Around Bigbury Bay (more River Avon)

19 July
We tried to take the dinghy up to Aveton Gifford but ran out of water as the tide was going out. After paddling back into deeper water with one of the oars, we re-started the outboard and headed back downstream to the boathouse at Upper Cellars. After exploring the tiny village of Bantham and finding a postbox for my postcards, we headed for the coastal path to get a different view of the bay – unfortunately we forgot the camera so couldn’t take any more pictures! We walked around as far as the beach, then found yet another notice saying “No Dogs”. This part of Devon seems to be fairly anti-dogs as everywhere we go there are notices about penalties for all the bad things your dog can do, and intended prosecutions and bannings if owners are caught. Since we are never without poo bags and always have Pippin on a lead near livestock or roads, we weren’t overly concerned about the notices but it seems that our little minx isn’t very welcome around here.

We walked to Thurlestone via the cross-country path which promised to get us there in half a mile. Nearly a mile of scrambling uphill through brambles later, we found ourselves at the top of a field next to a house. I guess this must be Thurlestone then! The path ended at a road so we wandered down to the crossroads, dodging 4x4s, a BT van and somewhat incongruously an Ocado delivery van! There was nothing at the crossroads other than more houses, not even a pub for a quick drink, so we headed back to the path and took the alternative route back via the coastal path, avoiding the dog-hating beach.Since we were well exercised and hence quite tired by then, we went back to Talia for lunch. The afternoon was spent on general maintenance of the silette leg (like a giant outboard leg at the back of the boat) and scrubbing some slime and weed from the rudders and part of the hulls. As there are more than 40 metres of hull to scrub (each hull has 2 sides in the water), it will come as no surprise to learn that we only did the worst bits and left quite a lot of slime in place!