Tuesday 28th April: Death at Pinkery Pond, Little Switzerland and Chunky Ginger Ice-Cream 

Sunny but still that cold, strong wind and only 8 degrees! Followed the Doone Valley and joined the B3223 at Brendon Barton.  Cycled along an open moorland road with views of the Two Moors Way.  To our right were Exmoor's Chains, a high, wild and boggy plateau on the westerly moors and the source of many rivers, including the Exe, Barle and West Lyn.

It was these peat bogs which were overwhelmed by the relentless rains of August 1952. Millions of gallons of water raced down the three main rivers, resulting in the Lynmouth flood disaster. 

The Chains is no stranger to human misery.  In the late 19th century, a farmer named Richard Gammon was left a widower with ten children. After six lonely years, he courted a Parracombe woman who finally turned down his offer of marriage.  It was her letter of rejection which was found in the farmer's jacket beside Pinkery Pond, a forty foot artificial lake deep in the heart of the Chains.  

Lynmouth Lifeboat provided a small boat to drag its depths and a diver from Wales tried his best but all to no avail. Pinkery Pond had to be drained and the body of Richard Gammon was eventually found, fifteen days after he went missing.  More than a thousand people travelled to the Chains to watch the macabre scene unfold and herons came from miles around in huge flocks, to eat the stranded fish.

I found all this out later, or I might have taken more interest in the bleak landscape we cycled past.  But at the time, I was more preoccupied with how cold I felt and looking forward to elevenses somewhere sheltered from the freezing northerly wind. Soon after Simonsbath we found such a spot, on a track leading to Pinkery Youth Hostel and the sun even treated us to some welcome scraps of warmth. 

On into Challacombe and Blackmoor Gate before taking the A39 to Parracombe, home to that woman who didn't fancy taking on a widowed farmer with ten children back in 1889.  It's a pretty village, sheltered that day from the icy wind and a chap in shirt sleeves greeted us cheerfully.  We found a sunny picnic table in the recreation ground, where we ate our lunch but with sadly no birds to keep us company, although we had heard a cuckoo on the Simonsbath road.

We rejoined the A39 for a short distance before freewheeling along the very pretty and steeply sided Heddon Valley, with the River Heddon to our left, finally dropping down to the Hunter's Inn. The first pub on this spot was destroyed by fire in 1895. It was rebuilt ten years later and designed to resemble a Swiss Chalet because the district around Lynton and Lynmouth was often referred to as "Little Switzerland". 

This area is part of the Holnicote Estate and owned by the National Trust.  We fortified ourselves with Langage Chunky Ginger ice-cream, before tackling the 1:4 climb out of the Heddon Valley.  It was a long haul and we (or Allan, to be precise) pushed the tandem for best part of a mile.  But at the top, we were rewarded by a fabulous road with wonderful sea views to our left and no traffic whatsoever, only a few walkers.  The toll road took us to the coastal path leading to Lynton, which we'd walked a few days previously and we thoroughly enjoyed repeating the scenic experience. 

Finally it was the now familiar long and gradual ascent from Lynmouth to Hillsford Bridge, where a left turn took us back to the Doone Valley.    35 miles