Spring 2012 - 27 April to 6 May

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Welcome to the North Devon and Exmoor Walking Festival, now in its 12th year

This year’s festival has been a bit of a struggle to maintain. Funds are so tight for all of us and getting support for the festival was difficult this time. But I was determined to keep it going.

The festival is reduced in size, but not in quality. To help me attract funds from towns that are covered by the festival, this year the festival is based around four of the larger towns in North Devon and Exmoor.

The festival starts in the area around Ilfracombe for two days, moving along the coast to Lynton and Lynmouth for the next three days. It then moves along the coast again to the area around Porlock for the next three days. Lastly it moves on to the area surrounding Dunster for the last two days.

Walkers are Welcome Towns update
Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth, Porlock and Dunster are all now accredited with Walkers are Welcome. To find out more about this accreditation go to the Walker are Welcome website.

To help keeps costs down for the festival many of the guides are offering their services for free or ‘in kind’. This has enabled us to keep the festival going and I am most grateful to those guides.

I would like to thank all our guides, wardens and rangers for their continued support. The festival would not be able to continue without support from the Exmoor National Park, the North Devon AONB, the South West Lakes Trust, the National Trust and the Crown Estate Dunster. Our supporters and advertisers also make the difference between the festival running or stopping. And of course your support makes it worthwhile for us all.

I hope you find some suitable walks and you have an enjoyable experience on your festival walks.

Best wishes

Bryan Cath, Walking Festival Coordinator
Twitter: @bryancath
Facebook: Festival Facebook page

PS If you find you cannot make the festival, I have written a selection of walks booklets that take in some previous festival walks. I have also written some picnic spots booklets and cycle rides which might be of interest. Go to www.combewalks.com for more details of the booklets.