Josie Travels

Recommended route: Westward Ho! to Clovelly – 11 miles
My route: Abbotsham to Clovelly – 8.5 miles

I woke up to thick cloud cover which I’m sure sucks for most people, but not for me. It was a huge relief from the heat waves of the past week and I was so happy to be cold! Didn’t last long, because I am a sweaty mess and this part of the trail sucked.

I had two choices – I could either walk along a narrow path lined with gorse and brambles higher than my head or I could walk along the stony beach that was giving me serious flashbacks to the even more painful Fish River Canyon hike. Anyway, I tried both, and both sucked.

I was furious by the time I reached a more sensible part of the path, and stomped my way to Clovelly through more sweaty woodland, which was almost enjoyable compared to the rest of the day.

When I got to the top of Clovelly, I had no desire to walk all the down the hill and back up with my bag, so I went to the visitors center to see about leaving my bag behind. They were fine with it, but then they realised I hadn’t bought a ticket… for the village… that I could have just walked right into… I said no thanks, and left. Back to the coast path, where I walked right into the village. Dumbest thing I ever heard.

The village is, of course, picture perfect. So pretty, so steep and hilly. I met up with a fellow hiker at one of the pubs and we had a few pints of cider, then we walked to another pub and had some more cider, then we dumped our things on the pier and had a swim in the sea! Then had some more cider.

We eventually decided to leave so stumbled up the hill and got a taxi to the campsite a few miles away. As soon as we set up our tents we went to the local pub there for more cider. Needless to say, I was hammered by the time I went to bed and not looking forward to hiking tomorrow. At least I slept through all the wind and rain!

You can view the full itinerary here.

If you would like to see more photos, you can view the full album here.

You can also follow the journey on Instagram!