The Valley of Rocks in Exmoor National Park, England offers spectacular views of the south west coast and is famous for the rock formations which is thought to date back to the Ice Age. See those little humps on the right? That's where we're going now.
And here we are. Isn't the view breathtaking?
Ok, let's back track a bit, and start from ground level so you can see the walk from the beginning.
Coastal walk
The Valley of Rocks is near two charming villages in the area, Lynton and Lynmouth. Lynton is at the top of the hill and Lynmouth is down by the sea. I walked about a kilometer here from Lynton, and will be walking about half a kilometer along the cliff side down to Lynmouth.
Here's the start of the walk at the Valley of Rocks. I love how the pattern on wall was built of slate horizontally and vertically, it's almost like they fitted together perfectly.
The walk is as relaxing or strenous as you like. This stretch is perfect if you just want a comfortable stroll, and sit and watch the undulating views.
The cliff edge where my heart drops
I opted for a little climb, coming up from the path which is now on the right. The view up here is just breathtaking.
The dare devils climb up here to get a close up view of these famous rock formations. You can't see it very well, but I hear the drop down to the sea below is about 200 feet!! I had jelly feet up here, and didn't dare to stand up beyond this point, but some people kept on walking across to the the rocks behind me and beyond.
Such as my kiddo nephew. The joys of being young and brave! He was bouncing around like a spring lamb, whilst Aunty me just sat on the rocks and didn't dare to move around too much. Kiddo asked me to take some photos of him and my heart nearly fell out when he stepped towards the edge and stood up. Even looking at the photos now makes my heart drop.
Here's another view of how scary epic the view is
Open air theater
As stunning as the view was up by the cliff edge, I couldn't handle the height for much longer and headed back down to the road. The feral goats are resident around this area, munching away happily at the grass totally ignoring us human beings.
On the other side of the road from the feral goats is the coast, and the coast line path on the right. We'll be going there in a minute. But before we do, I want to show you something quite fascinating. You see these white line markings on the grass and the black boxes in the front? This is actually an open air theater!!!
The white markings is where the audience will sit, and the black boxes are the lighting and other audio visual equipment. The audience will be watching the play facing the sea under the stars. I can imagine how spectacular this will be, particularly if you love going to the theater. Surely you don't get this scene setting in many places!
Coastal walk
It's time to leave the Valley of Rocks and head down to Lynmouth. The walk is very short, less than half a kilometer, but it felt much longer. Originally it was because we kept on stopping to take in the view.
Then the latter part was zig zagging down the muddy path through woods. That part wasn't a very pleasant walk and it felt like it took ages, but I reckon it was only less than ten minutes till we got to Lynmouth, also known as Little Switzerland. That will be for my next post. See ya!!!
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