Day 64 Stoke (near Hartland Quay) to Bude – Friday 15 July

Distance 17.3 miles , cumulative 1,161.53 miles, time 7 hrs 50 mins, walking time 6 hrs 20 mins, pace 2.7 mph, camped Bude Holiday Resort
Today was the start of week 10, our final full week before we finish at Land’s End on Saturday 23 July.

The walk to Bude is full of steep descents and climbs in and out of the combs. The geology of the coastline here is dramatic. At Welcombe

Mouth you can see close up the wave cut platform of sandstone ridges all formed 318 million years ago when the ancient super continents divided. 

At Marsland we stopped at Ronald Duncan’s hut. Ronald Duncan (1914 – 1982) was a writer, playwright, journalist, poet and farmer who lived at Marsland and he built the hut overlooking the cliff edge in 1962 as his writing hut. The hut was restored as a tribute to him by his daughter Bryony after his death. The hut is opened every day for walkers to use and contains a visitors book which we signed. 

We entered Cornwall our final County and celebrated with a selfie. We both managed a smile but Steve quickly reverted to his usual grumpy self. 

The weather was wet and windy and only started to brighten up as we headed into Bude. It was a day for full waterproofs and hoods up. However, we did pass one elegant gentleman dressed in deer stalker, felt coat, red twill shirt, moleskin trousers, polished Oxford shoes and sporting a wooden walking stick, he seemed very happy and was no doubt a member of the Sherlock Holmes appreciation society. 

The final landmarks before reaching Bude are the communication dishes at Stanbury.

On reaching the campsite our first chore was to head to the onsite laundry to wash our clothes. As we enter our final week we are due to meet up with a few friends and we felt it prudent to do our best to reduce the unpleasant aromas to a minimum. Shame Lynn’s feet would not go in.