Day 7. Instow to Buck's Mills

Said goodbye to Jo as she got the taxi to the station and I headed off down the path to Bideford with my rucksack on my back.
It was a dry morning but still very windy.
Approaching town was a repeat of Barnstaple with a modern, high road bridge followed by the old mediaeval bridge in town but no chance of a short cut this time.

Had a cup of coffee and cake in the Bideford arts centre whilst searching for a suitable campsite for later and then  walked up the other bank of the estuary to arrive in Appledore, about 300 yards across the river from where I started two hours earlier.
The route then follows one of the thousands of loops out to sea and back again with very little forward progress.
This time it was out and around Northam Burrows, a former landfill site that is now a bird sanctuary, golf course, horse riding area, surf beach and a pleasant walk by the sea.
But it is flat and exposed to the wind whipping across today.
I reckon a well struck drive would carry from this golf course across the estuary to the other course (Saunton Sands) we were stumbling around on two days previously.
The walk around the Burrows ends at Westward Ho !
 A town remarkable only for its exclamation mark, but at least it has a good beach.
The path was level and easy from town and then gradually started climbing to the cliffs ahead.
It felt good to be back on the path proper after two days of level estuary walking, but that feeling didn't last long as the high winds brought the inevitable rain, and lots of it.
To make matters worse the route was so badly overgrown with shoulder high nettles, thistles, foxgloves, ferns and, worst of all, brambles that it was impossible to see the path.
I went A O T a few times when I couldn't see where I was stepping and fell into the sodden foliage.
Then the rain went up another notch to torrential and the going was tough.

Spot the path

                           

I will never moan about walking on flat tarmac again.
According to the sign posts I had travelled only 2.5 miles in two hours and I was never going to reach a campsite or Clovelly at this rate.
The path could really do with a bit of TLC but with 630 miles to maintain under increasing financial restraint it is understandable that more cut backs means less cutting back.
The path improved after Peppercombe, passing through a forest of ancient Sessile Oaks covered in a rare lichen.
They don't grow very tall but grow along into fantastical shapes.

Sessile Oaks

It was getting late when I started dropping steep into Buck's Mill. I had to admit defeat and trudged a couple of miles back up hill inland to find some shelter from the storm.