Day 2. Porlock Weir to Lynton

Another climb straight out of the village, up through ancient woodland of oak and beech, skirting the edge of an old estate with stone walls, arches, bridges and even a collapsed tunnel.

With the warm, damp, humid air and the old trees it felt as if we were walking through a setting for Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.
I haven't seen them but you get the idea - it was very atmospheric and spooky with fallen branches lying moss covered and twisted in the thick undergrowth, like giant serpents waiting to pounce.

We soon arrived at the tiny church of St Bueno's at Culbone, said to be the smallest church in England.

The rain was more of a mizzle as we entered the Glenthorne estate through gate posts topped with large boar's heads.

The estate spreads for miles and nearly all of it is covered with rhododendrons, which was handy because it got murkier and mister and the shrubs provided a splash of colour.

Views of the sea were very few and on the rare occasions we could see forward there was just the moor high above steep wooded cliffs with no sign of how there could possibly be a path through.
I thought I might end the day with my right leg longer than my left.

Thinking we must be getting close to Lynton we could see a massive hill to our left with a path zig-zagging up into the thick mist.
I said I'm glad we're not going that way.
Sure enough, after a fifteen minute climb we were up the hill, onto Countisbury Common in the thickest fog ever.
We followed the way markers as best as we could but were soon lost and visibility was down to about eight feet.
Fortunately I'm under six foot and was therefore able to see this sheer drop down the cliff before taking the fatal next step.

We stumbled around in the Stygian gloom, totally lost and then heard, and bumped into another couple trying to go in the opposite direction.
We took them back to our last marker post to point them in the right direction and then they did the same for us.
When we got down near Lynton we could look back and see the cloud hanging over the common.

In Lynmouth it was a different day, totally clear and full of tourists.
The Coast Path sign sent us up the zig-zag path so we weren't allowed to use the water powered funicular railway up to Lynton but I think it's a fascinating piece of engineering and I could watch it all day.