The Cleaves

Luckily the weather was much better today, even if it was a bit cool. It was Karen;s 50^th birthday (we discovered that she shared the same birthday with the owner of the North Cliff Hotel, whose name is Kate) and she opened her birthday cards and presents after breakfast in the dining room. The three of us: Karen, Keith and myself, set off after breakfast and left the hotel to follow the road out of Lynton which heads for Barbrook and then crossed the river via a bridge beside a pub which is marked as “Lyn Bridge” on the O.S. Map.
On the far side of the bridge, there was a path and we turned left to follow a route which took us back along the river on a rising path which soon offered viewpoints across and down to Lynton and Lynmouth below.
The path followed above the Lyn basically following much the same as yesterday but at a much higher level with views across to the other side of the Lyn valley and also the large valley continuing on past Watersmeet.
Eventually we dropped down a zig-zag path and after passing the site of an Iron Age settlement, we arrived at the road near Hillsford Bridge.
We had a second visit to Watersmeet House by following the riverside path from Hillsford Bridge and had our lunch stop their. Karen took a fancy to a bronze hare on sale there and decided to come back while in the car and buy the bronze hare rather than buy it now and have to carry it in her rucksack.
Continuing back along the East Lyn river from Watersmeet as far as Rockford, we the followed a rising path which tool us to some fields with a few horses including one particular one which was very interested in us.
The path brought us past Wilsham Farm to join a bridleway continuing north and around he head of a small valley then upwards to arrive at the A39 road near Countisbury and the small car park of Barna Barrow.
We crossed the road and then walked through the small car park and followed a path through gorse bushes which skirted near the small church at Countisbury before dropping down some steps onto the South Coast Path which followed around the steep ground above the sea shore and after reaching the side of the A39 again in a layby, it followed behind a low wall and then left the road to zig-zag down to the seashore near Lynmouth.
We found Pat and Bob nearby chatting to a man in the refreshment kiosk at the crazy golf course who it turned out to be was the previous owner of the North Cliff Hotel when the Slatcher family used to have family holidays in the area years ago.
Later on we all drove from the hotel down a short way into Lynmouth, planning on a meal at the really nice Rising Sun pub but it turned out to be packed with people even though it was only 18:00.
So we went to another nearby hotel to eat instead.