We have not had battery for mobile so have missed a section.
We were pitched in fading light beside River Otterton, Budleigh Salterton. We had had concerns over tidal flooding but as grass seemed ok and a frost still topping d the grass we thought we were safe. I had woken at 3 am to check the water rising situation and all appeared ok.
At approx 4.30 am Josh woke me saying water was in the tent. I found my head torch and could feel water under the ground sheet. Opening the inner tent I could see a water bottle floating in about 3 inches of water. I swore a number of times and told J to get what he could and get out the tent. I opened the external flap and all I could see was water. I had my clothes on, socks also and climbed out. Water was flooding in the tent. I put boots on and pulled my sleeping bag out , that was my main concern in getting out as I knew a wet bag would be near impossible to dry or carry. I hung it on bushes nearby. I told J to get out the tent. He got out visibly shaking with cold, get your Snugpak on, he did not respond until I shouted at him. Get things to high ground. We were slopping about in 4 to 5 inches of water which was rising.
I grabbed my wet pack and filled it with anything I found, pots, papers, food bags etc. We stumbled about to find the way we had entered from the path, all was shadows and different in torch light. We got bags/packs on the path then I went to get our tent. It was full of water but came down ok. I rumaged around to find anything we had missed. With tent dripping we assessed the situation. All was a mess. The radio was a ruin, we rang out the sleeping bags, I up turned my pack to empty water out of it. We appeared to have most things amazingly but most was wet. My clothes bag was dry. We had to get moving as our feet and hands were particulary cold, our wet feet especially. We crudely packed up, dooing our best to dry or salvage bits. Luckily we had a youth hostel booked for that eve at Beer near Seaton.
It was about 5.30 am in total darkness we started walking. I had hoped to cut through a farm but we could not find our way through in the dark , and decided against lerking to long as we half expected a farmer to turn up with his shotgun.
We were lucky it was not raining, although a fair wind blew in off the sea probably causing a surge and our flood.
I was a bad decision to putch tgere when all signs said not to. Being tired and pressured by fading light did not help my decision making.
Our feet were our main problem, wet soaked boots/ socks squelching as we walked but as we walked they and us warmed. Water dripped on the back of my legs from my pack so I donned my waterproof bottoms.
It was weird walking in darkness, again lucky the path was reasonable and easy to follow with the beam of our head torches. We laughed at our stupidity and went over things. As we approached Ladram Bay, and its caravan site ,light had started. We weaved our way on to Sidmouth where we found a cafe open at around 8 , Chattery. We ordered a full breaky and used the loo to wring out socks. I found a dry pair for Josh. We were revived and on leaving felt normal except our packs were heavier.
From Sidmouth the cliff rises steeply and we got a sweat on as it dipped to Salcombe Mouth and rose again to Dunscombe Cliff. A chap who was training for the three peaks trotted by asking where we had started. He said we would probably catch him up soon, we did not see him again.
This section was hard work, consecutive ups and downs. At Weston Mouth we hit the shingle beach and decided to walk it picking up stones and admiring the marbled rock formations and fossils. Alot of landslips probably from the recent heavy downpours littered the beach. A couple of beach huts were crushed.
About 3 miles of shingle walking we got to Branscombe Mouth and sat at the closed cafes picnic tables brewing a tea and drying the tent in the cold sun. Workmen were using a digger on the beach.
We had a good, different walk under cliffs to Beer Head, like gorge walking, it made a change.
From the head we walked into the twee village of flint clad cottages. The foot paths previous had had a chalky flint cladding.
We stocked up on food, but was unable to get ice cream.
The youth hostel was a lead window affair, probably 1800 , very pretty but hostelly inside. It was 4 pm.
We got our room and unpacked our gear and assessed tye damage. Josh was his usual he would do it later sort of mood. I got gear hung up to dry in the drying room. Showered, washed socks. Sleeping bags , especially mine, was dripping and I had to return a number of times to wring water from it as it gathered in the foot area.
We watched a bit of mindless tv, a remote that insisted to work intermittently preventing channel hopping.
J cooked pitta bread and cheese. Later I did us six egg omelette with cheese and tomatoes.
The main things we lost were charger for the mobiles, making general charging batteries a long drawn out affair requiring me waking to change them in the night. The loss of our radio will have to be replaced.Also spoons were lost. We had got away with minimal damage.
I was in bed for nine and J said asleep by 9.30 when J came out of the shower.
No comments:
Post a Comment