SWCP: LYNTON TO LYNTON
Day 3 - Sheltering from The Storm
A cooked breakfast to order was provided by the B&B. The weather outside was crazy; light mizzle (mist & drizzle), very humid, hot sunshine and heavy winds on exposed areas to the extent H almost lost her cap and you couldn’t wear a jacket unzipped. We popped into the ironically named Costcutter for supplies, where the prices in some items were double of those in the supermarkets. There is also a Londis in Lynton, which is a small off-licence with some fresh fruit and baked goods, but the selection is about three times of Costcutter’s. Definitely resupply in Londis. T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶n̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶k̶e̶r̶y (we found out the next morning that it had ceased trading) next to the Valley of Rocks hotel, worth getting the lunch for the day. If you fancy a laugh, Google reviews of the cheap and not so cheerful hotel are a must read.
I stayed in the room replanning the next sections and creating GPX files for navigation. We will be breaking the section into smaller chunks where the campsites allow. H who recovered much quicker from the previous section went out to explore Lynton and Lynmouth. The weather was crazy, but the hard rain of the tropical storm never materialised, yet when H returned, she was completely soaked from the mizzle which seems to wet more than regular rain.
Lynton has some amazing restaurants. An award winning Indian takeaway called the Spicy Mare, but it’s only open on Fri-Sat and Mon-Tue. It’s a one woman operation and she does everything from scratch. Unfortunately we’d miss out as we would leave on Friday morning. There’s also a very nice looking steakhouse called Old Bank, however Thursday is Mexican night at the Charlie Friday’s Coffee Shop and I managed to burn my mouth a bit with a hot burrito.
Our room looks the backpacks have exploded. We have clothes hanging off the curtain rail and floor covered with dry bags. The tropical storm turned out to be a bit of a wet rag. Not very potent but air filled with mizzle getting everything wet. The rain should stop around 5am, so we’re having a late start hoping the path will have some time to dry out before we set off. The evening was filled with writing this and watching the Olympics.