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24 September 2014

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Cycle route: Devon Coast to Coast

A futuristic looking shelter beside the nature reserve at Isley Marsh

BBC Radio Devon Reporter, Liz Scott, continues her coast to coast cycle ride across Devon. This is an account of day three of her journey.

SEE ALSO

Other cycle routes:
Plym Valley trail
Granite Way
Grand Western Canal
Torbay coast trail
Tarka Trail
Wessex Way
Devon cycling guides

WEB LINKS

Sustrans
Devon County Council

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FACTS

From start to finish the Devon coast to coast cycle route is 102 miles long.

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Day 3 of Devon's coast to coast trail

I started today doing a bit of bird watching at the RSPB Reserve at Isley Marsh.

A good tip is to go two hours before high tide, this is when the birds fly in to roost and take refuge in the salt marsh.

Unfortunately I didn’t see much because winter is the best time of year for bird watching here.

The flat Tarka Trail guided me into Barnstaple, a town that boasts being one of the oldest boroughs in England.

Nowadays it’s a busy shopping town, lots of coffee stops and shops and there’s always a stunning summer floral display as part of the Barnstaple in Bloom.

The trail continued along the Taw, skirting past RAF Chivenor towards Braunton.

An overgrown bridleway makes for tough going

Braunton is supposedly the largest village in England and it marked the end of the wonderfully flat Tarka Trail I’d enjoyed since Petrockstowe.

Ilfracombe may have been just 15 miles away, but I was to encounter some of the toughest cycling of the journey.

Just a mile out of the village I was directed onto a very muddy overgrown bridleway.

My enthusiasm drained away as I heaved my pannier-laden bike through a tangle of weeds and it was a relief to get onto the country lanes again near Nethercott.

The bonus of taking the quiet non-direct route means you get to see some real gems, like Georgeham.

It’s hard not to be influenced by the enthusiasm of its most famous resident Henry Williamson who loved this part of North Devon.

Tarka Country: the house where Henry Williamson wrote about Tarka the Otter

You can see the house where he wrote Tarka the Otter and you can visit his grave in the pretty churchyard in the heart of the village.

I travelled towards Woolacombe where the delicious golden acres of sand were jaw dropping to see before being greeted by one of the worst hills of the journey at Morthoe.

Steep, steep, steep was the only way to describe it. However once out of Morthoe things became a lot easier and I stumbled across another old railway line that took me down to Ilfracombe itself.

Ilfracombe is well known for its Victorian Architecture, Landmark Theatre and boat to Lundy Island and it marked the end of my 102mile journey. I am not a fast cyclist but I achieved the Devon C2C easily in three days.