The Two Moors Ways – Devon’s Coast to Coast: Wembury Bay to Lynmouth is the new book just out, written by Sue Viccars – Exmoor Magazine’s very own walks writer.
Dartmoor and Exmoor, two of England’s most magnificent moorlands, are the backdrop to Devon’s Coast to Coast route. Incorporating the Two Moors Way and a section of the Erme-Plym Trail, the 188km (117 mile) route between Wembury Bay and Lynmouth passes through the quiet and rural Devon countryside as well as the wide open spaces of the moors.
This guidebook presents the route in 11 stages, ranging from 10 to 30km, but the schedule can be adjusted to give a one-week walk or a more leisurely pace if preferred. The book includes low-level bad-weather alternative routes for some moorland stretches. The main route is described south to north, with a summary description for those doing the route in reverse. The landscapes of Devon range from the rolling fields and enclosed paths of South Devon to Exmoor’s sandstone moorland, which sweeps down to the Bristol Channel with some of the highest sea cliffs in England. In between lie the wild spaces of Dartmoor, with its hill ponies, granite tors and the greatest concentration of Bronze-Age sites in the country.
Entwined in myth and legend, it’s a landscape to fire the imagination and the setting for numerous stories, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. This pocket-sized guidebook contains OS map extracts for every stage, along with information on where to stay, refreshments, waymarking, public transport, and useful contacts. An itinerary planner is also included, detailing distances and facilities available for each stage, making day-to-day planning simple. A 1:25,000 scale booklet of all the maps needed for the route is included with the guidebook.
What’s inside?
• useful itinerary planner
• OS map extracts for every stage
• list of accommodation providers
About the author
After gaining a degree in Geography and Archaeology at Exeter University, Sue Viccars worked for a London map publisher before grabbing the chance to return to Devon, where she spent 20 years commissioning walking, equestrian and countryside books for David & Charles Publishers. She received her first walking book commission three weeks after going freelance in 2000 and since then has written or contributed to around 20 books (and edited dozens more), specialising in her home territory of the South West, with particular reference to Dartmoor and Exmoor. She writes the walks for Exmoor Magazine, and has been editor of Dartmoor Magazine since 2008.
The Two Moors Ways: Devon’s Coast to Coast: Wembury Bay to Lynmouth is priced at £16.95 and is available to buy from the Two Moors Way website: www.twomoorsway.org
PHOTO: The Venton stone overlooks the Dane’s Brook valley near Hawkridge, Exmoor (Stage 9).