The One Where They Abandon Following The Route

Saturday 5 May – Launceston to Bridestowe

Britain is a maze of paths and ways. Some – like the South West Coast path – are well-formed, well-signed and take the obvious route. They are a pleasure to follow.

But then there was today’s route, the Two Castles Trail.

If you deliberately set out to plan a route that took you through poorly marked fields, up the steepest hill available, and through fields of bulls, you couldn’t have done a better job than the creator of the Two Castles Trail. We soon learned that the extremely quiet country lanes were preferable to the frustration of being lost in yet another field, generally the muddiest and boggiest one available, wondering where the next stile was. If there was a competition for Britain’s Most Pointless Path, the Two Castles Trail would be a top contender.

Once on the country lanes, though, we made good progress, and could enjoy the day.

It was a stunning day, too – sunny and warm and the English countryside was at its absolutely magnificent, glorious best, rolling hills, green hedgerows, leafy trees, bluebells and all sorts of other flowers along the lanes in the shade. And we needed the shade by early afternoon: in the still air it actually got quite warm.

We were starting to flag a bit when we spotted those magical words: “ afternoon teas”. So we stopped at Lewtrenchard Manor for a scrumptious cream tea – Devonshire, of course, because by now we had crossed into Devon, our second county on the route. Suitably refreshed and reinvigorated, we completed the rest of this long day to our night’s accommodation, the Fox & Hounds pub near Bridestowe, on the edge of Dartmoor.

Distance today – 29km