Lands End to John o’Groats 2024 Part 4 – Exeter to Bristol

Hi it’s Thursday the 14th of March 2024 I’m spending a few months walking from L end to Jonah Gro this morning I’m in exitor and today I’m just walking 13 Mi up to cumpton so this part of the walk up to Bristol I think of as just the the

M5 walk cuz I’m just following the towns that follow the M5 Motorway up to Bristol so I’ll be going to Colton Wellington taon Bridgewater and so on and I’ll just be staying in hotels because there’s I’ll be going through these somerset levels and that’s a very flat area all agricultural land so it’s

Quite difficult to look for wild camping spots and this time of year the hotels are quite affordable so I’ll be just staying in hotels for the next few days I’m going up Beacon Hill I can get a nice view of exitor from here I think

On a clear day I would be able to see dark Moore over in the distance there’s going to be another sort of murky day today unfortunately so I’m heading for a little place called palore just arrived in the small village of Baltimore very pretty Street there’s lots of thatched

Cottages so I’m just going to continue through the lanes towards the village of Brad n I’m using the Ordinance survey app on this walk which is quite handy it just shows a little red arrow where I am so just approaching bradich it doesn’t work offline though that’s the only problem

And I think it’s about £30 but considering uh an Ordinance survey map now it’s got I think it’s about 11 or 12 it does pay for itself and another app I use is the Kut app spelled k o and that’s handy because it’s got an offline

Feature as well so you can pre-plan a route put it on the app and then just follow it even if if there’s no broadband signal that’s handy on places like Dart mall so just approaching Brad nich just arrived in the center of Brad nich this is a nice quiet little village

There’s a spar shop here as well so I’m just going to pop in and get a nice can of cold drink then carry on to cumpton according to my kamut at this about another 2.7 miles from here so another hour and I should be in the center of Colton just arriv in the center of Colton well I can’t say that was the most exciting day I’ve had on this walk I’m just been walking through country lanes in this uh dark gray gloomy weather all morning but I think tomorrow I’m heading up to Wellington Monument so

I think hope to get some nice views from there on the way to Wellington so I’m just going to look for my hotel now oh little bit drier today so today nice 14 m walk I’m heading up to the black down Hills where I’m going to visit Comstock Beacon and Wellington

Monument and then it’s just a 1 hour walk from the monument going to Wellington where I’ll be staying tonight just arrived in the village of afom there a convenience store there and a nice sheltered seat so I’m just going to have a little break and then carry on to

Cstock then I should be getting quite close to the somerset border I’ve just arrived at the black down Hills I’m just approaching cstock Beacon or I hope to get a good view of the countryside just arrived at Comstock Beacon so hundreds of years ago this would have formed part of a network of

Beacons around Southern England so in case of invasion they could all be lit to send the a message that the country was being invaded so this was used in 1588 when the Spanish Amada came this isn’t the original Beacon this was built in 1870 although I guess it they built it

To resemble the original Beacon so from here it’s just a short walk to the Wellington Monument just arrived at the Wellington Monument so the monument was built in honor of Sir Arthur Welsley who was the Duke of Wellington after his victory at watero although sarur Welsley he didn’t

Actually have any real connection with with the town of Wellington his family actually came from Ireland but he was offered the peage by the British government and so he accepted it and then then he became Duke of Wellington although I don’t think he visited the Titan of Wellington very much

I looking down towards Wellington where I’m heading down to so right time to head down to Wellington and my hotel for the night just arrived in the center of Wellington so that’s the end of another day’s walk so tomorrow I think it’s a quite an easy walk to

Taunton for just checking into the hotel I think it’s just staying there so until tomorrow morning good night so today it’s just a 12 mile walk to uh Taunton there is a there a public foot path I think but I’ll be sticking to the roads today because the problem

I’ve had ever since living L’s Zend is the all the foot paths are really water logged and it’s like it’s been like walking through a quog m because in Britain we’ve had the wetest February since 1766 I think we’ve had over twice the rainfall and March has become a bit

Of a soggy month as well so it’s been quite difficult walk through all the foot paths so I think for much of the time up to Bristol I’ll be sticking to the road so when I I get to Bristol on March the 21st I don’t know whether they

Just to wait until April that’s about 9 or 10 days and then continue onwards because I would like to head into Wales and do the Cambrian way which is a very scenic route across Wales from Cardiff up to Conway on the North Coast well I

Think at the moment it may be a bit very boggy so I hope like if I leave it until April then it would be a lot more uh drier to walk along so today I’m heading to toron it’s not very interesting route this but I think toron there’s some nice historic

Uh buildings in the Town Center just arrived in the center of taon I’m just going to have a sit down for 10 minutes and then have a look at the historic buildings so this is the jetah tavern and the outside of the building dates back to 1578 but the interior interior of the

Building dates back to the 1300s and is recently restored by Cafe Nero who now own the property this is the town center it’s a very busy Saturday afternoon just going back in towards uh taon Castle this is thoron Castle this building dates back to the 12th

Century and the castle has seen a few se beses it was besieged during the wars of the Roses in 1451 and during the English Civil War it was besieged three times it was controlled by the parliamentarian soldiers and on the other side of the the castle Courtyard I think they call

This the the inner Courtyard part of the town this is the old municipal buildings and part of the this building dates back to 152 22 and this was heavily damaged during the Civil War as well but it’s it’s since been uh rebuilt right I’m off to my hotel to

Rest my feet so here ends another day of walking across Somerset this is a part of the walk I’ve been looking forward to this is the Taunton 2 Bridgewater canal and this is about a 15m walk and I think this is quite a popular rout of people either

Hiking or cycling the leog so I’m just going to follow the the toron and Bridgewater Canal now to I hotel in Bridgewater I’m just approaching a World War II pill box I think there’s several of these along the canal because in in 1940 there of course there was a

Possibility that the of there was a threat of invasion and so they as well as these safe Coast defenses they also built a network of what they call stop lines around the country and this pill box formed part of the Taunton stop line and the stop line was so in case the

Invading forces managed to uh invade England successfully and then Advanced towards London the country would be sort of divided into these areas with the stop lines and so and they would try and stop the enemy so the Taunton stop Line This was a 50 mile defensive line I think it started was

Started in north sumerset on the I think it’s like near Highbridge went down to the river ax in Devon and the plan was if the if the if Hitler’s Army had invaded the Southwest cor corn and Deon they were trying to stopped them here at the canal until further reinforcements came

And then they would try and force them back but I think there’s quite a few of these along the line I hope to see a few more on my walk just arrived at one of the locks on the canal just arrived in the center of Bridgewater so just heading over to my

Hotel tomorrow I’m heading up to the North Coast I’m going up to Burnham on sea and then Western Superman which I’m quite looking forward to because I I might be able to see Cardiff on the other side of the Bristol Channel because of course that’s what I’m

Heading for in a couple weeks time so until tomorrow morning good night quite a straightforward walk today I’m just following the river parrot to the North Somerset coast and then I’ll be staying in Burnham on SE tonight there’s several more World War II pill boxes on this route because the

River parrot formed part of the Taunton stop line as well so I guess I’ll be seeing a few of these along the way as well I’ve just arrived at the seafront at burnam on sea this is Burnham Pier which I believe is the shortest pier in the

Country they’ve got a nice Big Sandy Beach at burnam mon sea but again it’s still a bit too cold to be spending a day at the seaside so I’m now going to go over to my hotel and tomorrow it’s just a short walk along the coast to Western

Supermare and then to uh nail sea and then to brist I’m just approaching bamon se’s low Lighthouse this is quite a nice looking building it it was first used in 1832 and I read online it’s actually still used today this is a grade two listed building well it’s a really big beach

This it’s really nice for walking along I’m just going to consult my app in a minute and see if I can do most of the walk up to Western super mar along the beach this is a very large region of sand called the Barrow Flats it’s really nice for walking along

Because sometimes walking along a beach The Rock sack can be a bit bit of a struggle for example chazel beach in Dorset that that’s all like lots of lots of tiny little Pebbles and that’s absolutely awful for walking along with a big rock sack there some beaches if

It’s really dry dry fine sand that can be a bit of a struggle as well but this is just right the the dampness of the Sand’s brilliant just really motoring along so I should be getting to rest in supermare in good time today getting quite close to Western

Superare that church on the cliff that’s the old church of St Nicholas I’m just going to go up there and admire the view I’m just approaching a small Tower overlooking Western supermare according to my hiking app this used to be an 18th wind that’s the view of Western

Superman in the old church I’m going to go to in a few minutes time I think it’s called how Rock just over in the distance and breing down on top of it this is the route I just came this morning looking back down towards burnam on

Sea just arrived at the old church of St Nicholas this dates back to 1080 just going up to the top to admire the views for so from here it’s just a 45 minute walk down to the Sea front just arrived in the center of Western supermare so I’ve got a couple of hours

Before the Hotel opens up I’m just going to have a wander along the seafront very mundane day today I’m spending few days walking to Bristol and today I’m walking to a small village called Farley is near the T of MC I’m sing in a pub called The George

But I’m just walking through country L today and it’s it’s going to be another gray and gloomy day so I don’t think I’ll be doing much filming and tomorrow I’ll be heading into Bristol I’ll be crossing the Clifton suspension bridge which is the best to travel into Bristol of

Course so I’m hoping to do a bit more filming tomorrow well I have to say that was was a pretty boring walk but it didn’t rain so it stayed dry today so that so that was okay so tomorrow I’m I’ve got a 12mile walk to my hotel in North Bristol

And there I’ll be having a couple days couple of days break before continuing onwards to uh Cardiff so this morning I’m heading to the Village of long Ashton and then from there I’m walking over to the Bristol suspension bridge and then it’s I’ll be heading up to North Bristol Premier in

In North Bristol where I’ll be stopping for tonight just arrived in Long Ashton I can see Bristol over in the distance from here so from here I’m just going to go for a walk through Ashton Court Country Park on the way to the Clifton suspension bridge that’s a very nice Victorian

Gothic style entrance to the park just arrived at Ashton Court manor house this is a very impressive building it dates back to the 11th Century that’s when they first started to build a Mana house here but it’s been they’ve added parts to it over the centuries it’s now a grade one listed

Building so from here it’s about a mile to the suspension bridge just arrived at Clifton suspension bridge there’s a nice picnic area just over on the other side so I’m just going to wander over there now nice view of Bristol and the river Avon Nice view of the suspension bridge from here I always thought it was designed by is lomard Kingdom Brunell but he he actually made an earlier Design This was built by a couple of chaps called William barow and uh John hankshaw and it opened in 1864 and they their design was based on

An earlier design by Brunell it’s now a tall bridge right another 5 miles or so to my hotel I used to work in North Bristol before I took retirement many years ago so I’m quite familiar with this area this is a very nice wooded park in North

Bristol I’m just heading up to a 18th century Folly called Blaze Castle it’s a tower on top of a hill I’ve just arrived at Blaze Castle castle and this is a castle Folly it was built in 1766 and nowadays it’s a grade two listed building and it’s all part of the all

This Parkland it’s owned it’s called The Blaze Castle estate there’s also a large mansion on the way to my hotel so I’ll be having a look at that as well but there’s some nice views from here I’m just going to have a look I think this is looking safe where I’ve just

Came so time to continue to the hotel and this is Blaze mansion house I think nowadays it’s a museums artifact from the 18th and 19th centuries just arrived in Scythe gluster just arrived at Premier Inn in North Bristol so I’m just here’s where I just

Going to have a break for a few days now I want to get some new boot boots and stuff and just hopefully wait and see if the weather starts getting a bit drier and the ground starts drying out a bit and then I’ll I’ll continue onwards to

Cardiff and the Cambrian way so I’m going to upload this video now and start my next video when I continue into Wales so thank you very much for watching my video and I hope to upload my next video in a couple weeks time bye