The forecast for the day was not good but in the event the weather as quite reasonable for most of the walk.

The walk initially took us to a point where few of us had walked before, that of Snapes Point to the east of Salcombe and overlooking the tranquil waters of the Salcombe Estuary.

At 10 AM following the outline of the route we left the car park opposite the garage at Marlborough and headed off south east down towards the Collaton area.

After just over a half a mile of road walking we turned east and picked up a footpath, initially very wet and muddy but increasingly less so.

We followed the footpath as it meandered its way east through several fields and many stiles until we emerged onto the A381 main road leading to Salcombe.

We crossed the road and headed off down a steep minor road which descended steeply north east towards the head of Batson Creek.

We made our way around the head of Batson Creek and followed the country lane uphill and down as it led us east towards Snapes Manor.

Before reaching the manor we turned left onto a signpost showing we were entering NT land and were heading out to Snapes Point.

As we made our way out towards the end of Snapes Point, keeping close to the estuary we had excellent views looking all the way up the estuary to Kingsbridge, visible at the end of this very popular tidal estuary.

We stopped at the end of the estuary for morning coffee and then picked up the lane which led us around the end of Snapes Point and then up the eastern side of Batson Creek.

Across the creek we had good views of Salcombe and the boat yards on the western bank of the creek uptowards Batson at the head.

We retraced our steps around the head of the creek and then turned left along the western bank of Batson Creek.

After a short distance along the road we turned onto a footpath which ran parallel to the road around to Salcombe.

After a few hundred yards along the footpath we turned into Salcombe and made our way down into the main centre of the town.

En route we found a pasty shop and some of us were tempted.

We made our way further around and found some seats in the center overlooking the water, an ideal spot for lunch.

After lunch in this pleasant spot we made our way along the through the town heading south west towards North Sands and after a heave over a headland down to South Sands.

Leaving South Sands we followed the road which led up to Overbeck National Trust house and gardens, both well worth visits in their own right.

Just before Overbeck, we turned south onto the coastal path for the one mile walk out to Bolt Head.

Once again there were superb views both across to Prawle Point on the other side of the entrance to Salcombe and back into Salcombe itself.

After a while the path swung right and went beneath Sharp Tor high above us.

We made our way through a gap in some rocks and continued along the path as it swung along around Starehole Bay before the strenuous section up to Bolt Head, which protects Salcombe from the effects of the westerly and south westerly prevailing winds.

We continued to make our way up to the top of the cliffs 120 metres above msl and then headed off to the west. We saw signs indicating that we were two miles from Soar Mill Cove.

Walking was easy along this level grassy section of National Trust owned land and we made fast progress along this section, ignoring signposts back to Marlborough.

As we approached the descent to Soar Mill Cove, we noticed another footpath off to the north back towards Marlborough, over 2 miles away.

We sat on the broad grassy banks for afternoon tea and then turned inland.

We could see a large bird of prey, perched in the topmost point of a strange looking building, a grain house perhaps, in the middle of a field. As we approached the buzzard lazily flapped its wings and flew off.

It had been dry and largely sunny during the walk but looking back to the Bolt Head area we could see a large black cloud heading towards us and sure enough, minutes later we had the one and only heavy shower of the day.

The footpath took us up passing a house at Lower Soar and up past a number of holiday chalets as we made our way along the road from Lower Soar. We followed the road north and passed the turning down to Rew off down a steep hill to our right.

About 100 metres past the turning we turned right onto a footpath which led us north east down a track and then due north back towards the high spire of Marlborough Church. Passing a farm we were on a country lane again for a short while before following a footpath along a track up to Marlborough and the car park.

It was about 3.30 PM when we got back to the CP, we had been out walking for 5.5 hours, at a good pace.

We had been generally lucky with the weather and had only had the rain for the final 30 minutes or so of the walk.

We thanked John Skinner for finding us this different route visiting Snapes Point before making our way out to the more usually walked route to Bolt Head.

We were soon back in our cars for the 45 minute drive back to Plymouth, Exeter and various places that the group had come from.