Day 48 - 51 Torquay to Seaton
Day 48 - Torquay to Teignmouth. Today started with a stroll through Torquay marina and then a lovely walk around the Tor Bay peninsular and the beautiful St Marychurch area. Things then got much tougher with really steep hills all the way through to Teignmouth. The middle section of the path is called 'The Bishops Walk' as it was created in the nineteenth century by the Bishop of Exeter who lived in a mansion nearby. There are quite a few of these around the coast and also 'carriage rides' created by wealthy landowners. They are normally fairly flat but not this one, he must have been the fittest Bishop of all time because it nearly killed me ! I lose track of the days when I'm walking but I knew it must be a Sunday because approching Teignmouth the path quickly became really busy with dog walkers and even worse with a coach party.
Day 49 - Teigmouth to Exmouth. On leaving Teignmouth there is a very unusual section of the path where it is completly flat, mostly concrete and runs between the sea and the railway line. The sea wall at Dawlish has been completely rebuilt over the last few years following the devastating storm damage in 2014. By coincidence the grand opening of the new wall was today and as I walked by there were numerous dignitaries present and even the TV cameras, I can only hope they didn’t get me in the picture ! The rest of the walk was also flat and mostly surfaced, passing through the ghastly Dawlish Warren and on to Starcross. If Dawlish Warren was the only place left on earth to go on holiday I would stay at home. The ferry went from Starcross over the Exe estuary to Exmouth where I was staying the night. That was an easy day of about 10 miles and I probably could have gone quite a bit further but so much depends on where suitable (ie cheap !) accommodation can be found. I‘m a bit concerned about Thursday when the reverse is true, I have nearly 20 miles to cover including the really difficult undercliff path after Seaton in the morning and the the highest point on the whole walk in the afternoon. That one could be a long day !
Day 50 - Exmouth to Sidmouth. It rained !! It was grey and cloudy to start with but at lunchtime it started raining and continued on and off until I finished at about 4pm. Its a shame because it was a really nice days walking, starting along the back of Exmouth's lovely beach, through Budleigh Salterton, over rolling cliff tops, through woods and around agricultural fields to Sidmouth. There really is a bit of everything in this stretch and anyone wanting to try one day of the coast path would get a flavour of the whole thing from just this section.
Day 51 - Sidmouth to Seaton. Back to sunshine and clouds today for another lovely section of the Jurassic Coast. Its a very tough stretch with almost constant steep ups and downs, most of which were made more difficult by yesterdays rain. Thats my excuse for slipping over anyway, while I was walking down a steep grassy slope my foot went and I landed on my back so really on my rucksack. I was fine but as I looked up from the ground there was a young lad of about 4 or 5 out with his Mum who seemed to thoroughly enjoy my performance. His Mum didn't really seem to notice or perhaps she was just being polite but as I gradually stood up and recovered my dignity I was sure he was going to ask me to do it again. The sun came out fully during the afternoon as I walked through the lovely village of Beer and meandered along the pebble beach to Seaton.