Thursday 10th June 1999 - Day six, Braunton - Barnstaple - Exeter - Home. Prev

I kept waking in the night with painful eyes but I was too tired to get up and start fiddling with a torch to find the asprin. I realised I didn't have my wooly hat on, but I wasn't going to look for that either. Eventually it was light so I did do something about it and had two asprin. It was just after half past four.

As I was awake I might as well get up and moving as I was planning to have breakfast as well. The two earlier trains from Barnstaple were 07:09 and 08:12, and it was a three mile walk. The first was probably out of the question but the second was a distinct possibility.

The inside of the tent was soaking because of the dew, it was probably a cool clear night. Breakfast was pasta shells in a chicken sauce/soup. Despite trying to hurry it still took me until ten past six to get going. The walk into Barnstaple follows the Tarka trail on the old railway line with hedges on both sides for most of the way. It makes for efficient walking but is not very inspiring. I entered Barnstaple by its derelict back door. The signs led me through disused warehouses and terraced houses to the water front. For all its crummyness at the north coast path entrance, the middle of Barnstaple looks respectable. Even the toilets had all the bits in including bars of soap. There was a festival being planned and all along a fence were brightly coloured plaques, and coloured poles with decoration and 'heads'; they looked effective and eyecatching.

The path went over a bridge that I remembered from two years ago when I started walking the coast path, then down a side street and onto the first corner near the railway. I had completed Minehead to Barnstaple which meant that I had completed the start all the way down to Newquay. I didn't leap in the air or anything, bit I did feel quietly pleased that I had been successful.

I caught the 08:12 which was a single carriage with an engine. It pulled out of the station and I was given an impression of speed. Having last travelled on a steam train and walked for nearly a week anything above four miles an hour seemed quick. The train was mostly a request stop and kept stopping to pick up people who seemed to be going into Exeter to do their shopping. At Eggesford it had to stop and 'pick up' the token for the single line section to Credition. Eventually it arrived at Exeter. The timing of the trains was superb and I had only a few minutes wait before catching the Intercity back to Newbury. Another walk was at an end.

Previous page, Day five, 09th June 99, Croyde - Braunton.

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