Ilfracombe, Devon 

Accommodation: The Olive Branch 

Weather: Cold and mostly overcast, windy. Evening Sunny - Min 9, Max 13

Feelings: Henk: Relaxed  Di: Relaxed

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was perfect weather and today it’s cold, windy and overcast but the good thing is, it’s not raining. When we woke we could see that the sea was very choppy. We had already decided not to go to nearby Lundy Island as it was a two hour boat ride to get there, four hours on the island and a two hours return trip arriving back at 6.00pm. As a person who gets chronic seasickness four hours on a boat is not my idea of a rest day. Henk wasn’t keen either at getting back so late. We learned later the boat was cancelled due to the bad weather. 

This is the first and only rest day on our 120 kms walk. We had a later breakfast of 8.30am in the cosy small restaurant/bar area which belongs to the guest house. Our host is very friendly having bought the building and set up the business post Covid. 

We spent three hours walking around the town and harbour. We set out at ten o’clock with our winter clothes and walked up the hill to the underwhelming High Street, along the ridge and down to the harbour. 

The tide was out in both the town’s harbours, Outer Harbour and Inner Harbour.

We walked past the Damien Hirst’s statue at the harbour entrance on the way up to St Nicholas’ Chapel which overlooks the harbour, town and the entrance to the Bristol Channel. The 20m stature called Verity is on loan to the town for twenty years. It’s quite a tourist attraction.  Interestingly Hirst lives in Ilfracombe. 

The cliff-top chapel dates back to 1321 and has served as a lighthouse since then to the present day and is said to be the oldest one in the country. The local Rotary Club restored and maintain the building. 

We came across the Ilfracombe Museum and its outer appearance was not inviting but it was worth the visit. Established in 1932 it is eccentric and quirky and has some fascinating collections as well as the traditional drawers of old museums full of pinned butterflies, moths and spiders and large glass boxes of taxidermy. The closet with the bats in bottles looking at us was a bit of a turn off. The quirkiest had to be the drawer with samples of wedding cakes dating back to 1897. They didn’t look too tasty. The volunteer at the museum thought it might be the only collection of old slices of wedding cakes in the world and we thought she might be correct!

We bought locally made fudge and ate it as we walked around the town and the harbour. It was delicious. There were so many different flavours from which to choose. Henk had the coffee and cream and I had the vanilla. 

After three hours of sightseeing we called it a day and spent the afternoon resting. 

Dinner was at a wonderful Italian restaurant, Giovanni & Luca across the street from Wetherspoons where we had last night’s dinner. For a Tuesday night it was quite busy and we both had delicious meals. For dessert Henk had Tiramisu which he said was excellent and I had an Affogato.

After dinner we strolled down to the harbour to see how different it looked with the higher tide. We didn’t stay too long as it was too chilly. 

Tomorrow we meet up with a walking buddy from Cornwall whom we met on the Le Puy to St Jean Pied De Port Camino. He will spend the day walking with us.