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'Down Channel to Ilfracombe'
Leaving Bristol's historic 'Floating Harbour astern, the steamer threads her way slowly through the narrow Avon Gorge with its shear cliffs crowned by Brunel's magnificent Clifton Suspension Bridge. Giving way to a more pastoral scene, the river widens and we pick up speed, passing around the tortuous Horseshoe Bend and Powder House, reaching Pill, home port of the sailing pilots of yesteryear whose skill made navigation of Bristol's river possible. The picture changes again as we leave the river, its confluence with the Bristol Channel bounded by the modern commercial ports of Royal Portbury and Avonmouth and topped by the M5 under which we sail.
A brief call at Clevedon, with its famous arched pier, sees us on our way across the 'Severn Sea' towards Cardiff, once the greatest coal exporting port in the world, now a modern European city, a sporting capital, with its National Stadium, magnificent Millennium Centre and great shops ……
At Penarth, many passengers go ashore for the day, but more join us; no wonder, for over 150 years the steamers have provided a great day out from the industrial heartlands of South Wales down the Channel to the West Country.
With Wales receding astern, its time for a drink while the drama of the North Devon coast lies ahead.
Exmoor meets the sea atop the highest cliffs in Europe as we sail past the villages of Lynton and Lynmouth, watched over by Contisbury, Porlock and the Hangman Hills; names as sinister as they are beautiful, redolent of the smugglers and wreckers who once plyed their trade along Britain's western shores.
All too soon, Ilfracombe is reached: an Edwardian resort, but also a harbour of refuge for ships caught in winter storms in earlier times. Today, it offers restaurants to suit all pockets, eat as you go seafood, cream teas and a fine promenade.
I have sailed to Ilfracombe so many times, both as passenger and crew member. No two trips were ever the same and I never tire of it.
Ian McMillan 23/4/06.
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