To Barnstaple

Combe Martin in the distance 

Combe Martin up close

Combe Martin is a long, thin village up the valley from a rocky cove with a bit of sand.  It was okay.   The word Combe means a steep valley, and it certainly didn't disappoint on that score.  I was getting fed up of the 4mph, 25% eye-watering, teeth-grinding climbs, but also the 4mph, brake-clenching descents, trying to be sure I could stop the bike in a reasonable time if needed.

Ilfracombe harbour 

Harbour sculpture,
based on Penny Mordaunt?

Ilfracombe - another Combe, where I stopped for lunch - was a bit different.   It's a big place, built over several valleys like Fishguard.  Everything is up and down all over the place.  After extensive suburbs there's a nice centre with harbour. And the requisite very steep way out of town.

Down to Lee

Lee

The next place, Lee, had all the hard work without much to show for it, just a few houses and a sunny cove between rocky cliff walls.  Another 250 metre climb, and then things changed for the better.  At Morte Point, the coastline stops going west and turns south into Wollacombe bay.

Coast path to Morte Point

Suddenly, I was in holiday-land.  The next village, Mortehoe, had at least six cafes and pubs despite having perhaps only thirty houses.  Easier riding without the headwind.  Then a succession of long sandy beaches followed, separated by small headlands.  Woolacombe, a nice family seaside resort; Croyde Bay, beach strangely invisible from the village centre but apparently focused on surfing; and Saunton Sands, a huge expanse of sand dunes, not much else, just what it says on the tin.

 

Woolacombe bay

Croyde bay

Saunton Sands

At Braunton, I turned onto the Tarka Trail, an old railway line running up the river Taw to Barnstaple, my target for the day.  Evening meal in Barnstaple, and I managed to get a campsite in Yelland, five miles further along the Tarka trail, so that's what I'm doing tonight.

Tarka Trail to Barnstaple