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Walked 27.4.1997:
Ascent 1249 ft : Descent 1361 ft : Distance 5.57 miles : 4½
hrs |
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We drove straight to Stanbury Mouth and parked our car in
the little deserted car park and then went in John's car to Bude.
We set off across the busy car park, walked over the canal and
went out and over the headland to Crooklets Beach. It was a dull
and breezy day but several people were out and about. We went
on, and after passing a group of children who were learning to
abseil on the cliffs, we walked down a rough lane past a deserted
cafe at Northcott Mouth then climbed up and out on to the cliff
where there was evidence of rock falls. After a while this long
flat headland dropped down into Sandy Mouth where one or two
surfers were in the sea, the beach is very long and is very popular
in the summer. We had a steep climb out of Sandy Mouth and at
the top at Stowe Cliff we stopped and had our lunch. The views
here are lovely, stretching out for miles both inland and seawards
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Looking
over Crooklets towards Bude |
We passed a ruined Lookout on the cliff then after
a little while we saw Duckpool Beach below us. The car park was
quite full and there were a lot of people about. The path down
was very steep and we had to go through cows in a field, which
was muddy and awkward to negotiate. The beach here is full of
large pebbles and stones. The climb up the other side was so
steep - thank goodness we had to keep stopping to let other hikers
come down past us! The views up here were lovely.
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Looking
down at Duckpool |
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On and on we went along the cliff then a valley came into
view and all along the ridge was a group of birdwatchers: We
spoke to them for a few moments and found that they were a North
Devon group out on a field meeting. We heard a grasshopper warbler
here but could not see it so we carried on. The cliffs up here
are very ragged and sheer. We came along the headland to a Satellite
Tracking Station built on a former army base. It was very open
up here, all the fence posts had security cameras on them and
it felt very eerie up here. On we went a little way more and
then we started to drop down into Stanbury Mouth valley. We went
up the lane towards the car park and passed the now smelly dead
badger again (see Welcombe to Stanbury
Mouth). We drove back to Bude hoping for a walk around
the town, but it started to rain very heavily so we went home.
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The
lane to Duckpool - our path can be seen in the foreground |
