The walk ‘started’ in relaxed fashion when the 10 plucky participants assembled for teas and coffees at a nearby café.

Suitably refreshed we strolled along one of Tiverton’s oldest streets, suitably dotted with interesting buildings, and on to a relatively quiet country lane which in turn led us into open farm lands. Luckily, the previous dry day meant the field wasn’t too muddy and while there were cow-pats aplenty to avoid, their producers were nowhere to be seen.

Once the field had been successfully navigated, we were confronted with the narrow pathway through the extensive woodland between Tiverton and Bickleigh. Here we had another piece of luck as it turned out that the county lumberjacks had been allocated that very day to clear the path of fallen trees. Consequently the way through resembled much less the obstacle course it had been a few days earlier, although the path-side flora was head-high in some places.

Gradually the trees started to thin out, providing lovely views of the Exe as we followed along side the river on the last stretch of the walk. We caught glimpses of hawks and a cormorant but arguably the most arresting spectacle was the sight of one of our party sitting in a tennis umpire’s chair looking benignly down upon us all. What the chair was doing there, a haunt for bird-watching maybe? We can but speculate.

A picnic lunch followed at the walk’s end, Bickleigh Mill, where the resident peacock was in a particularly show-off mood. Then we all piled on the bus back to Tiverton for coffees and cakes at another of the town's many cafes..

Many thanks to Mike and Terry for planning and leading the walk.