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.

Beer to Branscombe Coast Path (and back again)

This walk along the East Devon coast path from Beer to Branscombe and back is quite easy to follow as there are very clear signposts and paths leading you in the right direction so I won’t go into too much detail with this walk. We love this stretch of the South West Coast Path because Beer and Branscombe are two of our favourite beaches to visit. Both are small villages, with fishing boats moored on the pebble beaches. I’ve written a post before about Branscombe (here) and I’ll do another post in the near future about Beer as it deserves its own post; it’s such a lovely little Village to stroll round, visiting the independent shops and sitting in one of the deck chairs having an ice cream or chips on the beach, watching the fishing boats go out to sea.

Views of Beer’s white cliffs.

We started this walk by parking in the main car park (Clapp’s Lane) in Beer as we first went down to the beach to have some lunch, but we resisted the urge to get an ice cream, instead promising ourselves we would have one once we reached Branscombe. If you aren’t planning on visiting the village or if there’s no space in the main car park, then there’s a larger one right by the start of the coast path called Cliff Top car park. To reach the coast path from Beer Beach, we walked past our favourite pub in the village, ‘The Anchor Inn’ and walked up Common Lane. From here we had beautiful views of Beer Beach, its white cliffs and the coastline over the well kept gardens, belonging to the beautiful terraced houses on the other side of this road. Once half way up this hill we then turned down a lane on our left called Little Lane. From here it leads us past the bigger car park I mentioned earlier, and a caravan park on our right. Going through a gate, and into a field, this lane joins onto the coast path.

For those of you who enjoy geocaching, there are some great ones along this route all the way to Branscombe. We actually ended up finding some of the ones we couldn’t find last time we walked this route, though it can be hard sometimes as this path can get fairly popular, so you need to have a lot of stealth!

Views of Beer and Seaton from the coast path.

As we carried on along the coast path the views just kept getting better, we did this walk on a hot and sunny day, but a word of warning, be prepared that there’s a steep hill on the way back from Branscombe, which can be made a lot more strenuous in the heat, there’s also a section of rather steep steps if you descend the cliff path, but the rest of the walk is rather easy going and the views make it even more enjoyable. On the way to Branscombe we took the lower path (called Hooken undercliff) when we were given a choice of two options, and on the way back we took the high path along East Cliff.

A lovely spot to sit and take in the views.

Views of Branscombe beach from the coast path.

The lower path takes you through twists and turns with the white cliffs on your right, and there’s a short cut to the Eastern side of the beach when you reach the end of this path. However, there are quite a few steps on this path, whereas if you choose the high path it’s just through several fields then down one set of steps and then down East Cliff hill. One thing to add, at the moment the path will be getting more and more popular as its peak holiday season, the lower path also gets quite narrow in places, meaning it will be difficult to socially distance from others at times.

Some of the steps you’ll encounter along Hooken Undercliff.

Both paths offer the beautiful views of the coastline and are clearly marked on how to get to the beach. Once we reached the end of the lower path, we could have walked further which would take us out to the bottom of the hill before the car park at Branscombe, instead we chose to enter the beach by a path on our left. This took us to the Eastern end of the beach.

The Eastern end of Branscombe beach.

This part of the pebble beach is a lot quieter than the main stretch close to the car park. We decided to sit here for a bit and watch a few dogs enjoying the water as the waves crashed against the pebbles. After a while, we decided to walk towards ‘The Sea Shanty beach cafe’ by the car park and the entrance to the beach, it’s a short walk along the beach to get here. This is the only cafe by the beach, but it has a good variety of food and drink options, including a good choice of ice creams which is what we came for!

The Eastern end of Branscombe beach is always a lot more quiet.

We sat and watched the waves crashing against the pebbles.

The busier part of the beach, with The Sea Shanty Beach cafe to the right.

After having a great ice cream and relaxing in the sun, we decided we had better start climbing the hill back onto the coast path, to return to Beer. From the Sea Shanty cafe, there’s an entrance to the hill ahead through a gate by the mouth of the river that’s just to the side of the car park. Look for the massive hill, it is hard to miss!

We sat and had an ice cream, while looking at the hill we were about to climb.

The hill does have some benches you can rest on if need be, we sat and looked at the views of the beach below before continuing on our walk, up some steps then through more fields which eventually took us back to Beer. Along the way we saw the remains of an old lookout building as we walked past a flock of sheep and down a path that took us through some gates and back to the fields we first started walking in.

The views of Branscombe village, beach and coastline from the top of the hill.

This walk took us about 3 hours to do, but we did it at a leisurely pace and stopped to do some geocaching. It’s best to give yourself plenty of time, as I’ve said before the hill and steps can be quite strenuous! The stunning coastal views really do make up for the hard work involved on some parts of this coast path though. Both beaches are dog friendly, Beer does have restrictions in place for certain areas (clearly marked) during peak season, but the whole of Branscombe beach is dog friendly all year round. If you are taking a dog on this walk, please bear in mind that there are steep drops from the cliff side so be very careful dogs don’t run off the edge, and as always, keep dogs under strict control around any livestock you may encounter (we walked through fields with sheep and cattle in them).

Views of Seaton from the coast path on the way back to Beer.