Tarka Matures and Falls in Love: Wrafton Pond and Braunton

Tarka plays with the female, orphan White-Tip when his mum is still with him. Himself, his sister and mum enjoy themselves together with Grey Muzzle, who adopted White Tip. Then a dog otter entices Tarka’s mum away despite her son’s cries.

Distraught he goes alone to the head of Braunton (Branton) Pill, now referred to as Caen River and becomes a man. When he next finds White-Tip, he falls in love with her:

He licked her face, while his joy grew to a powerful feeling, so that when she continued to disregard him, he whimpered and struck her with one of his pads.

He fights for her against another dog otter, but loses, and floats depressed and dejected down the the river to the salty Taw estuary.

Back on a Bike Along the Tarka Trail

The owner and young assistant of Waterside Bike Hire, Chivenor, kindly sorted me out with a suitable E bike. I hadn’t been on a bike since the Covid lockdown. They thought I was fine but I was quite petrified when I first went to turn: it was a lot heavier than the road bikes I was used to.

After rediscovering my balance and bike confidence, I went along mainly freewheeling: the Tarka Trail here is flat. It wasn’t until I got to the Taw Bridge, Barnstable, that I felt the pleasure of my bike having electric power. Cycling in the sun, the breeze blowing, with the added bonus of being by the water of the estuary, I didn’t know why I had left it so long to cycle again.

I knew that it was unlikely that I would see an otter, but was glad to be assured by keen, patient kayakers and wildlife volunteers, presumably looking for droppings, that otters now live here again.

After the bridge and half hour of cycling, I got to Fremington Quay where I had my brunch.

Tarka’s First Mate: the Older Otter, Grey Muzzle

As an alternative to the Fremington Quay cafe you can go to Sandbanks Cafe which is nearer RSPB Isley Marsh, both a birdwatching area and opposite where the River Caen meets the Taw Estuary. At this point, Tarka, depressed by White-Tip playing hard to get, hooks up with Greymuzzle. No one could blame him for this as the older otter mothers him, caring for him especially when hurt.

The old otter, patient in life after many sorrows, and fears, caressed his bitten face and neck and licked his hurts………………..She became dear to Tarka, and gave him fish as though he were her cub, and in the course of time she took him for her mate.

Tarka and Grey Muzzle Embark on a Journey

I continue on my bike to Instow Beach with Appledore village directly across the water and Crow Point on the right. It is here that Grey Muzzle and Tarka start their adventure. I consider this time in Tarka’s life as similar to a young person’s gap year.

One evening, when the ebb-tide was leaning the channel buoys to the west and the gulls were flying silent and low over the sea to the darkening cliffs of the headland, Tarka and Greymuzzle set out on a journey. They had followed the salmon up the river, and Greymuzzle had returned for a purpose. The bright eye of the lighthouse, standing like a bleached bone at the edge of the sandhills, blinked in the clear air. 

It’s unadvisable to swim at Instow Beach. However, it was very hot: I paddle northwards in the direction of Crow Point, sinking in sand, the water returning to the Bristol Channel with gusto, until finding a pool deep enough to splash water on myself. This makes me think of how Tarka often had to hide from hunters in water that is described as being only deep enough to cover an old boot.

Tarka’s Gap Year

I don’t get to see Barnstable Bay on my bike, but the following day when I return from Lundy, on HMS Oldenburg, Baggy Point is pointed out to me. The cliffs above Bag Leap reef are now popular with Adrenalin junkies, and looking at coasteering photos the modern adventurer has taken the name of the reef quite literally. Although White Tip is still on Tarka’s mind, it is here that he has fun with Grey Muzzle around the rocks and caves including:

• seeing an historic sight
• eating different food
• meeting a kind human different to what he is used to
• encountering seals

Hard Times After the ‘Gap Year’

After this time of enjoyment Tarka and Greymuzzle return up the estuary. Many of us are familiar with struggling through the stresses of life after escaping away on travels, but it was particularly difficult for the otters, as the winter was harsh. The ice reduced food supplies and corpses were everywhere. Old Nog, the heron in the story, at this point, is described as stripped old flags with nothing else to him.

Tarka does see White Tip briefly in this part of the tale, but they are still with other mates and with little energy to make any changes.

Deaths are a plenty, including Greymuzzle and White Tips’s cubs.

Tarka and White-Tip Head South toward Dartmoor

After hydrating and cooling off, I leave Instow beach returning to the railway line and old signal box. The owner of Waterside bike hire said I could get further than Instow, but it is too hot so I head back on the trail towards Barnstable. Tarka, does go further south making it to Dartmoor with mention of Belstone Cleave, Cranmere Tarn and Cosdon Beacon.

Here, Tarka and White-Tip meet up again, but the female otter is forlorn and for the second time grieving for lost cubs.

And now White-tip was grieving again. For two nights, as she travelled down the river with Tarka, she would cease hunting, and run aimlessly on the banks, whining and searching. During the third night she left him and returned to the ash-tree holt, wherein she had been making ready a couch of reeds and grasses. Into the holt she carried a stone, laying it on the couch, and licking it, until a sudden cry called her outside again. She traced the cry to a stone on the shallow, and brought it in her mouth to the holt; soon the couch was filled with wet stones.

Tarka travelled on alone

Drifting Back Along the Estuary to the Pill, and Conception

Again, I cycle alongside the estuary where the otters had drifted, before they had gone up the pill, as youngsters with Greymuzzle.

With White-Tip recovered the two otters drift to the estuary once more and go up the Pill by Braunton to enjoy a playful time. White-Tip does laps of running round a meadow then sliding back in the water with little eye contact but enough glimpses to ensure her lover is following.

Each was pretending not to see the other; so happy were they to be together, that they were trying to recover the keen joy of meeting.

After romping like porpoises they rest in hollow tree trunks near Braunton mill-leet.

Tarka and White-tip were lying in a hollow trunk, curled side by side, their heads close together. 

They are disturbed by otter hunters with dogs from Pilton kennels and during flight get separated.

Watersmeet, Exmoor and a Desperate Search for White-Tip

White-Tip flees toward Exmoor and Tarka pursues with all efforts on finding her.

I visited Exmoor seven years prior and there can’t be a more beautiful place to go tracing the scent of your loved one, especially Watersmeet.

The male otter travelled over the moor to Hoar Oak and The Chains before reaching Watersmeet where he picks up White Tip’s scent. Though, still not having found her he must continue. Journeying with the river he comes across his enemy, Deadlock, below Beggars Roost Hill, and is chased towards Lynton where he defeats the hound. Tarka is exhausted so sleeps for a week in shelter at Heddon’s Mouth before returning to the Taw Estuary.

Back at the Estuary finding Salmon, White-Tip and Family

With the heat making me nauseous I stop again at Fremington quay. Families are, unsuccessfully, seeking respite from the sun under umbrellas. I am fortunate to find shade on grass by bike stands and I lie down to listen quietly to Tarka on Audible.

Williamson starts Chapter Seventeen describing Old Nog balancing on river hurdles seeing a salmon jump out of the water, and, at last, there is mention of White-Tip.

Tarka was drifting past the weir when he heard the whistle of White-tip beyond the hurdles. His head and shoulders were out of the water; he listened.

Hu-ee-ic!

And, she also has cubs with her.

The two old otters: watch their cubs rolling and biting; play their familiar games; eat mussels and salmon together as a family; and even take a break away from the cubs in the sea where Tarka spent Gap Year.

Revived and happy with this part of the story, I cycle back and return my E bike.

Williamson H (1928) Tarka the Otter His Joyful Water-Life and Death in the Country of the Two Rivers, Published by E.P. Dutton and Company https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/75899/pg75899-images.html