Day 34 (23rd July 2022)

 I can't quite get my head around how far I've come just lately. It seems that only a few days ago I was in the Scottish Isles and now I've landed in Cornwall. 

Having sailed through Somerset with relative ease, the Germinal CCXXIV places started to get a bit more challenging. First off was luckily solved a couple of years ago when Guy & I had a long weekend with Lindz, Angus and Mildred - we stayed in a very swanky house, the name of which escapes me just now, but it was near Barnstaple. Designed by a famous architect (whose name also escapes me just now). There was a raised platform in the living room which would have made a great DJ base, and there was a table with an Ordinance Survey map from eons ago that had the place that had so far eluded me for years. It was stop #66

THE NECK

Now, as you can imagine, "The Neck" could have been anywhere, bit luckily I have a pic of a more up to date OS map taken from my campsite.

As luck would have it, it was completely overcast and I set off in the wrong direction, so my half hour walk to The Neck took almost an hour. The road I ended up on was pretty hard going, owned by the MoD so only suitable for 4 wheel drive landrovers. I was very glad I had my poles.

The Neck is basically a strip of sand between some muddy boggy pieces of land at Crow Point on the banks of the River Taw. Now you know.

It was only a couple of miles as the crow flies to the next stop, but the only bridge across the river is about 5 miles in land, so it took a lot longer than I expected to get to stop #67

WESTWARD HO!

Westward Ho! is a dump. It is one of those places I have been itching to visit my entire life, and having spent the best part of 10 minutes there, I am more than satisfied that I need never ever come back. I haven't read the Charles Kingsley book of the same name, but I suspect his version of the town really isn't anything remotely like the current version.

Pic taken and away I went.

My next destination wasn't exactly easy to find. Google maps was utter shite to be totally honest, showing it a couple of miles in the Bristol Channel. I ended up at the NT carpark near Brownsham and stopped for a reviving coffee at the teashop. I asked a couple of women sitting around a table and they immediately did "google maps", and they came to the same conclusion I had. I mentioned that I had bought the Ordinance Survey app, but as of this morning, still had zilch to show for it despite them taking my money, so we were all a bit stuck. I had passed a house called "stop #68" a few miles back, which they were familiar with. Out of desperation, I tried my OS app again, and would you believe, it finally started working and low and behold, I had the pathway route to stop #68

GALLANTRY BOWER 

This was another really challenging and hard walk, and I was glad of both my poles and my raincoat (kindly given to me by Grizelda a few months ago). I'm smiling so much because this walk, despite being pretty hard going, was really worth it. The scenery was exceptional with a few delightful surprises along the way;

The walk back nearly broke me! I started to get bitten, and although it was hot, it also rained intermittently and I sweated out yet another T shirt by the time I staggered back to the carpark. I was exhausted. However, I was determined to fit in one more Germinal CCXXIV place before I retired for the evening. It meant driving past my night time base, but now I'm in Cornwall, these Germinal CCXXIV places are stacking up fast! So it was another hairy up and down narrow road adventure to the most amazing stop #69

CRACKINGTON HAVEN

What an amazing place! Why have I never been here before? I will definitely be coming back, that is for sure. 

I did get a few funny looks as I changed my T-shirt and wandered around a bit trying to get that cliff reflection in the sand in my pic. I would have loved to stay here for supper, but it was getting late, and I wasn't too sure about making my stop in Bude before it got too late.

As it happens, I wasn't that late, and managed to get a table at the local Indian restaurant before it got packed. Chicken Naga and a bottle of wine, and I am feeling no pain!

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out