Left home soon after 7am yesterday and headed north to Bratton Clovelly, turning into the private road down to Eversfield Organics. The gate was open as I arrived at going on 9am and people were arriving at work there. Cars were overtaking me on my way in.
I found the main office and introduced myself and spoke to the lady I'd spoken to on the phone. Megan, and a very personable young lady too. She was one of the people who overtook me on the way in and guessed who I was.The officer manager(?) chap went outside with me and explained to route to the bridge, with a warning that there's a little wooden bridge that is rotten and dangerous and I would be crossing it at my own risk!
Off I went down the track and eventually found the wooden bridge, and he was right! I picked my way across it over the little river, and round a corner and up to Bridge 30. Gates across held together with string, so I lifted Moulton over, rode across and back, then retraced my steps back to the office and thanked them profusely for letting in in. I gave them a resume of my bridge travels, though I'm not convinced that they understood my sanity in all this.
Nice friendly people, and it was great to meet them. I asked why the lorry was there and asked how they got it there or even how they were going to get it off the bridge. They said it's been there for years and they're going to put a banner on it to advertise. The lorry is a wreck and bits are dropping off it!
Photos at the end of this post.
Off I went easterly to get to Bridge 6. Not much to say about it, except that the track up to it was rough and rutted and access was through a broken wooden gate fastened with with string, so I opened it, rode through and across and fastened the gate and left for Exeter.
I taken a packed lunch and headed into the city to Cathedral Green to sit down on a bench to scoff it. Then off to the station to pick up my ticket, then a beer or three at the Mill on the Exe pub and then back to the station to get the train to Plymouth and Gunnislake.
Excellent day out and a great relief that I've done the two problematical bridges.
NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Is 79 all the bridge's you can find in cornwall, where are you now on numbers
79 bridges in total from Exeter to Land's End. Bridge 1 is at the A30/M5 junction Exeter. Bridge 79 is at Longrock Penzance. No bridges between Penzance and LE.
These are the pickies of the lorry. You can see how overgrown the track is. The third is of the wooden bridge. The photo is vertical, it's the bridge that's not horizontal!
Mick F. Cornwall
