Hartland Walk

 Friday 

12 July 

Day 12

85 to go

Everyone was up and about by 8am and into breakfast around the kitchen table. We had news that Sharon and John wouldn’t be joining us on our walk today, which is a shame, but freed up our time a little. We were all ready by 9.40am and following the little lanes 2 1/2mi to Hartland Quay. We piled out of Dad’s car to take in the view of the dark, rugged coastline. It was pretty spectacular. 

From the carpark, we began our trek about 5km in total from here, passed St Catherines Tor and on to Spekes Mill Waterfall. The walk was impressive, sometimes treacherous but enjoyable. The weather was perfect for doing a strenuous walk, slightly overcast and cool. I was happy to take in the sweeping views in between spurts of exertion. 

We stopped for a length of time at the waterfall. It was a pretty sight. Paul and I wandered down a lower level path to take in more of the view. We watched a small bird with a very long white tail flit about. 

We returned to the others and made our way back to civilisation, which required us to wander a muddy section of trek and passed the cows. We then reached a crossroad. Mum had done well, but was well and truly done. We got directions from a local to the Docton Mill tea house, thankfully only a very short walk. Once at the premises we were shown to a table indoors, ordered drinks and food and enjoyed some quiet, peaceful time, allowing our legs some time to rest. 

When Paul, Marcello and I were done, we took the car keys from Dad and made our way back to the car. There were a couple of pretty intense hills but the rest was fairly straight forward. We made our way through Stoke, checking out St Nectar’s Church in Stoke, before continuing to follow the well worn path back into Hartland Quay. 

We collected the car and then returned to Docton Mill to collect Mum and Dad. It was only an hour since we had left them to wander the garden. Dad drove us passed a farm that his grand parents used to work on in Milton, before we made our way back to the Quay for a drink at the pub. We enjoyed a table outside with a view, but it was a little fresh. 

When we were done, we returned to Snowdrop Cottage. All of us were well and truly spent and any thought of doing a further walk this afternoon was put on the back burner. We all went off to do our own thing for a while. 

At 5.50pm we made our way to the Anchor for dinner. It was lovely to enjoy a wonderful meal, drinks and a good chat. We didn’t get out until 8pm. Wandering back through the local roads home. Paul and Marcello went off to the Legion for a pint, while the rest of us flaked out at home for the remainder of the night.