Day two: Kilkhampton. Sat. April 1st, 2006

Another fantastic day out on an adventure I am becoming more passionate about all the time.
The area around Kilkhampton was more walker-friendly than stage one. The temperature was also much nicer for walking. In fact, I did the whole morning in t-shirt and shorts.
I parked down at gorgeous Duckpool, which is the northernmost road access to the coast in Cornwall. At first it looked like the big waves were coming up into the road.

They weren’t quite, but they were making it up into the pool, which presumably gives Duckpool its name. This was the furthest from civilisation I had felt for a while. Whoever owns the holiday home down there is very lucky indeed.
I walked up the road, and after ten minutes I reached Coombe, my first settlement. A beautiful hamlet of four or five thatched cottages and a fairly substantial stream flowing across the road. It seemed funny that the “try your brakes” sign after the ford was right on a junction. Too late if they don’t work! Nothing to stay here for, just admire for a few moments, before making my way through the Coombe Valley. The valley is ideal walking country (plenty of mud, well-defined footpath), and was the only point of the day where I worked up a good sweat. I established a good pace here, which I kept up for the whole day, enabling me to finish in mid-afternoon. At a junction of footpaths, I passed a couple with a dog. They did not return my ‘good morning’. I think I heard them calling the dog by a French name, so that may explain their lack of English vocabulary. I say that tongue in cheek, but I remember when I was living in France, an old guy came and asked me how to say ‘bonjour’ in English. I told him it was ‘hello’, but he couldn’t seem to get the pronunciation. True story.
Coming out of the valley, I made my way to Kilkhampton castle. It was a motte and bailey castle, so I was quite interested. Just turned out to be two big mounds, one of them being the motte and the other, the bailey, I guess (can’t remember my primary history!). The best thing about it was the view towards the sea. From here, I made my way to Kilkhampton itself.
Kilkhampton is an important settlement, with a history which goes back at least 1,000 years. It is the biggest village north of Bude. It is also a place which felt more like ‘true Cornwall’. Unlike the ‘borderlands’ further north, some people have strong Cornish accents here. I visited the parish church, probably big enough to hold 400 people, very impressive for the village size. The Methodist church was also sizable. I walked up through the village, passing a large council estate on my left, on a mission to find Kilhampton football club. According to the FA website, it was half a mile out of the village, but I got there, and no sign of it. So I walked back. A mile of the A39 I didn’t need to do. I decided to leave it, as I would be coming back through.
A very muddy track, a short stretch of country lane, impressive Aldercombe Barton, a horrendous entanglement with a bramble (still have the scars to prove it nine days later!) and a few fields brought me to Darracott, a major dairy farm less than half a mile from the Upper Tamar Lake and border with England, I mean Devon. I lost my bearings here, but soon got back on track to bring me out at Little Forda, a couple of houses and a farm. Didn’t quite count as a separate settlement, as it is all part of Thurdon. The main bit of Thurdon is a little further down the road. Just three houses and an old mission hall with a chimney which made it look like a tin mine. There is a post box and red phone box here, giving it a village feel. In Thurdon, I had a conversation with a lady which involved five or six exchanges, but never got beyond how nice the weather was. She was right, mind. This was turning out to be a flippin’ lovely day.
From Thurdon, I wanted to find my way back across the fields to the sea. Looking at my map, I noticed Forda. If it were bigger than Little Forda (as would seem logical), it would need visiting. Only problem was that it would mean going all the way back to the sea on roads. I knew I had no choice. Forda was quite clearly a place, and I am a purist. Forda had some very pointy holiday cottages, and four or five rich people houses, the kind of place where no-one knows each other. I continued back towards Kilkhampton again. On the way, I was met by a dog who was desperate to say hello/eat me. I suspected the latter option, as it took a lot of restraining on the part of the owner.
My second visit to ‘Kilk’ was a welcome one, as it meant I could have my pasty. It wasn’t very nice, but at least the appearance resembled a proper pasty! I finally found Kilk FC, opposite the impressive buildings of the primary school. My second football club, followed by my second school. The footie club is having a poor season, second from bottom in the North Devon league. I have to say it looked like a bleak and cold place to play. I suppose one of the things I really liked about Kilk was its sense of community. The village is big enough to have retained traditional shops like a toy shop and family butchers, yet small enough for everyone to know each other. On the downside, it is cold, windy, and has a main road running through it.
A long, straight road of two miles brought me to Stibb. Along the road, I passed what was probably the duchy’s least popular tourist attraction, a collection of tanks. There was just one vehicle in the car park. I teetered, but decided against it, as I didn’t fancy being pounced on by some army guy obsessed with tanks. A little further on, some men in a brand new audi stopped to ask me directions to Morwenstow FC. It was the first time I was able to apply my newly-gained knowledge of Cornwall. A great moment indeed. Stibb is a pleasant little village. A couple of miles from the amenities of Kilk, and a couple of miles from a sandy beach, the residents of Stibb (stibbites maybe?) live in a very nice place indeed.
I had a long road descent to get down to the beach. Unfortunately my left knee was starting to give me grief from all the road walking. This was exacerbated by jumping over big pools of water left by the tide on Sandymouth beach. I didn’t need to go right down to the beach, but its beauty was too hard to resist. At low tide, this beach really is a gem. Its inaccessibility is a bonus. After admiring this beach for a few minutes, I made my way back along the rugged coastline (in great pain) to the car.
Once again, another fantastic day out in North Cornwall. Three churches and one football club seems to be a continuing theme. This is a great place to live, mainly because of the proximity to a spectacular coastline. However, with an almost constant exposure to cold and windy weather, I am not sure it would be my ideal place to live.

Dan two stats:

Places visited: five (Cumulative twelve): Coombe (GR209118), Kilkhampton (253114), Thurdon (286110), Forda (276111), Stibb (226107).

Height gained: 545m (cumul. 1,190m)

Highest altitude reached: 180m (GR260112, nr Kilkhampton)

Started walking: 9.30am. Finished walking: 3.30 pm.

Total distance walked: 15 miles (cumul. 30 miles), 10 on-road (cumul 19), 5 off-road (cumul.11)

Map used: OS Explorer 126

Interesting links:

http://www.thisisnorthcornwall.com/kilkhampton.html

http://www.northdevonfootballleague.org.uk/