Sarah Hopkins
Customer Sales & Support
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Seven Days on the North Devon Coast
This year, for my familiarisation trip with Mickledore, we decided to tackle the very first section of the South West Coast Path. Having fallen in love with Exmoor on last year’s Two Moors Way trip, and being a huge fan of coastal walking, this was a wonderful opportunity to combine both while getting to know the route, and meet some of the amazing accommodation and service providers that help make our walking holidays so special. Stretching 88 miles from Minehead to Westward Ho!, the North Devon section of the South West Coast Path brings together wild moorland and towering cliffs, secret coves and stunning beaches. I was brought up listening to Mark Wallington’s 500 Mile Walkies, so I was eager to follow in the footsteps (or pawprints) of Boogie as he chased his endless plastic bags! Getting to Minehead all the way from Cumbria was remarkably easy, using a combination of trains and buses, my husband Matt and I found ourselves dipping our toes in the sea by early afternoon. This gave us plenty of time to find the official start of the trail for the following morning, avoid the urban sprawl of Butlin’s, and instead while away the afternoon…
The Magic of the Two Moors and What Lies Between
Being one of the newest members of Mickledore, this was to be my first familiarisation trip, and I was beyond excited to be allowed to test out one of our newest routes! The Two Moors Way, affectionately known as Devon’s Coast to Coast, is a sublime trail linking Wembury and Lynmouth, some 117 miles apart South to North. The official Two Moors Way route, which opened 29th May 1976, does not actually start until Ivybridge. In 2005 this start point was linked to a section of the Erme-Plym trail to extend the route to Wembury, creating Devon’s Coast to Coast. Myself and husband Matt are big walkers, so we decided to make the most of our time “down South” spending a week camping along the South West Coast Path prior to our fam trip. This meant we had a week of lugging all our gear around and “roughing it” before the luxury of our accommodations, luggage couriers and not eating lightweight pasta meals! Heaven. We arrived at Wembury slightly ahead of schedule, and so it was only polite to while away a little time in the beautiful Old Mill Café right on the beach. A wander around the historical little church…