To New Quay on Feet
We canoed past the ruins of the old mining port New Quay a month or so ago, so this weekend I thought I'd see how hard it was to walk there.
Not too hard, it turns out, though you have to park in a car park much frequented by the insane downhill mountain bikers intent on throwing themselves down cliffs, and so I did not risk the hounds off the lead lest they should run up swiftly through the trees and make an accident. Mr Ruggie is in the lead, because he's very unlikely to do that.
That's a 'county road' we are walking on. Look, there's even a sign! Which is good, because otherwise I'd have called it an 'unsurfaced track'. I didn't know Devon had any un-tarmacked roads left.
There was nobody about at all down by the quay. Because we are very law-abiding, we did not hop over the low chain fences and go furtling down to the river. We just wandered along the footpath and admired the ruins.
Chimney ahead up on the ridge.
Rather to our surprise, the footpath led us to a railway.
An ancient-looking engine of some sort, abandoned on the verge. If you embiggen the photo it you might be able to see the frilly top on the chimney.
These were the footpath choices ahead of us. We decided it might be best to turn around at this point. The train must be the one that still runs from Morwellham Quay, a bit further upriver, which is run as a tourist attraction. I still don't fancy meeting it on the track though. That track on the right is going into the mine itself. I assume that can't be a footpath. Can it?
We wandered up the steps but they didn't lead anywhere.
And then back up the hill, along the bridleway this time. Peering up into the sunlit woods and wondering if the crashing sound is deer, mountain bikers or just the world's largest and most clumsy squirrel :
Squirrel....?
Not too hard, it turns out, though you have to park in a car park much frequented by the insane downhill mountain bikers intent on throwing themselves down cliffs, and so I did not risk the hounds off the lead lest they should run up swiftly through the trees and make an accident. Mr Ruggie is in the lead, because he's very unlikely to do that.
That's a 'county road' we are walking on. Look, there's even a sign! Which is good, because otherwise I'd have called it an 'unsurfaced track'. I didn't know Devon had any un-tarmacked roads left.
There was nobody about at all down by the quay. Because we are very law-abiding, we did not hop over the low chain fences and go furtling down to the river. We just wandered along the footpath and admired the ruins.
Chimney ahead up on the ridge.
Rather to our surprise, the footpath led us to a railway.
An ancient-looking engine of some sort, abandoned on the verge. If you embiggen the photo it you might be able to see the frilly top on the chimney.
These were the footpath choices ahead of us. We decided it might be best to turn around at this point. The train must be the one that still runs from Morwellham Quay, a bit further upriver, which is run as a tourist attraction. I still don't fancy meeting it on the track though. That track on the right is going into the mine itself. I assume that can't be a footpath. Can it?
We wandered up the steps but they didn't lead anywhere.
And then back up the hill, along the bridleway this time. Peering up into the sunlit woods and wondering if the crashing sound is deer, mountain bikers or just the world's largest and most clumsy squirrel :
Squirrel....?
