Well we nearly reach the end of the calendar year and we decided to try something different, a walk around South Hams, Aveton Gifford to be precise. We figured that Dartmoor was probably a bit wet and we’d done coastal last time out, so I’d picked up a book I’ve had for a while and saw a walk around Loddiswell and the River Avon. I figured a slight extension to the walk would mean some easier parking for us in Aveton Gifford and would allow us to complete 80% of the same walk, particularly all the parts by the River Avon. The river would likely be running pretty high so I hoped that the riverside paths were ok and they were, although there was plenty of examples of very very high water over the last month. We started out from the roadside in Aveton Gifford, right next to the car park and headed off uphill to the church of St Andrew’s, which looked lovely in the morning sunshine. We walked the lanes passing a couple of farms before we arrived in Loddiswell. The church in Aveton Gifford had a service on when we got there, so we were a little disappointed to turn the large door handle of St Michael and All Angels and find it locked. As we headed back out of the gate, a mobility scooter turned up carrying the church warden. We chatted and he offered to show us around inside, it was fantastic having someone so knowledgeable pointing out all the interesting parts, including the 16th grave plaques of the Peek family from the area which were hidden behind a door and the Breeches Bible.

Next we dropped down to the River Avon and could see the levels had dropped, from a point which would have come over lots of the banks. The path on the western side was damaged in places and very rutted, and as we neared the old railway line and bridge to cross the river, we saw the weir and the piled up trunks of trees. Crossing the river to walk back along the eastern side, we could see the river had taken away large chunks of the banks with more trees piled up. Downstream we saw less of this damage and walked across fields and past bridges over the river, some of the fields had clearly been covered over the recent weeks and were a bit soggy. However the worst was yet to come, we arrived at Hatch Bridge after seeing a sign saying “Liable to Flood”, we walked past a small puddle on the side of the road and a field with water in it, thinking that was it. Not so. We rounded a corner a saw a 50 metre 18 deep mud bath in a slight dip in the road, hemmed in on each side by a classic Devon hedge. We climbed a fence into the farmers fields to get past, jumping the hedge at the other end. Relieved we walked around another corner by Knapp Mill to see a similar sight, this time a block wall came to our rescue, as we walked 15 metres along the top of it to get beyond the slimy wet sludge! Thankfully we emerged fairly clean and dry and all that was left was the walk back into Aveton Gifford. On our route we’d also picked up a few bits of greenery and holly to make some Christmas wreaths at home, the results are at the end of this post!!

Start – Aveton Gifford

Route – St Andrew’s Church – Ideston Farm – Yanston Farm – Loddiswell – St Michael and All Angels – Reads Farm – River Avon –Woodleigh Wood – New Mill Bridge – New Bridge – Hatch Bridge – Knapp Mill – Aveton Gifford

Distance – 7.5 miles   Start time – 11.15am  Time taken – 4hrs 45mins  Highest Point – Around Ideston 90 metres

Weather – Some sunshine and cloud