Day 26 - Dartmouth, Brixham, Goodrington, Paignton, Torquay, Babbacombe

Sunday 11th August
Total: 500+m  / Daily: 23m  / Blue Skies / Hot Concrete

I was dropped off in Dartmouth on the other side of the river at 7am, convenient as the ferry only runs from 9 on Sunday. It was a quiet start and I didn't see a single person for 3 hours. A welcome difference from the rest of the day looking retrospectively. I did meet Ken, who expressed his envy for my walk. Thank you for your donation.

Brixham was busy, it was lunchtime on Sunday so no surprise really. Lunch was a very large meat pasty and sausage roll which I ate on a harbourside bench watching the herring gulls' confidence increase. Later, I watched a man throwing chips to them whilst he and his family were eating and they ended up abandoning their table, the birds were dive bombing the chip container! Foolish man...

There were short countryside sections which did break up the busy concrete promenade which dominated the day. These stretches were also busy with lots of day walkers. I tried saying hello to a few, but got the 'why are you talking to me? Do I know you?' look in return. For a section with so many people, it was rather isolated walking, not including the man out for the day with his three boys with whom I shared a welcome conversation.

The day ended with a steep descent down to a beach and equally steep ascent (I didn't take the Victorian cliffside railway). On the plus side, I was met by a smiling Heather at the top, the rest of the collection party was traveling down and up the cliff on the railway. My cumulative ascent is now over 90,000 ft (23,000m), I have walked 500miles and I will walk 130.3 more (said to the tune of The Proclaimers).

Final time in the luxury of Hope Cove this evening then back to camping for the last week.

Day 24 - Torcross, Dartmouth

Friday 9th August 
Total: 476+m  / Daily: 13m  / Blue Skies / Half Day

Spend a lovely morning off, went for a little walk with family and then explored Salcombe. Odd to be back in the same place a second time but nice to take it slowly and we had a long lunch down by the water watching boats in the harbour.

I still wanted to keep on track with my plan and did a little walking in the afternoon. 13miles in 3hrs and 50 mins, possibly the fastest I have walked yet - but it worked out very well. I was wearing new boots today which are certainly not as comfy as the not-so-waterproof old ones, but they will get there in a couple of days. Wearing them for a half day to start with was a good idea as my feet did ache after a few hours.

I was picked up from Dartmouth in a car returning from the airport with additional visitors. Dropped off in Loddiswell, I spent the evening catching up with friends. Thank you Alan and Maureen Bennett for your hospitality.
Tomorrow is a complete day off and I'll be back in Hope Cove for the evening. All of this luxury has come at once!

Day 23 - Salcombe

Thursday 8th August
Total: 454+m  / Daily: 13m  / Blue Skies / More Surprises

I was taking it very slowly today, knowing that 16 miles would put me 10 miles from where I wanted to be tomorrow. Had I known what was planned I would have moved much faster! I took an hour off sitting in Salcombe eating second breakfast. Kate had recommended a bakery and I saw a lot of people in the town with brown bakery bags. When I got there, the queue was ten strong out of the door, a good reason alone to join! Cheese twist and pain au chocolat for breakfast was an interesting mix, but I wasn't complaining.

A further hour off for lunch, and afternoon nap for an hour meant it was 3 and I'd done 13. I met back up with Mike (see yesterday) who was revising his Salcombe-Torcross map and also met a couple of men who were doing a week walking (a stage of a bigger SWCP walk over a few years) with what appeared to be matching gear. A 2.5 mile diversion due to the path being 'impassable' would have added a further hour on, but fortunately gardens are not impassable and the kind lady in said garden said she wouldn't look as I took literally 30 steps around the landslip instead of thousands on the official route.

Coming up towards First Point lighthouse someone said 'hello' and I instantly recognised the voice. Becks was standing on the hillside in the middle of nowhere (in my mind) with a grin on her face! Further up were my mum and dad and they are all here until Monday! What a surprise, it was so completely unexpected! Mum always has liked her surprises and the waitress gave away part of another surprise later saying we were at a table of 6 tomorrow evening! Whoops, I don't know who though.

This opens up all sorts of questions and decisions to make about what to do over the next few days. These will propably be mentioned in tomorrow but I will still be taking my day off as planned and will be heading over to Loddiswell as planned. But for now, I'm wearing a collared shirt and nice shorts, I even used hair gel before going down to supper in the restaurant!

Day 21 - Portwrinkle, Cremyll, Plymouth, Mount Batten

Tuesday 6th August
Total: 419+m  / Daily: 21m  / Blue Skies / Town

Yesterday, a family was sitting on a bench in East Looe and the children were crabbing off the harbour. Crabbing consists of 4 steps:
1. Put bacon in mesh net and tie shut
2. Tie fishing line to net and drop in harbour
3. Raise net with crab grabbing onto the side of the net
4. Put crab in water bucket.
Repeat. 

Anyway, the bacon always seems to be in little red or blue plastic bags and the seaguls seemed to have worked that out too. One doomed herring gul swooped in, stole the bag and sat down with it a little way along the quay. The parents noticed but the children were too busy with their crustacean friends to witness what happened. After a few failed pecks, the herring gul stopping try to get the bacon and started eating the bag. It was actually quite disturbing to watch as it had its beak through one of the little handles, so that once it had swallowed the bag whole, the handle straps were wrapped around its beak then disappeared down its throat. I don't particularly like herring guls, but unless it manages to regurgitate the bag, that bird is not going to have a pleasant time to say the least, I couldn't help but feel sorry for it as it flew off.

I camped in a perfect spot last night and watched the sun set and rise. The sea had calmed a lot and the clouds had blown out, there was a real sense of calm. (see first few photos). Walking along this morning, the mist was literally pouring off the cliffs into the sea, quite spectatular to watch and fun to walk through as I wandered around a golf course looking for the exit path.

A big morning (15m) brought me into Plymouth for a slow afternoon and lunch in various stages along the paved walkways. I've come up with a cunning plan to get me ahead before I take a planned day off on Friday. This plan took some thinking through because I had to juggle ferry times, tide times (the Elme has no ferry), town distances, and days. More details will no doubt appear on future days if it happens but I don't want to commit myself to it just yet. Friday is still a surprisingly long way off.

One ferry across to Mount Batten now then a couple of hours 'easy' walking towards Wembury.

Day 14 - Sennon Cove, Land's End, Porthcurno, Lamorna Cove, Penzance

Total: 277+m / Daily:18m  / Rain Clearing to Sun / A Social Day

3 miles to Sennon Cove and I took a big break to catch up on blog entries. I'm currently a full day's walking ahead and would like to maintain this allowing me to take a day off at one of my upcoming friend meets if I can. The plan is to reach the YHA at Penzance this evening and wash clothes, clean kit shower etc. without having to take time off. We'll see whether that happens in due course...

Land's End is a tourist mecha, one which I was glad to leave. I did however have 'the photo' taken which costs £9.95 even if you are a charity. The reason given is that they have charity challenges through everyday, in my mind that means they should be doing a lot of free photos?!

In 1967 a super tanker crashed (SS Torrey Canyon) into the rocks off the point of Land's End, one of 36 ships wrecked there. The reason they are so dangerous is that there are so many rocky sections at different levels making it impossible to visually navigate at any level of the tide. This supertanker was leaking its 100,000+ gallon cargo into the sea and the Government ordered the RAF to bomb it in an attempt to burn off the oil and contain the leak as best they could. I wish I had seen that!

I met lots of different people today (cards are a big success Em): 3 teachers; remet Annie who was bursting with energy on dolphin watch with Lucy and she donated a brownie! (which are banned in 19 countries due to their addictiveness); one man from the Dominican Republic who bought a bike whilst in Manchester, then a trailer to carry his bag, is now in Cornwall and has surf board, tent etc. in there as well, brilliant!; two Germans who had only today completed their end to end cycle; a girl from Glasgow painting seascapes on driftwood and a kind lady in a shop in Mousehole (the name of a little village). Apologies for not expanding on all of these stories, I would be writing forever and there is walking to be done.

Finding out that the YHA in Penzance was a mile from the coast was frustrating, as those who follow the Twitter feed would have noticed, but I was pleasantly rewarded with an excellent hostel manager, Paul, who works hard, has a good sense of humour and was generally very amicable, a YHA that looked more like a hotel, good company in the dorm and a bar. Late night at 11pm and the beers meant this morning was a little more tardy than I had envisaged.

Day 2 - Lynton, Combe Martin

~18 miles / Sunny / 5 Deer

Knee sore within 3 minutes, I decided to alter the 18 mile a day plan to allow me to get used to carrying a heavy rucksack again.

I had a coffee in Lynton and thought about various options, talking them through with the waitress at the one cafe in town open at 9am. Physio means going to Barnstaple to try and get an appointment with someone who will most likely tell me to rest and build up strength. The better option for me is to take a day (well, 12 hours) rest, see if I can find a support and plan to carry on tomorrow. Concious of time, this meant a bus to Combe Martin, but well worth it if I can shake the problem early on.

* Photo, Combe Martin

Day 0 - Minehead

Having now lost this post three times, what follows is an abridged version of what would undoubtedly have been a literary masterpiece. Now I'm afraid I just want to get the facts published!

Heather kindly offered to drop me in Minehead and we parted ways in Tesco car park a conflicting feeling of excitement and worry came over me as a wandered the aisles picking up the last few things I needed.

In my infinite wisdom, I booked the Minehead YHA without actually checking where in Minehead it was. Turns out to be 20 minutes walk outside the town up into the woods of Exmoor National Park. Despite my initial grumbling and wondering whether I had taken the wrong road, the YHA was a lovely place, wooded on all sides and had plenty of character. There were 4 or 5 other groups there and things were quiet, I ended up with a 4 bedroom dorm to myself.

I slept fairly well, waking only with the noise of people moving around elsewhere in the building. Tomorrow night I imagine will be much more pleasant in my tent with the fly sheet off if the forecast is correct.

*Photo - view from the hostel dining room, it was the same in all directions.