After a glum few days the forecast for today was for a crisp winter day so we set off for Shaldon on the opposite side of the river to Teignmouth for our first SWCP walk of 2015. Because of the location of car parks and bus stops we decided to do this walk in reverse, parking at The Ness in Shaldon and then walking to Babbacombe.
In the SWCP guide the walk was graded as ‘strenuous’ and strenuous it most certainly was. This bit of the coast is very different from the Penzance to Falmouth stretch in that it is not high flat cliffs but a series of rolling hills down to the sea, so very much an up and down walk, and coupled with the fact that the ground was very muddy in places it was quite a challenge for our first walk of the year! In all it took us 4hours to cover the 6 miles.
We parked the car near the Ness Hotel with beautiful views across the estuary to Teignmouth …
and then climbed the hill behind The Ness to get an even better view …
After that it was a long slog up and down through lovely countryside along the coast stopping regularly to get our breath back! The first signs of spring were already appearing including the gorse in flower …
… and then another welcome stop at a bench on the path to photograph the first occurrence of a bearded David on the SWCP …
After a brief stop for lunch in the sunshine near Maidencombe Beach we set off again up a hill to rest against a farm gate near Watcombe …
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… before arriving in Babbacombe with 15mins to spare to catch the #11 bus back to Shaldon.
This was expected to be a gentle 20 minute ride but the double decker bus was pretty full so we found seats on the top deck which was interesting as the A379 at this point is very narrow and twisty, so we were constantly shying away from trees brushing the side of the bus and then we got stuck behind a cyclist on hill. The cyclist was doing a reasonable speed but was not happy to have a bus behind and (as the driver later told us) he had turned his helmet camera around to record the bus – there was lots of gesturing and shouting which resulted eventually in the bus getting wedged in some roadside trees in order to avoid a similar bus going in the opposite direction! Eventually we got going again but had to stop frequently on the tight corners to wait for a break in the traffic so that he could pull out across the double white lines in order to get round the corner without decapitating the upstairs passengers. The bus runs on this route from Torquay to Dawlish hourly but maybe it would be safer to run a single decker every half hour?, but then the economics probably wouldn’t work with having to pay 2 drivers and 2 lots of fuel. Still, it provided an interesting end to the day.
Back at the car the sun was still shining and we had an uneventful journey home arriving back at 17:00. AND THE GOOD NEWS WAS THAT FIONA WORE HER WALKING BOOTS AND HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH HER FEET.