Day 28: Sandford to Moretonhampstead 15.5 miles
- gettingthebladesou
- Sep 19
- 4 min read

The Lamb Inn in Sandford has been a wonderful stay, greatly enhanced by a dinner menu resplendent with homemade pies and luxurious sticky toffee pudding. We walk down to the Community Store which stocks milk from Sandford dairy and Sandford award-winning cider. It also sells large Cornish pasties that look perfect for a walking lunch.
We head out on the Sandford Millenium Footpath - a well kept path that runs through countryside beside the road from Sandford to Crediton. There are two rather peculiar scarecrows alongside the walk and Rich mutters darkly ‘Shades of the Wicker Man’.
Needless to say, the path goes up a steep hill and then down the other side into the pretty town of Crediton. Crediton starts in the valley, goes up the hillside and is now starting to spread down the other side. It is also the birthplace of St Boniface, born Wynfreth circa 675. He was a missionary to the German parts of Francia and a founder of much of the German church. He was killed by bandits in 754 while trying to convert the Frisians. Some sources suggest he was the inventor of the Christmas tree.
We climb up through Crediton and onto the hills on the other side where the red Devon cattle match the red Devon earth. The bullocks follow us briefly at a safe distance. We are now following the Redvers Ramble, a 4km circular trail near Crediton. We then go down into the Yeo Valley crossing the river Yeo at the imaginatively named Salmonhutch.

We now appear to be on the Devonshire Heartlands Way, a 45 mile route from Okehampton to Stoke Canon but it is very poorly signposted. This is unusual for this part of Devon where footpaths and signage are generally well kept. When I do finally locate a waymark, it is faded and difficult to identify. The symbol is evidently a spindle berry flower.

We have climbed high up again and are walking on a narrow ridge road. Every few minutes, there are pulses of cars passing us close by with some trepidation. Many of the drivers appear anxious, driving along a lane with moss growing out of the middle. Arriving at a crossroads, we discover that part of the A30 is closed. The narrow, twisting lane must have been a bit disconcerting if you were expecting a dual carriageway.
The road is even busier after the crossroads, so we sit down in a green field just off the road for a break. At this point, I explain to Richard that I need to login to a speaker check for a webinar at 1pm. Charitably, he says we should be fine as it’s another short day today. It is, as the crow flies.
We decide to turn off the A30 replacement and go down into another valley where I attempt, with limited success, to join my web call. I’m hoping we don’t need that 45 minutes later. We turn onto a path following a stream and meet some more cows, who serenade us with loud and quite spectacular lowing, then drop down to cross the A30 (now running smoothly). We arrive in the village of Cheriton Bishop and sit on the now traditional bench outside the church for our lunch.

We leave Cheriton Bishop travelling due south, but there is soon no further straight route to our destination and we zigzag across the countryside. The continuous undulations are also taking their toll. I do manage to prevent us taking a wrong turn, so make up a little for the wasted extra stop.
The red soil is now interspersed with grey granite and the landscape is changing from smaller, rounded hills to higher, more precipitous ones. We turn onto a bridleway, ducking under a fallen tree which, as Rich says, would be quite problematic for a horse. At some point, we have entered Dartmoor National Park.

We keep going down until we eventually cross the river Teign at Fingle’s Bridge. We can see why there was no direct route: the slopes on either side are near vertical. We are now on the Dartmoor Way, an 108 mile route encircling Dartmoor, opened in 2002. We climb steeply through the woods, eventually attaining a height of almost 350 metres at Butterdon Hill. We then head down again clambering over several high and awkward stiles in various stages of decrepitude (including one with a handy mallet).

We are now approaching the road to Moretonhampstead and everything seems to be going well, when we surmount yet another stile and find ourselves on a path completely overgrown with brambles and bracken. For added excitement, it also contains randomly placed, obscured granite blocks that trip us up as we try to make progress. When we finally attain a clearer section, Rich realises that he has lost a sock that was drying on the back of his rucksack. He leaves his bag with me and heads off back into the undergrowth while I safely stow all our other washing. He soon returns, brandishing the missing sock.

Thankfully, this is the last upset of the day and we are soon striding purposefully along the road into Moretonhampstead (twinned with Betton in Brittany) to stay at The Horse. We have climbed over 2500 feet today, a thousand more than yesterday.

Total distance: 393.5 miles
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