The scout had seen the transmitter at Huntshaw Cross from Codden Hill and Fullabrook Down and so set off from Eggesford to look from the commanding position of the isolated installation.
The scout climbed out of the valley and stopped in Burrington, not the most picturesque village in Devon, but still a working one, dominated by J. Pickard & Co., the agricultural and seed merchants. Within this long established family firm’s Country Store, the scout found the Burrington Community Shop. He doubted that he would find anywhere else on his ride so he bought a pasty and a fruit drink to take with him, hoping that there would be somewhere sheltered from the wind around lunchtime.
The scout took refuge from a shower beneath a tree when he reached the B3217 between Winkleigh and High Bickington. Then he continued, not quite into the wind, along quiet undulating roads, past scrubland and holiday lets, to the place whose name he always thinks of along with Stockland Hill, Beacon Hill and Waddles Down.
Lunch was eaten next to this isolated installation and was undisturbed.
The wind kept grabbing the handlebars so the scout’s descent from the high ground was not as rapid as he would have liked. He was soon in Alverdiscott, where he had last been in the 1980s, when the North Devon Show was held at a local farm.
Down Bartridge Hill and back up again brought the scout to Newton Tracey.
Yellow signs warned of a complete road closure at St. John’s Chapel. The scout normally continues in the hope that pedestrians can get through, but scaffolding occupied the whole width of the road. Fortunately, there was a very short way around the obstruction and it was then mostly downhill to the madness of Barnstaple’s motor traffic, which he encountered at Roundswell. He escaped along Old Bideford Road and dropped down Old Sticklepath Hill to the station.
