock then over some boggy marsh and luckily only a short section of it’s stoney beach to Portlock Weir.

We then ascended again into the forest passing the toll gate and the church, the lovely forest felt quite tropical at times. It was however getting late and due to rain the forest was not ideal for wild camping as there had been plenty of rock fall and tree damage, so we climbed back on ourselves above the tree line.

We settled on what turned out to be a very slopey pitch next to the path, next to the gate of a sheep field. The farmer came to move the sheep but didn’t say anything.

I had done something to the top of my ankle on my right foot so got a compression bandage on and took some ibuprofen, just hope all is ok in morning. It rained heavily most of the night with a small narrow stream running through the centre of the tent thanks to our angular pitch