Topsham river and canal walk

Today we thought we would make the most of the sunny weather, (seeing as this month has been a bit of a wash out weather wise!) and go for a long walk along the River Exe and Exeter Canal. We started our walk from Darts Farm car park (EX3 0QH), but for anyone who wants to do this walk a bit closer, there’s limited parking on Bowling Green Road or use the pay and display car park on Holman Way in Topsham (EX8 0EN). This walk ended up being just over 11 miles, but we did stop off at the pub on the way, and it wasn’t at all strenuous. It’s a popular walk with dogs, and the ferry we used was also dog friendly but there is a short walk along pavements by a busy main road. I wore walking boots for this walk but I can imagine some of the footpaths may get muddy after wet weather.

Views over the river from Topsham Lock Cottage

From Darts Farm we made our way to Topsham by walking along the pavement then the wooden footbridge opposite the Bridge Inn pub. We then followed the public footpaths which led us over a level crossing and soon onto the busy high street. For anyone who isn’t familiar with Topsham, its a beautiful little port town which has some lovely walks by the river, but also boasts some great independent shops and cafes. if you’re after a coffee or slice of cake, Sara’s Petitie Cuisine is my favourite place to go, not only are the cakes delicious but they’re so beautiful, just like the cafe itself! You’ll find most of the cafes and pubs are also dog friendly in Topsham. After a quick browse at the shops, we made our way down the steps by St Margaret’s Church and onto Ferry road, where we waited for the Topsham Ferry to take us across the river to Topsham Lock Cottage.

Beautiful views as we waited for the ferry

Topsham Ferry is currently only operating at weekends, there’s signage by the waiting area on prices and times that they operate as well as online (click here) There’s also a small charge for dogs, bikes and pushchairs. We did have to wait a short while, as numbers being allowed on the ferry were reduced to 6 people due to the current coronavirus guidance, but once aboard, it just took us a couple of minutes to cross to the other side of the water.

Topsham Lock Cottage by the canal

After we got off the boat, we crossed the bridge and stopped briefly to look at Topsham Lock Cottage beside Exeter Canal, before turning left and walking the public footpath towards Turf Locks. This walk had the canal to our left, with plenty of swans swimming past us, as well as a Heron looking for fish and kayakers enjoying a day on the water. I also spotted Powderham Folley in the distance, which reminded us that we need to visit Powderham Castle at some point in the near future. It wasn’t long before we arrived at our destination….Turf Locks, the pub you can arrive at by foot, boat or bike!

You’ll be treated to beautiful views of the estuary or canal at Turf Locks

Although the pub garden was (as always!) very busy, we were lucky to get a table to stop and have a bite to eat and a couple of drinks. We sat looking out towards the estuary, spotting Exmouth in the distance as we watched the boats sailing by. Just as we left we watched some paddle boarders arriving via the canal, and some people leaving on their boat which was moored opposite the pub, we then walked back the way we came until we reached the bridge where we arrived by boat.

Watching the boats sail by as we had our lunch

Instead of continuing on the footpath ahead, we crossed over the bridge and walked pass Topsham Lock Cottage, but first we admired the large wooden lock gates that the cottage sits beside and the views of Topsham across the water from the cottage garden. We then followed the path which had the river and Topsham on our right, and the canal on our left. There were plenty of kayakers and paddle boarders who passed us on the canal as we enjoyed the views of the water sparkling from the sun overhead. Once we passed under the M5 bridge, the path soon opened up and gave us an option to take a detour through the Wildlife Trust ‘Old Sludgebed’ Nature Reserve. We decided to take this path which took us along little bridges between reed beds until it soon brought as back out onto the footpath by the canal again.

Views from Topsham Lock Cottage garden

The large wooden lock gates next to the cottage

Watching some swans as we walked along the canal path

The footpath soon became sheltered for a short while, then opened out again as we walked past the South West Water site on our right. After a short walk, the footpath then becomes a road which leads us onto Bridge road, the main road coming off of Countess Weir. Here we crossed the road at the swing bridge and walked up towards Countess Weir, crossing at the next pedestrian crossing we came to. We then followed the blue National Cycle Network signs which took us through a housing estate then out along Topsham Road. As we were walking through the housing estate we did see a lovely little homemade book library in someones front garden, for people to borrow and swap books, we had a quick look, most of them were children’s books and in good condition, great for any children who may do this walk.

Views of Exeter Canal

We soon arrived at the garden centre along Topsham Road, here we took the public footpath to our right (just before the garden centre) which lead us through a small wooded trail where we followed the path straight ahead until we arrived at a large tree which interestingly had bricks cemented into it! From here we turned left though a gate and followed the clear path ahead which took us through reed beds then along the footpath beside the river. Now we were on Topsham side of the river again, looking over at the canal path we had just walked.

A rather interesting tree!

Views from the river footpath, Topsham side.

Unfortunately it was at this point that we had to turn back on ourselves, back onto Topsham road as we had arrived just a little too late to walk this path as the tide was coming in and beginning to cut off the footpath. It was just a little bit too deep for us to cross. This is one thing to note about this walk, there are plenty of signs at certain points along this stretch of the footpath which warn you that the incoming tide can cut the path off, so be warned if you are walking along here during high tide. We had no choice but to retrace our steps then walk pass the garden centre and back into Topsham high street that way. From here it was just a short walk back to the car at Dart’s Farm.

We had to turn back due to the incoming tide cutting off some of the footpath

Due to us having to retrace our steps, this walk was just over 11 miles. On a sunny day like today its an enjoyable walk, and there’s plenty of cafes and pubs to stop off at in Topsham itself, as well as the Turf Hotel by the canal. It’s useful to add that you can cycle this route, but the cycle path is on the other side of the canal (not beside the lock cottage) and you would need to use the cycle path along Topsham road instead of the river path on your way back to Topsham. Dogs and children would both enjoy this walk, as long as they are supervised close to the water. For anyone who didn’t want to get the ferry from Topsham to do the canal walk, there’s free parking beside the swing bridge along bridge road, as well as close to Turf locks. We hope to revisit this walk again soon, but do a round robin involving the train to Topsham from Exmouth, then the ferry to Turf Locks, and then the boat back to Exmouth again!

Geocaching in Kentisbeare

This is a post mainly aimed at those of you who are interested in geocaching, but the walk itself is still enjoyable and the footpaths and quiet country lanes are perfect for walking dogs. We’ve done a few geocaching series in Kentisbeare, and I’ll write up more about the others another time, but this one is focusing on the loop that leads towards Stoford Water and back again to the village, which was just under 3 miles and not too strenuous. I won’t say too much about where the caches were hidden, but there will be photo spoilers in this post!

We started the walk in the (surprisingly large) free car park in the village, which is located behind the church and village hall. (EX15 2AB) From here we walked down a public footpath to the right of St Mary’s Church. The pub here, The Wyndham Arms looked rather inviting as we walked past the beer garden and to the village square in front of it; we were tempted to pop in for a drink, but thought we had better press on with the walk instead.

Some countryside views from the footpath.

From here we walked up the road, passing the village stores and telephone box library on our left, then past some cottages before turning left onto a public footpath hidden away next to a national speed limit sign. This footpath took us past a cottage garden on our right, we admired the pretty flowers, vegetable patch and friendly chickens before crossing over a couple of stiles and entering another path next to a field on our left, where our first cache was located. There were beautiful views of the rolling hills from this path, but the footpath itself was a little overgrown with nettles. This wasn’t a problem for Jo, who was wearing trousers, but I thought it would be a good idea to wear shorts (seeing as it is summer!) so I did get stung a few times. Once we finally found the first geocache, (which took us longer than it should have, and we had a large group of cows watching us the whole time!) we crossed over another stile and walked down to the bottom of the field where we soon spotted another stile to cross over for our next cache.

The path through the wooded copse.

Over this stile our next geocache was waiting to be found. We knew it would be somewhere on the small bridge that crosses over the stream that leads to the local fishery lakes. Again, this one took us longer than it should have, considering I’ve found about 600 caches in the past, I couldn’t believe how slow we were at finding these ones today! This one was even in plain sight and in an interesting container; That’s one thing about this walk, children will love all the interesting and funny containers the cache owner has used on this loop. Once we found the cache and signed the log, we continued on ahead, followong a path through the wooded copse which soon led to a quiet country lane. The next cache wasn’t far away, and we found this sneaky one a lot quicker than the first two.

Some of the geocaches found in this series.

After signing the log, we continued up the lane to our next cache opposite an old farmhouse called ‘Lower Moneysland’. This cache was quick and easy to find, by a field full of corn. This was another funny container which I’m sure children will enjoy playing with. Our next cache was a bit further up the lane, in the small hamlet Stoford Water. We passed some pretty cottages and a garden full of roses before arriving at this next geocache. This one was probably the longest one to find as it was fairly small and hidden away very well. There were lots of ‘Did not finds’ logged for this geocache so we were pretty pleased we managed to find it in the end. Nobody likes a DNF when trying to complete a series!

Beautiful views from the top of the footpath.

To get to the next cache, from the crossroads ahead, we took the path to Sainthill with the crossroads sign saying Baptist church pointing in that direction. This took us up another country lane, where we soon found our next cache, the container was definitely one I have never found before, an unusual choice of container but a great idea. After a short walk up this lane, we spotted the footpath on our right which we took to our next cache. This one was a quick find, as I've found ones like this before, and they’re one of my favourite types of container, they blend in well with the surroundings! We continued up this path and once at the top, we found our next cache and were rewarded with beautiful views of rolling hills and Dartmoor in the distance. We stopped to see what places we could recognise from here, before turning right at the end of the path and walking down the lane, where we soon found our next 3 caches, all with quirky and funny containers!

Some of the quirky geocaches on the series

On one of these caches we were pleased to read that it was ‘all down hill from here’ on this walk. The walk itself isn’t at all strenuous but it was a fairly humid day, and I was carrying our 11 month old baby, so walking up the footpath we had just done, was a little bit tiring! We continued to see views of Dartmoor ahead of us on this country lane, as we walked further down until we reached a junction. From here we took the stoney path on the other side of the road to find our next geocache which had 168 favourite points. This one was the reason I wanted to do this series, as I was intrigued as to why it was so popular! It was soon clear as to why it was highly rated. This very large geocache was easy to find, but had a fun game to play in order to find the logbook. We read the instructions then began the game, where we also found a trackable which we decided to retrieve. We were fairly lucky and found the log book quite quickly, but Jo made sure to hide it well in the container for the next cacher!

A very interesting geocache!

We now had just 3 more geocaches to find. The next one was just further on down the path, a lot smaller than the last one, and very hard to find! It was a very clever hide as I was actually looking right at it without realising at first! We carried on down this path which soon passes some farm gates on either side, and then crosses over a stream, where the path turns into a track under tree coverage. As we stopped to find our next cache, I found it rather peaceful here listening to the stream flowing and the birds singing above. The next cache container was yet another clever hide, but we managed to put our hands on this one a lot quicker than the previous one.

The track that leads under tree coverage

We were now just a short walk away from the last geocache of this loop. Once we arrived at the end of this track, we took a while to find this cache even though we had an idea of what it may be, as the hint said it was magnetic. Once Jo reached a bit further over the gate, we found the cache, signed the log and were happy to have completed this series! From here we just had to walk up the road ahead which soon took us back into the village, where we recognised the footpath, village stores and pub that we passed at the start of our walk. We briefly stopped to look at the books in the telephone box library and admire the pretty thatched cottages opposite the pub, before taking the footpath back towards the car park.

Back to the car park next to St Mary’s Church

This walk took us a couple of hours as we were stopping to find all the geocaches and some of them took us longer than others! Children will definitely enjoy the fun and quirky geocaches on this loop, and it’s not too much of a walk for little legs. It was a fairly leisurely walk, with only the slight incline up the footpath to the views of Dartmoor that may be a bit strenuous for some. I would suggest anyone doing this walk to wear suitable footwear and trousers, as the nettles were a little bit overgrown at the beginning of the walk, and some of the paths were a bit uneven and may get muddy after a lot of wet weather. As I said before, we did this walk for the geocaches, but it was still enjoyable and quiet, which is perfect for social distancing at the moment! We didn’t come across many people on this walk, and only a couple of cars passed us on the country lanes, meaning it would be suitable for dog walkers too. If you wanted to have a bite to eat or a drink after your walk, there is the local pub in the village square that I mentioned earlier, but also on the outskirts of Kentisbeare is ‘The Keepers Cottage Inn’ which we drove past on the way into the village. This thatched cottage pub looked rather inviting, with plenty of outdoor space and a pretty little cottage garden out the front. We’ve made a note to visit this pub next time we’re in the area, which I’m sure won’t be long, as we have more geocaches to complete in the village soon.