You’ll be glad to know we survived the steep hills of North Somerset once again (well, anything is steep when you live in a flat area of the UK!). This time we chose a 5 night stay near the village of Porlock, famous for its hill – it has the steepest gradient of any A road in the UK and has been used for motor and cycle racing over the years. Luckily, we didn’t have to take Lizzie II along this route!
Firstly, we explored the village of Porlock via a steep 30-minute walk, so the lovely coffee in the Old Library was definitely appreciated! Then we went down towards the sea
and the Saltmarsh to find the WWII memorial for the american Liberator and its crew that crashed after clipping Bossington Hill in bad weather.
The next day, we did the same, stopping at Bake me Crazy for some delicious cakes, and then walked further around the Saltmarsh (part of the South West Coast Path)
and on to the tiny harbour of Porlock Weir for a well-deserved beer and fish & chips in the Bottom Ship. We returned back along the woods, along the edge of Greencombe Gardens (sadly closed the day we were there, but the rhododendrons looked fabulous through the fence) and back up the hill to our campsite.
Next day was an easier walk to Allerford, with its double arched packhorse bridge,
coffee and cake (we tried the famous exmoor whortleberry jam) at the village shop and then up towards Selworthy through lovely wild flower lined tracks and over the fields back to camp, admiring the new born lambs along the way.
Our final walk was through the ancient oak and temperate rainforest of Horner Woods – with interesting track names like Granny’s Ride and Cats Scramble (glad we came down that one rather than up – it was very steep in places!) – oh and goats.
It was more of a hike than we’d anticipated but enjoyable, and we slept well that night.
We really enjoyed the peace and quiet of this little part of Exmoor, especially at this time of year with the spring flowers blooming and we even got to listen to the owls hooting in the trees just behind our van.
Site Used
Burrowhayes Farm – camping and riding school