Post by Dave on Sept 13, 2010 18:11:59 GMT
Ayrmer Cove A Hidden Gem
It was a case today that we could not think of anywhere to go and so we lost some of the day racking our brains and then after checking all the usual sites for new walks, I came across a site I had not seem before and on it there was the most perfect walk for us to this afternoon.
The walks title was Ayrmer Cove the hidden gem and they sure got that right and this walk had everything from walking down an old smugglers lane to the secluded unspoilt cove with magnificent costal views, returning through fields, woodland and finally back through the village of Ringmore to get back to the car park.
To get to the start of the walk you take the road to Bigbury On Sea (Burgh Island) and take a right turn at Bigbury to Ringmore, when you get to Ringmore just drive through this very small village and a bit further on you will see a lane on the right that is sign posted to Ayrmer Cove car park.
Park up and at the end of the car park you see a gate to go through and you are then walking in the old smugglers lane. Its just over three quarters of a mile long before you will get to the cove and our first plan was just to walk to the cove and then back to the car park the way we had come.
The cove is very beautiful and Carol sat on a bench just above the beach and I then went of exploring. On the right hand side of the beach you can get through the gaps in the rocks and then it’s a play ground in the rock pools and I will confess I was like a big kid playing and I really had such fun despite nearly falling in a few of the larger rock pools as I picked my way over the rocks to get as far as I could.
Play time over and time to make my way back to the cove and find my Carol who was no longer sitting on that bench where I had left her, she had not gone too far and once reunited we decided to carry on and do the whole walk.
I was starting to regret that decision as we climbed up the path that would take us to the top of the cliff, my poor old legs are fine when we walk up gentle hills, but they sure don’t like steep inclines and they make sure they let me know.
It was worth it in the end as the views are really great up there and you get a good view of Burgh Island, still I made the excuse I wanted to take some more photos from that spot just so I could recover from the walk up from the cove.
At the top of the cliff it’s through a gate (number 1 of 3) and the sign tells you it’s the way to Ringmore. The first field is mostly up hill and once again I was feeling those muscles in the backs of my legs. Across the Ringmore valley the fields looked so green and one of the fields had loads of sheep in it. Then all of a sudden you could see the shadow of a very large cloud moving across the field and turning the bright green grass almost black.
Through gate number two and into a really nice field full of wild colourful flowers with a few poppies mixed in with them, don’t worry it was not some secret drug growing field but we were getting a bit more concerned with all the gun fire we kept hearing, so I told my Carol to keep her eyes peeled just in case.
Through gate number three and make sure you turn to your right down over this field and not carry on walking across it and at the bottom you will see a gate that goes into very delightful woodland. It’s a strange sort of woods as the path is very narrow and there is a big drop down should you lose your footing, the path snakes its way down the wooded hillside much like a road in the Swiss Alps.
It was to be expected Carol would end up with what is now a customary trade mark large bruise on her bum from our walks as she lost her footing and just had to land on the only rock to be found on the whole path in the woods. Still gave me the chance to rub it better for her and these days I have to take any opportunity that comes my way to get a little rub of that still nice shaped bottom.
At the end of the woods path is a five bar gate, go through walk straight on for a short wile and cross over what is described as a bridge over a stream where you can see trout and if your lucky kingfishers. Sorry I think tadpoles would struggle to survive in that stream let alone trout.
One more five bar gate to go through and soon the path comes to a fork, the left fork looked liked it was going into a farm and so we took the right one and soon realised we were probably walking back to the cove.
So back to the fork and a slow careful walk up the sloop to discover the path carries on past the left hand side of the farm that looked deserted anyway and eventually back to the church at the start of the village.
For some strange reason Carol never wants to go inside any of the churches we come across and so she sat down outside while I went in to have a look around. I find it a bit spooky being in a church on my own, I always get the feeling someone is watching me, maybe they are after all it is a house of god and you would expect him to be home wouldn’t you.
Out of the church and straight across the road to walk past some delightful thatched cottages and you only have about half a mile to go to get back to the car park. A really great walk once again and all that was left to do was to get something to eat on the way home.
We called into Kingsbridge and parked it the quay car park, making sure we parked as far away as possible from the very large group of boy racers who were showing off their cars. Well I had to as if I had parked close to them in my F2 Evo, the word would have soon spread around the town that the oldest boy racer known to man was in town.
