You may have heard of the South West Coast Path (SWCP), it’s England’s longest footpath, stretching for 630 miles (1,014 km), running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. It runs round our own Baggy Point and Croyde Bay. It’s a really challenging trail as it rises and falls with every river mouth, I can vouch for this from personal experience! The total height climbed has been calculated to be 114,931 ft (35,031 m), almost four times the height of Mount Everest. It is listed as one of the world’s best walks, and I can thoroughly recommend doing it, if not the whole thing then just a day walk.

Channel 5 are showing a great TV series about it at the moment which you can watch on the Channel 5 player. If you are familiar with the North Devon Coast you will recognise a lot of the scenery in the first episode.

Read more about the South West Coast Path on its website, and I found this Encounter walking holidays website a great day-by-day guide to the route.

* Update April 2017 * The roadworks are now finished!

In March 2017 there are roadworks which have closed Caen Street in Braunton, this prevents access to Saunton Road (B3231) which is the quickest and easiest route in to Croyde. There is an official diversion with yellow signs in place which you can follow, but it’s a huge detour (35+ minutes!). The council have used this long route as it is suitable for larger vehicles.

There are two shorter routes to Croyde, they both involve some narrow country lanes, but save a lot of time, especially as there is not much traffic at this time of year. Please be careful on these country lanes, especially in the dark, as they are twisty and there may be traffic coming in the other direction. Remember the last passing place you pass, and how far back it was, in case you need to back up to allow an oncoming vehicle to pass.

Braunton Burrows

This probably has less single track road than going via Georgeham, but be very careful as there are three small hump back bridges and occasionally runners/pedestrians on the route. Note: If there is heavy rainfall avoid this route as it could be flooded.

Georgeham

This is the route to Croyde a lot of SatNavs will suggest anyway.