Another milestone, or should I say kilometre stone! At the end of this trip we will have walked over 2/3 of the 1014 km, quite an achievement for someone that doesn’t walk long distance footpaths: Carolynn who doesn’t walk at all, Andrew with his bad knees and Caroline – to be fair Caroline just gets on with it! The end is in sight, it’s still 330 km, but that sounds so much easier than 1000 km. Another five or six trips… could the end be next summer? Will we then feel slightly lost? There’s no one path in this country to compare lengthwise, but there are many other paths, unique in their own way. We are blessed with some of the most beautiful and inspiring National Parks. Just a little bit of trivia: this year is the 70th year of the 1949 Act of Parliament that led to the creation of our first National Park in 1951, The Peak District. This was all because of one of the most successful acts of civil disobedience in 1932, the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout, which eventually led to the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and our ‘right to roam’. I kind of have two hats on here: as a walker and lover of the high wild areas of this country the ‘right to roam’ has meant that areas have opened up that were never available to me before; however, there are also farmers in our family and generally speaking they’re perfectly happy with the ‘right to roam’. Unfortunately, though, there is a minority of imbeciles that seem to think that a ‘right to roam’ means that the land is theirs and they can do as they like, leaving litter, vandalising stone walls, setting irresponsible fires etc. the list goes on… Always leave no trace and respect livestock and the farmers’ property. It’s been said many times, we are but custodians of this land and none of us truly own it, but we should all be able to enjoy it.
Enough preaching for one day! Five became six for this trip. Not Kate, this time, but my goddaughter and Andrew and Caroline’s daughter, Sarah, joined us. Young, uncynical (don’t think that there is such a word) and with no preconceptions, just looking to enjoy the ramble and rabble! The walk out of Downderry was short but steep as we climbed to one of the highest points on the south Cornish coast, but still only 141m! From there the path hugged the cliff edge until Britain Point, and the spectacular view of Portwrinkle’s harbour and the four mile expanse of Whitsand Bay, opened up.
The path led us through Portwrinkle and back onto the cliffs above Whitsand Bay and on towards Tregantle Fort. One of several surrounding Plymouth to protect us from those marauding Europeans! Never, however, used for that purpose, but is still used by the Royal Marines today. From here it was just a short hop, skip and a jump to the car and the end of the first day. Didn’t end with a beer and a cream tea, but we did manage an ice cream…with clotted cream on top!
Wind… I hate wind. I don’t mind rain, snow or even the blazing sun, but wind adds another dimension. Pair each of the above with wind, and inclement weather suddenly becomes tempestuous! No waterproof has ever withstood horizontal rain, no eyes can see through a whiteout and no skin can withstand the blazing windblown sun, burning without feeling. Today was a day of wind and rain, an already cold day made colder by the chill of the wind. A miserable start and one that didn’t improve until after lunch. We followed the rugged cliff path to Rame Head, with the wind trying to forever blow us into the white horses of the wild ocean. At Rame Head we found at least a little shelter in the ruined chapel, to then embrace the wind again as we moved on. Lunch was taken in the shelter of the ferry waiting area: very colourful and it even had comfortable seats but was open to the weather on two sides and the wind played us like children, suddenly and unexpectedly changing direction as we chased its leeward side as we ate sand-filled sandwiches!
The wind eased after lunch as the path passed around Cawsand Bay eventually reaching Mount Edgcumbe Country Park and the end of another exhilarating day. And, of course, a cream tea in the Orangery in its Grade I listed gardens, with Plymouth just across the estuary.
Plymouth, the largest town on the South West Coast path. A town steeped in naval history and as we walk through Devils Point, the start of our waterfront walk along Plymouth Sound, the past surrounds us. We walk past Sherlock Holmes’s Pavement, The Royal Navy Millennium Wall, The Hoe, Smeatons Tower and eventually to The Barbican and Sutton Harbour.
It was at The Barbican that temptation was laid before us, take the ferry to Mount Batton Point… or walk five miles around the industrial heartland of Plymouth. Is there a certain pride in wanting to walk the whole path? I’ve used chairlifts to gain time and height in the Alps and in no way felt guilty, it’s what you do. The scale of the mountains means you can save hours of torturous ascent or descent… but none of us gave this temptation a second thought, it was dismissed out of hand, without a word passing between us..
Mount Batten Point was a well-deserved lunch stop. Working industry has a beauty of its own and walking through Plymouth’s industrial seafront was, in its own way, exhilarating. Mount Batten Point was the end of Plymouth and its beautiful historic waterfront, industry and its unforgiving pavement pounding. We left this urban landscape and walked into South Devon and the cliffs that now seem so familiar.
The next day we were back to five; Sarah, had gone back to London the previous evening…the oldies carried on with a conviction these youngest seem to lack! We left the fortified Plymouth coastline and walked deeper into South Devon. Another landmark, Cornwall and its coastline is now behind us and Poole gets ever closer. Today’s a short easy walk close by the sea and then a ferry, crossing Wembury Bay to the end of this section of the walk.
