Overnight the weather had changed completely and we awoke to an eerie, misty morning with just a touch of drizzle. Very different from the days up until now. We set off from Chagford, heading back down to join the Two Moors Way at the River Teign below.
The next part of the walk was, for me, the highlight of the day, and all the better for being totally unexpected. Entering the Castle Drogo estate, managed by the National Trust, we climbed up to some magnificent views from a balcony path high above the wooded gorge of the Teign. I really did not know or expect this sort of scenery in Devon, and it reminded me more of the French Pyrenees or the Belgian Ardennes. Although the path didn’t take us to the castle itself, the views from the gorge alone were well worth the climb and were the most mountainous I think I’ve ever seen in the south of England.
Descending from the height above the gorge, we arrived next in the picture postcard village of Drewsteignton, with village pub, red phone box, thatched cottages and general stores making it look like somewhere out of Miss Marple or Midsomer Murders.
The afternoon was more gentle countryside – field edges, woodland paths and then a long stretch along a narrow country lane lined by tall hedges, which became, after a while, a little oppressive. For a couple of miles we really saw nothing apart from these hedges, so it was a relief when finally a gap by a gate revealed again the rolling Devon countryside.
As we were approaching the end, and our rendezvous with a taxi to take us to the overnight stop at Crediton, annoyingly we found the path closed due to rail works. With the closed path ahead shown as crossing the newly re-opened passenger railway to Okehampton, we can only assume that the railway authorities needed to upgrade the crossing point or something similar. So we had, instead, to make an extra mile detour near the village of Colebrooke to cross the railway by a road bridge. Just as we arrived at the end point of our walk, fifteen minutes before our taxi was due, there was a peal of thunder, prefacing a much needed heavy downpour. Which made the sign below we’d seen earlier in the day seem like some portent of the future.
Across the Alps to the Adriatic 