Wacker Quay to Antony

The weather had been dreadful recently, not what you would expect in June.  It seemed to rain most days so we realised most paths would be muddy.  Sunday was not a particularly good day but at least it was dry so we took the opportunity to have a short walk.

I had read that the pathway between Wacker Quay and Antony had recently been worked on by volunteers so we decided to take a look at this path.  Beforehand we called into Antony House and had a walk around the gardens.  They were not looking as good as I remember them from last year.  There were however an impressive row of trees with white flowers.

We walked down to the Woodland Garden but the path was sodden and we had to squelch along.  We did do the short walk around these Gardens but on the way back walked up the road to the car park rather than back along the muddy path to Antony House.

The car park to Wacker Quay was well signposted from the main road, but it was a very narrow single track road to the car park, and a car was coming out as I was going in so I had to reverse!  We started walking along the marked path from the Quay towards Antony, but it was very muddy.  Before long we turned back, but we had heard people walking below us along the side of the river so we found the way down to this 'beach' and walked along there instead.  There was a dry edge quite a long way along, only once having to pick our way through seaweed.  Eventually, though we came to marshland, but there were steps there that lead up to the path we had been on previously.  We then continued along this path hoping to reach Antony.  There were wild irises and other summer wild flowers out along the path and views of the River Lyner.  Unfortunately it was low tide so it was muddy.

Eventually, when we must have been very close to Antony, the path became so muddy we had to turn back, but it had been a pleasant walk, but not spectacular.

East Soar to Overbecks

Today was a Bank Holiday and an ideal day for walking - cloudy, warm, and not windy.  We drove to the National Trust car park just past East Soar village and walked down to the coastal path.  To begin with we started to walk towards Soar Mill Cove as this was as far as we walked when we were parked at Bolberry Down.  It was further than we thought and when the path started to go downhill we turned around.

Looking towards Soar Mill Cove

We then started to do the walk along the SW Coastal Path we intended that we had downloaded from http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/servlet/pdf/1/478925/Trail/Walking/Bolt_Head_walk.pdf.

To begin with the path was quite flat although there was a steep path up and down at Starehole Cove.   The walk was made even prettier by the foxgloves along the way.

 There were lots of paths around the area.  We kept to the SouthWest Coast Path although did not go right out to the end of Bolt Head. At this point we may have missed the path we were meant to be walking along, but we continued in the right direction, but maybe a little inland.

As we got nearer the end of the walk we had lovely views up the River to Salcombe

Before long we reached the National Trust property, Overbecks.  We should have walked past the outside of it and had to walk back to the entrance on the other side, but we came down the path by the side of the entrance, so we must have gone wrong somewhere!  The gardens were looking lovely with lots of unusual plants.

On the walk back to the car we had to walk through Tor Woods.  Leaving Overbecks we saw a signpost for this so we followed this path.  But in fact it did not lead us through the woods but at the side.  This meant we cut out a portion of the walk so we will have to redo this another time.  But it made the walk back to the car even quicker and it was a good flat path all the way from the edge of the woods.

Stoke Beach to Keaton Cove

A couple of weeks ago we walked from Mothercombe to Keaton Cove.  This meant we just had to walk from Stoke Beach to Keaton Cove to completely walk along the South West Coast Path from Plymouth to Soar Mill Cove.  So this is what we decided to do today.

The coast was looking lovely and there were occasional foxgloves out brightening the edges of the path.

To begin with the path was fairly flat and wide and good, but then there was a very steep drop down.  We decided instead of tackling this part of the path we went inland and walked along a path beside the road and then the road before coming back to the path after avoiding the up and down of the path.  This made the walk much easier.

Before long we reached the stile where we had stopped last time, so after having a snack we turned round and headed back.

Bluebells on Holwell Lawn

We had heard that there was always a lovely display of bluebells at Holwell Lawn at the foot of Haytor so decided to go to see for ourselves.

The forecast was for showers in the morning clearing to a sunny afternoon, but it was still raining when we got to Haytor.  We drove on to Hound Tor and stopped for lunch then as the rain stopped drove back and parked in a lay-by at the edge of Holwell Lawn.  The bluebells were not as bright blue as we had hoped but still looked good.

After returning to our car we drove on to Emsworth Nature Reserve.  I had read that there were bluebells there, but although we walked some way into the reserve we could not see any signs of them and as it started to rain again we returned to the car.

Bluebells in Burrator Woods

We had just an afternoon to get out into the countryside, so we chose to go to Meavy to see what the bluebells were like in Burrator Woods.

We parked by the River Meavy and walked up the road to Merchant Cross and then down the road to Yeo Farm.  When we got to the farm we went through a series of stiles and continued to climb towards Sheepstor. After we had been walking about 20 minutes we came to the entrance to Burrator Woods which was a matter of climbing a 3 rung ladder to get over a wall.  As we got into the woods we immediately saw all the bluebells.  The path wound through them and we continued walking until we came to the exit to the wood.  At this point we turned around and made our way back to the car.

We then drove to Burrator Reservoir to see how full it was after all the rain we have had recently.  There was only a trickle coming over the dam, although the reservoir was very full.  The yellow rhododendrens were out but the other colours were still in bud.

Mothecombe to Keaton Cove

Last year we walked the South West Coast Path, in stages, from Plymouth to Stoke Beach and from Wonwell to Bolberry Down.  We therefore wanted to walk the section from Stoke Beach to the River Erme.  This is 4.3 miles and as there are a lot of ups and downs we thought it would be too strenuous to walk there and back in one go.  As it was a beautiful sunny day we decided to walk about half of it and leave the other half to do another day.

We drove to Mothecombe and left the car in the car park there - for a £4 fee!  When we visited Mothecombe last time we walked down to the River Erme and along the coastal path from there towards Mothecombe beach.  This time we walked directly down to Mothecombe Beach, crossed it and walked up some steps to the path along the cliffs.

Mothecombe Beach, with Wonwell beach on the other side of the River Erme

The sea looked a beautiful azure colour and there was wonderful views in both directions.  There were lots of flowers along the path, gorse, bluebells, sea thrift.

The path gradually climbed uphill and there was one steep hill down that went into steps before winding upwards again.

After 50 minutes we decided we had walked far enough so we stopped at the still at Keaton Cove.  The view from here was wonderful and we could see the caravan site at Stoke Beach in the distance.

Ince Castle

We haven't been able to get out and about lately as the weather has been so wet and we have had our hands full looking after Oscar and Dixon.  But today the sun was shining and Ince Castle Gardens was open for charity.  We had visited these gardens last year and were very impressed with them so I was keen to take my Mum to see them

When we visited last time there were lots of early spring flowers like daffodils and snowdrops.  To maintain this display they had not cut the grass so there were lots of wild areas, with cow parsley, wild garlic interspersed with bluebells.  Occasionally there were some wild orchids.





The rhododendrens were a little disappointing.  Some of the plants did not look very healthy, but one or two of them gave bright splashes of colour.

A lot of summer plants were out, but there were still lots of young plants in the greenhouse and had not been planted out yet.  The formal beds will certainly be a lot more colourful when they are.  There was wisteria growing up the back of the house and one wisteria was a feature plant in the lawn at the side of the Castle.

All around the gardens there were beautiful views of the River Lyhner, but the peace of the garden was rather spoilt by lots of noisy children running around and the charity the garden was open for was a local school.