Walk of the Week: Templer Way from Newton Abbot to Stover

The Templer Way runs 18 miles from Haytor to Shaldon.  I must have  walked the estuary bit loads - even before it was called the Templer Way, and it's a long time since I walked from Newton to Stover but this week was the week!  My friend and I set off in gloomy weather and joined the path by Whitelake Channel and headed out through Jetty Marsh.  There's no doubt that the path has been improved and it was easy walking out to Teigngrace.
From there we crossed the bridge and followed the path on the other side of the old Stover canal.  There were old canal workings to be seen but although we were really not far from the town we seemed to be in the heart of the country.  The path was muddy in places but well signposted - just as well because we didn't have a map.
We crossed the railway line and passed several very nice looking houses before joining the road and walking very carefully along it, though there wasn't much traffic.  A little further along another signpost directed us onto a field path.  Having had a bad experience being srrounded by bullocks in our teenage years, we checked the bovine inhabitants for udders before proceeding.  All was well and we crossed safely.  There was a jay in a tree at the other side of the field and we watched it fly away.

The path led on uphill through some pine trees and then skirted the grounds of Stover School.  Here it was that we spotted not only primroses but rhododenrons out in bloom.  As my friend remarked, that must be a very sheltered spot.  We were then on bullock alert again but the path was fenced as it passed through their field so we felt safe enough even though they were glaring at us.

We then came into Stover Country Park.  I haven't been there for years and so had missed the delights of the Ted Hughes Poetry Trail which its carvings and, um, poems.  There was also the outdoor classroom.  We sat and had a drink and a rest before taking our lives in our hands to cross the Drumbridges roundabout.  Actually it wasn't that bad, and a white van man even waved us across one of the slip roads.

Here  the signposts actually let us down and we were unsure of the way.  What we should have done was continue almost to the turn off for Liverton and then through Great Plantation.  What we did was walk through the industrial estate and along the road at Heathfield eventually coming out at the House of Marbles.  But as with all walks, this was a voyage of discovery and as our destination was Bovey anyway it didn't really matter how we got there. 

After lunch and a look at the glass museum and shop, we walked via a footpath into Brimley and then Bovey for charity shops and cake.  Although the sun never broke through, I was warm by the time we had finished our walk, and I was pleased to see that two old friends could keep in step just as they always did.