1023 – ‘Wandering Wyverns’ – Devon

A group of 14 intrepid adventurers deployed to the most northerly point of the North Devon coast on Saturday 25 September 2010. With the sun shining and our spirits high, we were all excitedly looking forward to finding out what the coming days and 120 miles would bring.

Starting off at the lovely seaside town of Lynton, we were initially delayed by the determination of certain members of the group to ensure we walked not just from coast to coast, but from sea to sea. Once we had descended a steep hill down to the shore and our feet were invigorated by the fresh Atlantic waters, we were on our way! Our way happened to be up and up again. The CO, leading from the front, made sure that the big climb (first of many!) was not something that would bring us down. This activity was certainly a shock to our normally fairly sedentary bodies; however the view at the top soon made us forget our screaming muscles.

With the Atlantic behind us, we were now pushing onwards, knowing that the next bit of sea we would see would be the English Channel on the final day! Our path now was straight through the heart of Exmoor, with its many Tors, stunning views and undulating paths. Actually, undulating doesn’t fully describe the miles and miles covered, ascending and descending the Tors as we navigated along the Two Moors Way, but “pain-inducing paths” isn’t particularly military… However, in spite of the throbbing feet, aching backs and sore knees, morale never dipped. There were plenty of “incidents” – though no-one will ever talk about the RSM’s encounter with a pheasant or WO2 Gibbon’s rescue or WO2 Bushell’s “just another 1300 meters” – that kept people grinning, whilst the friendly rivalry between those soldiers from Bodmin and those from Plymouth provided much banter and competition.

We spent the nights camping in the fields of farms along the way, where we were always made to feel most welcome by the owners. They were very interested to hear about their local TA Logistic Regiment, and were impressed to see that we had people on the group who had recently returned from ops in Afghanistan. Their extraordinary generosity and friendliness always buoyed us back up again and we went off with a good breakfast in our bellies which kept us going for the next few miles.

Excellent navigation by “Gandalf” (aka Pte Forshaw) saw us emerge from Dartmoor with the end on the horizon – quite literally, we could see all the way to Plymouth Sound. With this view the group’s blisters breathed a little sigh of relief as they knew that the pounding would soon be over.

Whilst we had been extremely lucky with the notoriously bad Exmoor and Dartmoor weather, the short trip across from Mount Batten to the Barbican at Plymouth, courtesy of a couple of speedboats from the RM training school, ensured that we were all re-associated with the sea – definitely sea to sea! The rain then came in, in good Plymouth style and we were welcomed back by a torrential rain storm. Yet even with people soaked to the skin, spirits were not dampened. The sight of the welcome back party up on Plymouth Hoe, provided the final impetus – we had done it! All Wandering Wyverns had wandered back.

Our utmost thanks goes to the Ulysses Trust who made our exercise possible.