It had been a very cold morning / night. Ice lined the outer tent and frost coated the ground. We were warm in the tent.After the usual we packed up, I shook the outer tent to get rid of the majority of ice and packed it aeay mostly wet.
Stuart passed by, it was 7.45, I had a feeling it eas the last we would see of him.
A clasp broke on my pack and as I cut one off a less needed one from my pack to replace it. That delayed getting away until 9.
We walked on to Wembury and again we would attempt to use the bus to replace the ferry that was not running. The road to the village and bus stop beyond was icy. We stood at the stop for twenty mins chatting to an ex fisherman about the collision in the North Sea, folk lost and blizzards delaying search. And I thought this was cold!
The chap was correct in his statement that the bus would be full of xmas shoppers.At 9.30 we got our bus back to Plymouth and had a twenty min wait for the TALLY-HO bus service to Noss Mayo. We sat in a cafe writing tacky 1980s postcards. We lacked sugar but I wad able to gain sachets to get is over today.
The bus took just under the hour to get to sleepy boaty estuary inlet Noss Mayo. We got moving as the next obsticle was the tide at the River Erme nine miles on. We had three hours to get there to wade the river.
We could hear shotguns up ahead as we rntered the National Trust cafe land ,and right enough chaps in tweeds stood directing dogs in the under growth while collected dead pheasants twitched beside the track.
The coast was impressive and so was the easy going track, however we opted for a yomp on road from Stoke beach as the path became more rugged and ee wsnted to ensure our low tide crossing.
At Mothecombe we dropped to the estuary inlet and walked corrugated sands to our crossing point having, asked a chap if it were possible. A female dog walker in wellies tested the depth for us. We removed socks and boots, rolled trouser legs up and wearing croccs we waded. Bloody hell it was cold, painfully cold, like cramp.
We made moaning noises as we went and thankfully got across the 30 foot stretch with water just below our knees.
J had gone faster than me but as a result had water up the back of his trousers.We got to the slipway and using a dingy as support dried seaweedy feet and in a shower put on our boots again. Relief we had done it and saved a haul around the estuary.
We trekked on, ominous clouds from the SW threatening.A few steep ups and downs and we were able to get water from a cattle trough and pitch over looking the route tomorrow and Burgh Island. Again we were going to have hassle with another seasonal ferry not running which will mean a bus if possible or a 8/9 mile hike around...joy!
Tea was made having pitched and ensconced ourselves in our sleeping bags. We were much in need of liquids as we had not drunk since 11.30. The cold weather does not encourage thirst.
We had noodles again, another cup of tea then Radio 4 , and J texted his trousers girlfriend and I Monique.
Rain on the outside of the tent as I type this but not as cold as last night.
No comments:
Post a Comment