Another walk from home but this one felt different to the previous weeks. Not sure why but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. The weather was good, the scenery was brilliant considering what some people are having to put up with. However I just wasn’t feeling it, maybe its this lockdown, another one. Maybe my tolerance to the lockdown has run out, or is it the lack of a planned way out. Perhaps a slight change of scenery is needed only a short drive away! Either way this walk was done at a pace, probably my shortest solo walk for a while and I hardly stopped for a coffee to admire the view. Still enough of the negative, the views here are pretty damn good and the whipping westerlies gave some fantastic seas, which makes you feel lucky to live here when you look back at the photos and put them together for this post. The terrain all on my recent walks changes quickly, from farming fields, lanes to coastal paths and back to fields again. The paths are either muddy around the farms or decent along the coast, however the section in this walk from Wembury Beach to Wembury Point is a mud bath in places at the moment. Still my new boots (received for Christmas, thanks mum and dad) are working well and keeping my feet dry. May they get the chance to see other parts of the country soon.
Start – Home
Route – Staddiscombe field – Hollacombe – Wembury – Wembury Beach – South West Coastal Path – Wembury Point – Heybrook Bay – Lentney Battery – Down Thomas – Staddiscombe
Distance – 8.5 miles Start time – 10.15am Time taken – 3hrs 45mins Highest Point – Hollacombe Hill 116 metres
Weather – Sunny, cloudy, breezy, threathened rain which never came
The weather was snowing in most of the country, down here we sometimes get snow on the moors. This is Bodmin Moor about 20 odd miles away, not the best photo but I am taking it through the bedroom window!Starting out, looking over Plymouth, Bodmin Moor is at the backStaddiscombe fields, normally on a Sunday this would be full of football matchesThis stone is a WW2 memorial marking the radar station for the heavy anti aircraft battery that protected Plymouth from 1941 to 1945, code named Z4
The path runs alongside the Wembury road towards Hollacombe
Looking from Hollacombe towards a white DartmoorA view to the sea, Wembury is down there in the dip
This is Traine Road, it leads to the Odd Wheel pub in Wembury, however I’ve walked enough lanes now and I turn off to the right to cross fields and a muddy path down to Wembury Beach
Across the fields towards the sea. This path was fine but the one after the lane at the bottom was very muddy. I guess with the lack of things to do, increased walking we will see muddier paths. I’m not going to complain though, people should get outA buzzard circles aboveNot the easiest to socially distance past these on a narrow and muddy path!!The church of St Werburghs comes into viewAs I approach the beach The Mewstone is seenWembury Beach with Gara Point across the bayLooking back to the church and Wembury as I start along the coastal pathThe Mewstone left and the radar station of HMS Cambridge on the right. I remember about 30 years ago hearing the booming guns of HMS Cambridge, a naval gunnery school, which would aim at The Mewstone for practice. It closed in 2001The Mewstone now a bird paradiseI’m at Wembury Point now, site of an old sea swimming pool (1930s). You can see the old wall just appearing as the tide goes out and a post to the leftThe rain showers seemed to miss me today, there were plenty out to sea as this one skirted me before going across to Gara PointRounding the corner and the outer part of Plymouth Sound comes into view, some large naval ships and tankers taking refuge here. Rame Head in Cornwall is back leftInto the sun, one last look at The MewstoneWhite water crashing on the shoreI’m just below Lentney Battery, this marker helps me find the concrete path that runs back up towards Heybrook Bay towards it.From the marker you can see into Bovisand and the caravan park on the right. Fort Bovisand and Staddon sit on the headland over there. This whole area was fortified against attack. To be honest at this point I wasn’t really enjoying this walk as much as I should have. The weather was pretty good, the scenery as good as always here, but it was just one of those walking days, maybe the current situation has hit harder this lockdown and my ability to fight it off needs work.This is Lentney battery, the structure on the left housed the large gun, there were two of theseThe underground areas would have housed the artillery and people. It looked dark and spooky down there, however there are photos online showing clean open rooms, with paint on the walls and some graffiti but not much.I climbed away from the battery up to the edge of Heybrook Bay long a new path for me, here I had views down to Plymouth Sound and across to CornwallI walked the lane to Down Thomas and its pub. This would have been a good time for a quick pintDown the path now, across the fields, backed by the snow on DartmoorA peep of a view through to Plymouth Sound and Rame Head, past the folds in the landscapeBack in Staddiscombe and my normal photo at the start or finish of my home walks. As I mentioned it was a strange walk, the conditions were brilliant but I just wanted to finish and get home. Think I need to change the scenery a bit, with a short drive
I think all you can do in the circumstances is keep plodding on and doing the best you can. It is frustrating being limited on where you can go. I keep telling myself that there are people suffering and that I’m lucky to live in the countryside and be able to get fresh air. Trying to put things in context. I was supposed to be skiing this week in France 😔
Things like a holiday being cancelled don’t help the mood for sure. I see schools are planning for opening in Scotland, which suggests a change in thought at least. To be honest I’d settle for having movement in your area widened a bit to allow travel up into the centre of the moor. Just to spread people out a bit
treksandtors 
I think all you can do in the circumstances is keep plodding on and doing the best you can. It is frustrating being limited on where you can go. I keep telling myself that there are people suffering and that I’m lucky to live in the countryside and be able to get fresh air. Trying to put things in context. I was supposed to be skiing this week in France 😔
LikeLiked by 1 person
Things like a holiday being cancelled don’t help the mood for sure. I see schools are planning for opening in Scotland, which suggests a change in thought at least. To be honest I’d settle for having movement in your area widened a bit to allow travel up into the centre of the moor. Just to spread people out a bit
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great content 🙂 Thank you
LikeLiked by 1 person