Lutterworth to London, a simple trip down the M1. Simple in that there were the normal 23 miles of road works; you know, the conversion of safe roads with hard shoulders to dangerous ‘Smart Motorways’ where breaking down becomes a life and death lottery! That aside the journey to the end or beginning, however you look at it, of the M1 was uneventful and took the expected one and a half hours to complete. The second half, actually not technically ‘half’ more like 10%, of the journey i.e. the last eight miles, was a trial of one’s patience and took a further hour and a half! After a night of celebration, with Syston Service Station winning the ‘Lubes’ category at The Forecourt Trader of the Year Awards, we exited out of London at 7am and made our way to the end of our first day’s walk. The area south-west of London is not one I know well and imagine my surprise when we crested a small hill on the A303 and there in front of me was Stonehenge! I’m going to show my ignorance and say I was unsure of exactly where it was located in the south! It’s one of those World Heritage sites that I’ve always meant to go and see, but never got around to it. As the exit from London was nowhere near as painful as our entrance the day before, we decided to stop. Like most women would say, ‘It was smaller than I was expecting’, but still very impressive!

We arrived at Blackpool Sands, our end point for the day, at a similar time to Andrew and Caroline: unusual! From Start Point Head we descended gently to Slapton Sands and the memorial for Exercise Tiger. A bit of a cock up as far as exercises go, it’s rumoured that up to 450 men died in a ‘friendly fire’ incident, due to poor communication and the use of live ammunition on a training exercise! The following day a convoy carrying light vehicles and engineers was spotted by nine German E boats and was attacked. This caused another estimated 248 deaths; again, lack of communication, training and faulty equipment were the main causes of the high number of deaths.

It was not far from this point that I received a phone call from the Airbnb host… it appears that he had us booked in from the Saturday night and not Friday, his error. By this time it was four in the afternoon and we were some distance from anywhere where we could have arranged a night in a hotel. However, it all ended well as the Airbnb host organised and paid for a night in a hotel in Torquay. Acceptable, we all make mistakes and he did his best to make it right for us.

The following day was a long day for us, 20km, and the beginning started with road walking which changed after three or four kilometres and once again we were walking on the sea cliffs as we approached Dartmouth Castle and a coffee stop. Over the three years or so that we’ve been walking the South West Coast Path, coffee stops seem to become more frequent and openly hoped for. Getting soft, probably… a latte and a cake do go down rather well mid-morning – as well as a pint and a cream tea at the end!

After taking the ferry across the River Dart, the walk was spent in and out of small secluded coves, very picturesque. The downside to picturesque is ‘in and out’ also means ‘up and down’! And therefore a late finish for us, after 17:30… unheard of!

The following day’s walk started with a pleasant walk past Berry Head Fort, which is home to one of the biggest guillemot colonies on the south coast; the fort was built to protect the Torbay Naval Anchorage. I alone took the detour into the fort and lighthouse and where were my compatriots when I eventually caught them up… in a coffee shop and we’d only been walking about an hour! Today was as short a day as yesterday was long. Time didn’t matter and we dawdled along the path, eventually eating lunch at the boating lake where the car was parked.

The final day’s walk through Paignton and Torquay was surprisingly refreshing as we walked mainly along promenades and the weather gave the English Riviera the soft light and glow normally only associated with its French counterpart.

However, the last few kilometres were through woods, with glimpses of golden beaches below and headlands yet to come. We departed for home in the knowledge that Poole is within our grasp and I think that the three or four trips left will be ones with mixed feelings as the SWCP comes to its conclusion.