Hills and more hills

Varied weather, some b#$%$ big steep hills, lots of dogs running for joy on beaches and some interesting people and very British beach towns.

Day 8 - 17.5km to Brixham over a long section of remote cliffs, very steep hills and WWII gun placements.

St Mary perhaps, an old tree stump beautifully carved at St Mary's Bay.

A proper fishing harbour at Brixham, apart from the cliched Disneyish replica of Sir Francis Drakes ship.

Day 9 - 21.2kms to Babbacombe. Brown beaches, rows of beach boxes, happy dogs running on almost empty beaches. The train viaduct which we walked under and beside. We saw the steam train we rode on two days prior.

Paignton, a very British beach, sort of working class or middle class resort town, amusements on the pier.

Torquay is the more upmarket end where the rich people go. We did a lot of walking on pavement today.

A long walk through woodland not far from houses finally took us to Babbacombe which sits at the top of tree covered cliffs.

Day 10 - 23.2km. A long day of more woods, big hill climbing and pavement walking beside trains, and two rivers to cross.

Little Sheryl zig-zagging down to the bottom of the cliff at Babbacombe.

Tiny Sheryl dwarfed by an enormous hill near Shaldon just before the River Teign where we caught a small ferry over to Teignmouth.

Teignmouth, another very British beach town.

Walking between the train and beach along the rather high sea wall. The train takes a tunnel through the headland but we walked inland,  over and around it to Dawlish.

Dawlish, a repeat version of the beach town and another long walk beside the trains to Starcross to catch another ferry over the River Exe to Exmouth. We arrived too late, missed the ferry but caught a train instead and enjoyed a warm dry ride while it rained outside.

Day 11 - 20.1km. Exmouth to Sidmouth was a beautiful walk, more rural, cool damp weather that turned to solid rain in the afternoon. Red cliffs and canola fields.

After a delicious lunch in a cafe in Budleigh Salterton we found sleeping swans in the large wetlands reserve.

The rain set in for the rest of the afternoon as we had a cuppa in the restaurant of the large chalet park resort at Ladram Bay, before climbing over the headland to Sidmouth. We were dripping water everywhere by the time we arrived at our pub for the night, which was Saturday and they had a live band playing until 11.30. Oh dear! We didn't plan that very well.

Day 12 - 14.6km Better weather, a shorter but steeper day. Sidmouth is a pleasant small town with red cliffs at each end of its beach.

Bluebells are flowering.

More big climbs - the downs are just as hard as the ups but the views are wow!

The cafe at Branscome Beach was cute and sheltered us from a shower as we had a Devonshire tea. After all, we are in Devon.

Then we walked around the western most white chalk cliffs in England to Beer where we stayed in a hostel.

Day 13 - 13.4km, a relatively easy day. Between Beer and Seaton the cliffs change abruptly from white to back to red.

After leaving the town of Seaton we spent most of the day in an area known as The Undercliff, a wild place formed by massive cliff falls with a huge landslide in 1839. Some people find it scary, eerie and difficult terrain, but we loved it.

We arrived in Lyme Regis and found our cottage just before it rained. 

Day 14 - A sunny but cold day of rest in the pretty town before we are back on the Path tomorrow. Washing, writing, shopping, eating 😄