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Day 7 of the Longest Walk

A Change of Scenery.
Barnstaple to Bideford.

The breakfasts so far have been up to standard and The Old Vicarage was no exception, I would certainly recommend stopping here if you're looking for a B&B in Barnstaple, the room we were in was certainly the biggest and probably the pick of all so far.

The day started with very light drizzle but I was determined not to wear a coat from the outset, this proved the right decision as the light drizzle turned into clearing skies and by the time we reached Instow we had sun and blue skies.
This part of the walk has no hills. I'd go as to say as it has very little in the way of even a slope! We clearly ran most the way as you'll see from the walking time, OK that's a slight exaggeration but the 10 odd mile distance seemed to fly past.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are really glad that we didn't skip the estuary section, the contrast in scenery was worth the extra days, so anymore estuaries looked forward to, rather than a burden as doing the walk. I am talking as though we've finished the estuary section but we still have a few miles to Appledore to complete tomorrow. Then onto Westward Ho!

We spent some time at Instow as we took coffee and watched the world go by, including the sailing boats. A 360 view on Instow Beach.
The walk from Barnstaple to Bideford uses the old railway track, hence why it's so flat of course, this is not only used by walkers but also by cyclists, travelling between Barnstaple-Instow-Bideford and probably beyond as this section mirrors part of the 180 miles of the Tarka trail.

We walked past a timber operation ran by Euroforest. A ship which had brought some logs in from Russia (I’m guessing). I took some images, which can be found along with the other images on the SWCP 2013 page. This timber yard operates on an old coal fired power station site, the quays, now being used by the ships bringing in timber, once had ships bringing coal across from South Wales.

We did come across many disused and rusting boats which made a great photographic contrast to the surrounding area.

Took some great photo’s coming into Bideford but haven’t yet got that perfect image of Bideford Long Bridge.

If you have been thinking about doing a long distance walk, certainly in the UK then look online for a company like Lets Go Walking as they take the strain out of organising the accommodation and transfer of luggage and you, and the experience is well worth the effort of the walking.

*SWCP = South West Coastal Path

Pictures can be found here.

A few stats.
3 hours 40 mins walking. Total This week 15 Hours 26 Mins
Total Walk 34 hours 39 mins
10.1 miles Distance, including extra walks to beaches and to the ends of any points we visited.
Total This week 36.7 Miles
Total Walk 83.7 Miles
Total time out including stops photo opportunity, enjoying tea and cake, 4 hours 45 mins. Total this week 19 hours 22 mins. Total walk time out 46 hours 32 mins

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