SWCP: SOUTH DEAN CAMPSITE TO COMBE MARTIN
DAY 5 - MIZZLE AND MISERY
I had a rough night. I didn’t sleep well and felt off. I had no energy, and I was in a foul mood, which is relatively uncommon for me. The mizzle wouldn’t stop, so we packed our kit and finally packed a wet tent. I carry my tent on the side pocked of my pack, so it’s not a big deal. We’ll just dry it out when we set it up again hoping it would be a dry night as forecast. We headed straight towards the path, but were met with a barbwire fence. Not wanting to walk around all the way back, we climbed over a metal gate without issues.
When leaving the campsite, just walk to the from the first paddock through the opening in the wall to the paddock which is towards Combe Martin and you should see an opening leading to the path.
The path is relatively flat out of South Dean, but it’s pretty rocky so you have to watch your step.
The mizzle was dense, as were the winds blowing from inland. My legs felt heavy and I didn't want to talk at all. I told H to go ahead, leave me alone for now and I'd catch up with her. The path turned into a rock road. It was pretty flat, but again not easy walking due to loose rocks.
After walking slowly on my own in heavy side wind, we reached the area of Great Hangman. I had forgotten all about the biggest climb of the hike and wasn’t pleasantly surprised. I switched on my stoic mode and decided to take it as it comes, a bit by bit.
Before the climb to Great Hangman, there is a slippery, steep grassy path going down to a stream.
We took our time and reached the stream with a small bridge. As the stream was sheltered with some trees, we decided to have a break and a bit to eat before the big climb. H brewed a cup of coffee and we filtered some water. I wanted to be hydrated before the big climb. After a nice break, we started the climb. The mizzle was still persistent, it was very humid, and we were out of the wind for now, so the sweat was very pervasive. I took off my rain jacket and decided to brave the mizzle which was luckily thinning out a bit. As my legs felt heavy, I too my time taking a few breaks during the climb. The grade was just a bit too steep for my endurance level. We reached the false summit, which was a paddock with sheep. Walking pass the paddock we encountered a big (wild?) horse munching on gorse, which it kept ripping off the side of the wall. I guess the horse was used being fed by walkers, as it started to approach us. We veered around it, but H was thinking of making friends with it. That was a wrong decision, while we passed the horse, it started following us and tried to nip H’s arm. We tried to speed up a bit, but the horse followed up. Luckily there was some other walkers, a tourist couple coming towards from the summit. We warned them about the overly friendly horse and were glad that they’d be facing the horse instead of it following us. The horse directed its interest in the couple and we were scot-free.
Suddenly the real summit appeared from the mizzle.
We were at the top. Unfortunately the mizzle meant that we had no views more than some tens of metres, so basically nothing. There was no place to sit and it was very windy at the top, so decided to move on after couple of misty photos. The path would be gradually dropping down until a very steel descent close to Combe Martin. While the trail was now easy going, I was having tough time keeping going.
The weather was gradually improving, and with it, visibility. By the time we had Combe Martin in sight, it was almost sunny. I managed to slip the one time on this whole hike before Combe Martin. The path was slightly rocky and I didn’t think twice about stepping on exposed rock doing slightly downhill, but it turned out to be very slippery slate. It was more slippery than the mud on the trail for some reason. Luckily I only got couple of scratches on back on my legs. We arrived to Little Hangman and the path goes around it before the views open to Combe Martin.
There is a ridge walk and after that there’s a steep drop to Combe Martin. We reached Combe Martin and found a pub serving meals all day. I had probably the biggest BLT sandwich I’ve ever had. After our late lunch, we went for some ice cream, actually the only ice cream of the whole hike, despite SWCP is famous for pasties and ice cream. Google Maps omits quite a bit of information about services in Combe Martin. There are now three ice cream parlours, two pubs and a convenience store.
After out ice cream, we head out to our campsite. Newberry Valley Touring & Camping site doesn’t require bookings for hikers, which is nice and they have a dedicated area for hikers. While the area is sheltered, it’s still between the main campsite and park, so ear plugs are recommended.
The facilities are great; nice showers and toilets. The campsite reception has drinks and snacks for sale, and the site is close to Combe Martin’s pubs & cafes.
Unfortunately I ended up getting much more familiar with the toilets than I would’ve liked. We set up the tent and were planning to enjoy the pizza van which visits on Saturday nights. About two hours after arriving to the campsite, I suddenly needed to run off to the toilet. I had caught some kind of stomach virus and ended up running to the toilet every hour or so. I tried to keep hydrated, but wasn’t thirsty. I ended up napping and running to the toilet throughout the evening. At around 2am I woke and had to rush out of the tent and just made it before I threw up four times. While I felt a bit better, this didn’t stop the regular visits to the toilet. Safe to say I didn’t enjoy the night.