点评:The Heddon’s Mouth section of the South West Coastal Path is only a fraction of what is a 630 mile long trail. You can pick up the trail to the right of the Hunter's Inn.
The road down to the pub is a very steep, narrow, winding lane. At the bottom, there’s a carpark (paid) and a very tiny National Trust shop where you can pick up a free, foldout map.
The first part of the walk is through Heddon Valley, alongside the river. The trail splits at one point, but stay close to the river.
This woodland stretch is heavily shaded and the views are limited by trees and heavy growth. As we got closer to the sea, the view opened right up and we found ourselves walking alongside steep, rocky slopes - a striking contrast to the densely green valley.
At Heddon’s Mouth, we stopped to look at the 19th century lime kiln and we walked along the rocky beach.
At this point, if you only want a short-ish walk you can return the way you came. Or, like us, you can continue on.
From the beach, we had to backtrack a little way to find the steep path that took us up across the headland to the Hollow Brook Waterfall and Woody Bay. It was a much longer, more challenging trail but the panoramic, cliff-top views were worth it.
The path is easy enough to follow with signs posted at points where the path splits. However it’s a rough dirt track so you need closed-in shoes and it would be very muddy after a lot of rain.
Apart from the section through Heddon Valley, the rest of the walk is very exposed and in summer, it's a good idea to take a hat and sunscreen. Start with a full water bottle because there’s nowhere to fill it along the way.
We finished back at the Hunters Inn where we had a couple of well-earned drinks and a couple of their excellent home-made pie.
翻译:西南海岸步道的赫顿河口段只是全长630英里步道的一小部分。您可以从猎人旅馆(Hunter's Inn)右侧找到步道入口。
通往旅馆的路是一条非常陡峭、狭窄且蜿蜒的小路。路的尽头有一个收费停车场和一个很小的国民信托商店,您可以在那里领取免费的折叠地图。
徒步路线的第一段穿过赫顿河谷,沿着河岸延伸。步道在某个地方会分岔,但请尽量靠近河岸行走。
这段林地树荫浓密,视野被树木和茂密的植被遮挡。随着我们逐渐靠近大海,视野豁然开朗,我们发现自己正沿着陡峭的岩石斜坡行走——这与之前郁郁葱葱的山谷形成了鲜明的对比。
在赫顿河口,我们停下来参观了19世纪的石灰窑,并沿着岩石海滩漫步。
此时,如果您只想短途散步,可以原路返回。或者,像我们一样,您可以继续前行。
从海滩出发,我们不得不往回走一小段路,才能找到那条陡峭的小路,它带我们穿过岬角,到达空心溪瀑布和伍迪湾。这条路更长,也更具挑战性,但沿途的悬崖全景绝对值得。
这条路很容易辨认,岔路口都有路标。不过,这是一条崎岖的土路,所以您需要穿封闭式的鞋子,而且下大雨后会非常泥泞。
除了穿过赫登谷的那段路之外,其余路段都非常开阔,夏季最好带上帽子和防晒霜。出发前要装满水,因为沿途没有地方可以补充水。
我们最终回到了猎人旅馆,在那里享用了几杯来之不易的饮品和几块他们自制的美味馅饼。