Great Escape Campers
At Great Escape Campers we aim to provide our customers with as much help, advice and recommendations as we can so that when you hire Freddie, our beautiful VW T6 Campervan you have a head start when it comes to your planning. With the help of our customers, friends and family who write blogs such as the one below we hope that you will benefit from our personal experiences.
The blog below has been written for us by Lynne and her husband Eric who are both seasoned travellers in their mobile home and their recent exploits walking the South West Coastal Path.
South West Coastal Path
The South West Coast Path is 630 miles of remote places, seaside towns, dramatic scenery, beautiful vistas and, in parts, really really hard walking.
We started our assault on the path probably 6 or 7 years ago and have been slowly chipping off the miles ever since.
Our first year we, I say we, I gave up the walk exhausted at a little village called Lee and completed the Minehead to Westward Ho! (87 miles) leg the following year. That first year we carried our gear and stayed in B&B’s, the walk, as you can imagine was even more challenging with heavy backpacks. The following year we had a motorhome and the walk became a little less demanding and definitely more enjoyable.
In the intervening years we have walked Cremyll to Fowey (33 miles), Poole to Kimmeridge (21 miles), Weymouth to Abbotsbury including the Isle of Portland (24 miles) and quite a few other bits in between.
This year we decided to start at Westward Ho! and walk the Hartland Peninsula, crossing the border into Cornwall, onward to Bude and if we were really rocking and rolling onto Tintagel.
Hartland Peninsula
The first challenge on the Hartland Peninsula is the buses or lack of them and the second being where to park up and how to get back to your van after each days adventure.
Our first night we stayed on a Brit Stops pub car park close to Westward Ho! and parked the following morning on another Brit Stop car park in the town itself. After paying an exorbitant amount in car park fees (because we took up two spaces and wanted to stay overnight), we made our way to the coast path.
The day was clear, fine and warm, perfect walking weather and I was feeling upbeat. Over the last few years I’d been struggling with a series of injuries, added to that a distinct lack of exercise throughout lockdown had made me more than a little apprehensive about the walk, especially knowing how demanding the SWCP can be.
However, we knocked the miles off and the ups and downs weren’t too bad, but by Buck’s Mills after a few punishing ascents I was beat. No reception to call a taxi, which left us no option but to climb the long, winding road out of Buck’s Mills to call a taxi to get back to the motorhome.
After the lesson on my lack of fitness, Buck’s Mills to Clovelly proved a short but tiring hop, with a bus from our new home at a lovely family run campsite in Hartland to the start of the days walk.
The views from the path down to Clovelly were lovely, but Hobby Drive, the road built by Napoleonic prisoners taking you into Clovelly, was a slog, despite the interesting history.
After sitting eating our picnic at the Clovelly Visitor Centre we got pretty indignant at the thought of having to pay £8.25 each to get back into Clovelly to start the next days leg of the walk. Luckily, a friendly local pointed us in the direction of a sneaky short cut to the coast path, avoiding the Visitor Centre and the entry fee and we happily caught the bus back to our MH.
Another day and another bus saw us sneaking onto the coast path at Clovelly with a 7.5 mile hike to Hartland Point in our sights. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I can clearly remember taking numerous glances back over my shoulder to take in the beautiful Bideford Bay.
And as my husband and I looked towards Morte and Baggy Points in the far far distance we realised, with a huge sense of achievement, that over the years we had walked that whole coastline. It really was a GREAT feeling. Eventually, after a 3 mile trudge back to the campsite at Hartland, we felt exhausted but happy to have turned the Hartland Peninsula corner.
Another beautiful day for our stroll between Hartland Point and Welcome Mouth and we managed to score a very welcome (hahaha) lift from our kind campsite owners to and from the walk. Not too demanding a walk but I was still pretty buggered at the end, although I kept hoping I was miraculously going to get ‘walking fit’ but that state was sadly still elusive.
Onwards to Bude
The following day was another sunny one as we took our awning down, a storm was forecast to hit us hard the following day and night. Rain pelted down as we moved on, stocking up at a supermarket en route we eventually parked up at a campsite on the top of a hill outside of Bude. An interesting choice as that night the van rocked and rolled in the storm and I resorted to earplugs to block out the noise of the gales and rain that lashed the van.
For many years I’ve kept the four guide books that cover the SWCP close by. I can imagine people thinking that it should be pretty easy to follow the route, sea on your left or right depending which way you are walking the path. However, I like peeking at the books from time to time to see how we’re doing and also to see the difficulty (ascent/descent in feet), we have to tackle on each leg. This meant that I knew the next leg, Welcome Mouth to Bude, was going to be a hum dinger in terms of ascents, one of the toughest on the whole SWCP.
So feeling quite daunted by the walk ahead of me, I metaphorically pulled up my big girl pants and got in a very expensive taxi to Welcome Mouth. My husband and I lost count of the number of ascents and descents into beautiful coves we did on that very windy day, but it was A BLOODY LOT! Every time we thought we’d see Bude over the next rise there was another descent and another ascent to tackle.
We climbed on and on, nearly got blown off the cliffs at Steeple Point and finally after walking over a few boring fields (a welcome respite) we finally made it to Bude. Yay let’s celebrate by getting wheeled transport home, alas no! Much to my annoyance, after paying what seemed like an astronomical amount for a taxi earlier in the day, my hubby refused to pay for another one and I VERY grumpily, VERY slowly climbed the hill out of Bude to the campsite.
Grumpiness aside we were both shattered and after a shower and a hot meal we were in a better state of mind to appreciate that we’d smashed the walk. However, my husband did say that towards the end of the walk I looked like a 70 year old trudging up the hills……well that’s because I felt like one! Looking on the bright side though, I was incredibly pleased that I’d completed the walk, despite my many injury and fitness problems, I’d actually completed one of the hardest stretches of the SWCP. Bring on a rest day…..or two!
Useful Websites:
SWCP – https://www.southwestcoastpath.org.uk/
Brit Stops – https://www.britstops.com/
Hartland Caravan & Camping Park – https://www.hartlandcaravanandcampingpark.co.uk/
Upper Lynstone Camping & Caravan Park, Bude – http://upperlynstone.co.uk/
Cofton Holiday Park, Cofton, nr Dawlish Warren – https://www.coftonholidays.co.uk/
We also use the Park4night and Searchforsites apps
and http://wildcamping.moonfruit.com/pub-stopovers/4563550207
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