We set off down the M5 knowing that we’d only be traveling down this road another couple of times. For the last two or three trips we’ll be taking another route to the south-west coast as we move closer to the end. They say familiarity breeds contempt. It’s a road that has led me to some of the most enjoyable days I’ve spent with Carolynn, Andrew and Caroline. So, although the M5 is long and sometimes torturous, it has taken me to a part of the UK that has given me many hours of pleasure with excellent company. It’ll be with a little sadness that I will be saying goodbye to this road that leads to one place only.
The title says it all… we’re getting close, the end is nearly in sight. The thought throws up mixed emotions. What an achievement, but with a tinge of sadness knowing that we probably won’t return to see the quaint fishing villages, and the wondrous, wild Atlantic coast, for many years. Before I start reminiscing, we need to finish and the first day brought a bitter blow. Carolynn had been suffering from a wheezy cough for a couple of weeks and this caused some serious breathing problems within the first few hundred metres. I hadn’t seen her struggling like this since we lived in Grimsby, some thirty odd years ago. Asthma can be extremely debilitating and proved to be so on this trip. It’s not something that either of us have taken into consideration for years and came as a bit of a shock. Carolynn struggled through the first short day but didn’t risk causing any more breathing problems and took no further part on this section of the walk. In the three years we’ve been going down to walk the South West Coast Path, we’ve had very little in the way of injuries. Andrew has suffered the odd blister, I had a problem with plantar fasciitis, Caroline has been injury free and so had Carolynn up to this point. Carolynn and I will return to complete the small section that she missed at a later date, hopefully. I know Carolynn won’t worry if she doesn’t return to complete this section, as she’s always said that it’s a team effort and most of all it’s about the enjoyment and company.
This section of the Coast Path meanders its way through urban areas, but surprises us with some secluded bays and headlands. I have to say it’s not the most interesting section of the walk, but like many urban areas, it has its own sense of beauty and we all see that in our own way. Torquay soon becomes a footnote and the path becomes the rollercoaster ride that we have come to expect, maybe just a little gentler, and we finish the day at a small insignificant car park glad that a day where Carolynn struggled so, was over.
Today we’re walking without Carolynn. It was Carolynn that first hinted at wanting to walk the South West Coast Path just over three years ago whilst we were taking a busman’s break in Devon and I find the next three days a little emptier without her company. Today’s route is easy walking, playing hide and seek with the coastal railway. The railway is still being repaired after the storms of the previous year and this means a couple of small diversions as we amble our way along the sea wall to Dawlish and its famous black swans.
Our day finishes at the ferry across the river Exe, a ferry that doesn’t run in the winter months, so even though we can see our AirBnb just a couple of hundred metres away, we have a long drive up through Exeter and then down the other side of the river Exe to Exmouth and our abode for the weekend. The walk was probably the least interesting of the SWCP so far, walking by a busy railway, which most of the time obscured any view there might be of Exmouth. Not a section I could savour and I believe a section best forgotten!
Kate and Merlot joined us today, always great to have them along. The day started as we finished the previous day, walking along the sea walls, but this time the other side of the Exe Estuary. The path then rises and steeply descends into Budleigh Salterton and its beautiful pebbled sea front and even more importantly, its more beautiful café! Budleigh is a wonderful village: not as picturesque as many of the Cornish and Devon villages and it doesn’t have a golden sandy beach meaning the tourists are not so numerous and therefore, it is left to the locals and those of us that wander through on the Coastal Path to admire the multi-coloured pebbled beach and red sandstone cliffs and sea stacks.
From Budleigh the path reverts back to type i.e. taking us a couple of kilometres inland only to bring us back just metres from where we turned inland, some excuse of there being a river in the way, but more importantly the path once again became the rolling ups and downs we’d come to love! Our last down was into Sidmouth and a well-earned coffee and taxi ride back to the AirBnb, Carolynn being the driver. Not sure whether you’ve noticed but we always used to finish with a pint and cream scone… it must be age as even Andrew now seems to prefer a pint of orange and maybe a cream scone.
The path today definitely returned to type with its many steep, stepped descents and ascents. I don’t know whether the steps make the constant ups and downs easier or not, but they are often irregular in width and height, which means that you struggle to get a rhythm going and the lactic acid in your thighs soon begins to burn. I was going to say that this section of the walk was like many others, rolling coastline with hidden bays and pebbled beaches, but that makes it sound as if familiarity has bred contempt and that’s not true. I still get great enjoyment from this landscape that the sea over the centuries has moulded into such wonderful headlands and coves. It’s just hard to find different ways of expressing its beauty. Maybe I’m just a little melancholy and out of sorts as my constant companion is not there to share it with me!
