By 10.00, at Cheriton Fitzpaine, we eat our snack out of the cold, in the bus shelter. A man in the doorway of a cottage says "the next bus isn't 'til Tuesday".
On northwards, lanes pass through orchards behind trimmed beech hedges and snowdrop verges. A dozen ewes and lambs escape under a gate, dashing ahead hysterically. At last they run into a farm yard.
A discreet Exmoor National park sign and then we are on top of the world. Long bleached grass stretches for miles with the very occasional wind-bent tree. A solitary memorial stone provides shelter from the cold breeze as we eat our sandwiches. A freezing whizz down a beautiful but bleak river valley finishes at The Sportmans Inn!The car park is full of carvery customers, but the hosts are happy to just provide us
with coffee.
Our frozen feet thawed out, we make easy work of the big hill through Simonsbath.After sweeping down to the sea there is one last very steep climb through ancient woods to our Guest House - Pine Lodge.We are early at 3:00pm, but are given a very warm welcome, and the bikes are installed in a shed. There is time for a stroll around the town, including inspecting the cliff railway, on its first day in use after a winter break. Supper follows a hot bath. We can hardly keep our eyes open.
9(!) hours of sleep later, we eat the tastiest scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, watching nuthatches, coal tits, siskins and goldfinches breakfasting at the bird table, just outside the window. The drizzle stops before we walk down through the stunning Valley of the Rocks, dodging Cheviot wild goats (and their endless goat poo!). The vertiginous coast hugging path is empty, apart from a peregrine, more goat poo and then a goat with enormous horns, protecting a pretty kid, which we give a very wide birth.
After inspecting the harbour, a plod up the 25% Countisbury Hill for stupendous views, we then find a Dipper to watch along the East Lyn river. Before it gets dark we tackle my rear tyre slow puncture, just as a short shower sweeps across. Mike swaps the inner tube, in the confines of the garden shed.
Tuesday morning forecast is for ice on the roads, so we ask the postman at the front door of Pine Lodge if he has seen any." No , but I have been snowboarding all weekend"!? He explains he is just back from the Italian Alps. The weather could not be improved on, startlingly blue skies and only ice under the hedge shadows at the very highest part of the moor. A man with a telescope, on the verge, points out a large herd of deer.
A oldish chap is in a spot of bother with his three horses.He has just been thrown off the one with a saddle and can't control the others.He asks me to hold a horse for him but luckily a couple of his mates arrive in a Landrover and take over. At the edge of Exmoor we take a more easterly route home through Dulverton .A little lane bypassing Bampton has a road closed signed and this time they really mean it. An enormous tree is being felled right across the the road.Undeterred we carry the bikes across a stream,2 barbed wire fences ,another stream and then through the hedge back onto the road.It would have been much quicker going back!
Soon we are in the pretty Loman valley and it seems to be downhill nearly all the way home.Our only coffee stop of the day is at the cafe in Willand, A bit of main road follows to snowdrop smothered Killerton, and then, just as light is fading a mile from home, along the Topsham road we pass our mate, Richard, returning from his micro-bus Tuesday ride.
Total miles 117
Location:Exeter to Lynton
