The forecast was for high winds (50 kt gusts) and heavy continuous rain. With that forecast, I was surprised that anyone turned up at the start. In the end, there were 9 ramblers ready for the off.

I estimated that the circular walk would be about 6 to 7 miles, not long but quite sufficient on a wet and windy day.

I have sailed across to the Yealm regularly over the last few years and always stayed near the mouth of the river, as do most boats which venture up this very popular sailing river.

The second half of the walk would introduce me to the upriver section and I looked forward to seeing it.

Unsurprisingly it rained during the day but at least on the first inland part of the walk it was very light. In the early afternoon though, the forecast was rather more accurate in the intensity of the rain.

Apparently there is no public car park in Yealmpton and we parked on a road just down from the main road which runs through the village.

Initially we headed north, up a steep hill then turned left and picked up a footpath which took us north east and across a fair sprinkling of stiles until we came upon a small road. We headed east for a short distance, crossing a stream, and then back on to footpaths again as we headed west across towards Brixton.

Recently the Erme Plym trail had been set up and this route took us along sections of this trail and we had plenty of signs indicating the route.

We had a short sharp shower and came upon the first of the muddy sections, before we entered Brixton, passing some dilapidated council houses on the entrance to the village. We made our way past the church and up to a hall come club. We had our morning break here, finding shelter from the wind in the car park.

Unfortunately in the rain I decided against taking pictures so no supporting pictures of the morning section of the walk.

We made our way down through Brixton and walked along the Plymouth road for a short distance before we turned due south along a footpath which would take us to Steer Point . In the distance we could see the skies really darkening and a few minutes later the heavens opened with some heavy rain. This lasted for perhaps 30 minutes and then it eased. We continued along the track and then picked up a lane which headed on down to Steer Point on the Yealm.

Unbeknown to me there is a brick works here, still active and the Steer Point area seems to be the base for this unit. There is no right of way directly to Steer Point so we left the road, turning left and heading down to the Yealm.

It was getting on for low tide and I could clearly see why not many boats ventured up this far, mud and lots of it. As with many rivers in the locality, the upper tidal reaches are very silted up. We were hoping to see lots of birds in the area; in reality there were very few, perhaps they too were shielding from the wind and rain.

I was surprised to see the outline of a rail track and George explained that there was a line which ran down along the side of the estuary to carry the commercial traffic to and from the area. It had been inactive since the 2nd World War.

The walks list had indicated there was to be a river crossing at low tide; in order to continue our walk we had to ford a quick flowing stream running out from a tidal inlet off the Yealm. This inlet broadened out into a tidal lake which extended as far up as Kitley House.

George was concerned whether the rain would have made the stream impassable, the railway had crossed via a bridge, not a lot of this was now left and we were forced to gingerly make our way across from stone to stone.

Surprisingly, we all made it without falling in, a close call for some of us nevertheless, I suspect that most are content to turn back at this point, not the ramblers though. We all managed to reach the lunch break at Warren Point with no loss of dignity.

Still raining, but not as hard as it had done!!!

I understand that Margaret, one of the group, tested how her hat could double up as a boat as it was seen floating down towards the crossing point. Finally retrieved and stored away, we all continued back along the Yealm, using the rail track as the route. It must have been a nice trip along the river on a nice sunny day, it wasn't quite that today however.

At various points along the side of the river there was evidence of buildings and the industry of a bygone age, it would be interesting to find out just what industry there was in this area a hundred years ago.

We continued up the river and it gradually narrowed but still remained tidal until we reached a small road and a car park that once was the entrance to Kitley Caves. I had often used the road as a short cut from the main Plymouth road across to Newton Ferrers. I had passed the car park for Kitley Caves, just before the bridge over the Yealm many times but had never gone in to see what they contained.

In 1999 the tourist spot had been forced to close as public tastes changed and it became uneconomic to keep it open.

At last I'd be able to see the entrance to the caves later on this walk.

We followed the path upstream, crossing over a fallen tree,which had been left there since it was blown over in 1989, in the gales of that year.

We entered some woods which led to the now blocked up entrance to the caves. The heavens opened at this point and the afternoon break was cut short as there seemed little point in watering down the coffee with the downpour.

We then crossed a bridge and continued up the path until we were once again in Yealmpton.

We arrived back at just after 2 PM and the rained eased off and we were able to get the very wet gear off, almost in the dry.

Considering the weather, it had been a good walk, long enough in the circumstances, I was pleased that we had shelter at various sections of the walk, I could imagine the conditions up on Dartmoor and it would have been far from pleasant up there.