Wild Pear Beach Nr Combe Martin
I'd heard mixed reports about this beach.
"Very charming and secluded"
"Difficult to get to but worth the trouble"
"Small and sandy with babbling streams"
" No longer a nudist beach!"
My verdict after visiting via the sea......... is don't bother it seems dangerous to get to and rubbish when you get there.
This is my experience of Wild Pear Beach
Wild Pear beach was just around the headland of the bay where I was staying... Combe Martin. At Combe Martin you can hire kayaks! I hadn't been kayaking in ages so I decided to hire a kayak and paddle around to Wild Pear beach to see what it was like, kill two objectives in one go.
As i'm negotiating the waves into Wild Pear beach the RNLI rib recue speedboat shoots past me and lands with difficulty on the beach due to the un even boulders under the waves! Not sand!
I beach my kayak moments later... It was mid tide and there was no sign of any sand as promised. A good look around told me there was no babbling streams, no nudists, no fantastic scenery, other than any normal Devonshire cliffs backdrop.
I looked and looked but could see no visible path up the cliffs. But saying this there was one guy in swimming trunks lay sunbathing minding his own business so there had to be a way down somewhere as he didn't have a boat.
There was also one other man, fully clothed, stood staring up the cliffs in the direction of a rope disappearing up a very very! steep rock face which on closer inspection had been rubbed smoother by passing/sliding foot ware. Under no stretch of the imagination could you call it a path. There were no steps just a rope disappearing up the smoothened rock face into the bushes covering the cliffs. Two RNLI men had just pulled themselves up the rock face using the rope and disappeared into the bushes where I was told a difficult path did exist. Apparently a couple had tried to get down the cliff path to Wild Pear beach, the woman had fallen cut her leg to the bone and her partner called the RNLI because he couldn't stop the bleeding. She hadn't even reached the difficult rope challenge!
I was told that at one time the beach had been more easily accessed but I cant imagine how this was done.
I think I'll give Wild Pear beach a miss if ab-sailing to it is required. It's a tiny beach, not particularly clean or spectacular.
It's one saving grace might be that it is a sheltered bay on windy days.
If you decide to try it make sure your life insurance is up to date.