A long delay at Wrafton while on his ride to Ilfracombe in 2023 meant that the scout could not include the wind power station.
To fill a gap in his North Devon ride in June, he detrained at Copplestone and rode to Eggesford for the next one, stopping at the midway point on the turnpike.
How many turnpikes between a town and a city are exactly 40 miles long?
The guard at Eggesford asked the scout where he was going, in case it was a request stop, but didn’t ask to see his ticket on the way. The scout remarked on this when he joined the cheery fellow in the vestibule on the approach to Barum. His ticket machine’s battery was flat, he said. Perhaps they are no longer issued with excess pads. Anyway, the scout showed him his pass.
“Which firm were you with?” asked the guard. “British Railways,” replied the scout. “Ah, a proper train company,” came back the guard. “We didn’t always think so at the time, but it’s proven true since,” the scout conceded.
At the junction, the scout soon set off towards Crow Point, stopping briefly at Velator Quay to take a few more photos.
Braunton
The scout certainly understood the value of having a shed; he often spends the day in one at Christow, happily without any company.
He bought his lunch at Cawthorne’s Foodmarket next to the former level crossing and sat reading the paper and watching the life of the place, such as it was.
Then he went to the busy junction at the centre of the village and turned into East Street, where the climb to Fullabrook Down soon began.
The scout continued the fairly gentle climb until he came to a place where he could count all 22 turbines. He was moved to start talking into the camera’s muffled microphones while taking some moving images.
He carried on along a track which he took to be a public bridleway, but which is in fact a byway. A Land Rover sped past while the scout was perched on a hedge bank; the road’s condition deters use by all traffic. The scout wondered how much construction material and how many turbine parts came this way.
Our Wind Farms – A Legacy of Renewable Energy Sources in the UK.
The rough byway joined the straight old road between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe. Although there were some uphill pulls, these naturally were followed by long descents.
The scout passed the former L. & B’s. Pilton Yard on his way into town. He rode to the station to find that he had missed the 1733 by an amount of time that he could have saved at various places, often waiting for the sun to reappear for a photograph.
In need of grease and a beverage, he found a dirty, scruffy corner shop that would have looked at home in Bristol. When he got back to the station, there wasn’t so long to wait for the 1838 to Exmouth.
He returned to the utilicon, with shopping still to do at Marsh Barton, having clocked 40 miles.