Exe Estuary Trail
It is unusual to see such a large family of swans, in both photos the parents are nearby.
In the winter when the vegetation has died back, you get a much better view of the tunnel. The Waytown Lime Kilns in the feature photo, were one of the reasons for building the canal. There was a plan to link the English Channel, with the Bristol Channel. The arrival of the railways, knocked that plan on its head.
The distance from where this Kingfisher was perched, resulted in the poor quality photo, but worth including. It’s very rare to actually get a siting of a Kingfisher and today I saw Mr and Mrs.
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As it is a route we have done several times, I have not taken many photos today. It was really warm when I started, just after 2pm. But by 5pm there was quite a breeze, with me wishing I had a fleece with me.
The access to the dam is good, but at the far end there is a gate onto a rougher track. There is plenty of room to turn around on the dam itself, as you definitely need a robust scooter to try the path alongside the reservoir.
There is limited parking outside the Pump & Pedal, so I have included this photo to show there is parking on the road.
The views from the Lake Viaduct, among my favourite on the western edge Dartmoor. In the next few months, I will be be mapping the routes from Okehampton Station to Meldon.
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There are several photos of the tracks today as the purpose of the day was to measure the distance and grade the walks on the surface quality and gradients.
Gill had a girly day with friends, so this was a solo trip. But I managed to do five short walks, which I will be adding to the new Accessible walks page, over the next couple of days.
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From Ide I headed for Dunchideock, taking a turning to Clapham, on the outskirts of the village. This lane is narrow and very muddy in places, after all the recent rain. From Clapham I headed for Kennford, passing the farm renown for it’s orange elephant. Immediately after crossing the A38, I joined the Old Dawlish Road heading for Exminster. By this time the rain had stopped, so I stopped for lunch in a gateway affording me lovely views of Exeter, and the surrounding countryside. The beauty of this time of year, is all the bird activity with it being nesting season. With traveling at five mph or less on the mobility scooter, you see so much with the Devon hedges. But it is what I hear as well as seeing, which compounds my enjoyment.
It was not long after finishing my lunch, that it started raining again. On my way into Exminster I decided to go pass the Swans Nest, to join the Exe Estuary Trail along side the canal, back to home. The lane was flooded about 300 yards from the Trail, so I crept into floodwater keeping in the middle of the lane. It soon became apparent the water was too deep for the buggy, so I reversed out of the flood water. As it was still early afternoon, I decided to add 5 miles to the journey, by joining the cycle trail at Powderham.
So headed back into Exminster, then taking the lane pass Exminster Golf Club. There were a couple of large puddles in the lane, before crossing the A379 about halfway between Exminster and Kenton. There was another large puddle on the outskirts Powderham, but had a couple of inches clearance so able to continue. By the time I got to Turf Hotel the rain had stopped, so had a coffee stop near the Motorway in the sunshine.
Wednesday was a lovely day so we both headed down to Powderham, with a flask to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. On the way back I took the picture below, with the flood water gone.
After the damp day out on Monday, the sunshine on Wednesday was lovely, Also with the sunshine there was a lot more birdsong to enjoy.
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From home I headed to the Twisted Oak pub crossing the A30 into the village of Ide. Then I climb up through the village of Dunchideock to Lawrence Castle. I then went off road for a short distance, on my way to the Ashcombe Obelisk. I used Jackdaw Hill for my decent off the Haldon Hills, heading for Cockwood, where I joined the Exe Estuary Trail for the journey home.
From the Obelisk I headed towards Cockwood, from where I followed the Exe Estuary Trail back into Exeter. I stopped for lunch on the edge of Black Forrest, not far from Kenton. The area has a lot of pleasant memories, as I lived in Kenton from the age of nine, until I left home at the age of eighteen.
With fields of Oil Seed Rape on both sides of the lane, the fragrance was really strong.
Although it was a mainly sunny day, there was still a cold wind, so I was glad it was a tail wind for the Exe Estuary Trail section of the journey. The joy of traveling at 5 to 6 mph, I get to to enjoy the diversity of Flora in the hedgerows. Also being able to hear the birdsong, in the hedges and trees, at least twice I heard young chirping from their nests. The route can be viewed on the link below, my new GPS gives altitude readings as well as distance and speed. The lowest was 1ft, while the highest was 849ft, so quite a drain on the buggies batteries.
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