Thursday 18 June 2026

Day 52 of walking
Swanage out and back
Distance: 10.60
Total distance: 1,007.07
Climbing: 156m
Total climb: 32,502m

Today’s stage was always going to be a problem. Our Macs itinerary had us walking 34 kilometres from Lulworth Cove to Swanage which included going through the very active Lulworth Firing Range between Lulworth Cove and Kimmeridge. The Range is usually, but not always, open on weekends, usually closed week days but sometimes open in the peak summer months. You have to check before leaving Lulworth Cove if the range is open or not. Today was a Thursday and it was not.

There are alternatives. Alternative one is an inland route on public paths, fields and quiet back roads from Lulworth to Kimmeridge and is 21.75 kilometres. Alternative two is to walk on a relatively busy road, the B3070, to Kimmeridge and is 19.3 kilometres. When the range is open Lulworth Cove to Kimmeridge is 11.76 kilometres. So alternative one is 43.5 kms, alternative two is 41.05kms, compared to the range open, official route, of 34 kms.

Macs suggested if the Range was closed we get the bus from Lulworth Cove to Corfe Castle, walk from there down to the Coast Path at Chapman’s Pool and carry onto Swanage. This is a walk of a total of about 21 kilometres. However it is very hilly, over 950 metres of climbing. Another option we considered was to bus to Corfe Castle and do the inland section of the Purbek Way from Corfe Castle to Swanage. This would have been a complete contrast to all the coastal walking we have done over the last nine weeks.

A further option was to get the bus to Corfe Castle, spend a couple of hours in the beautiful stone building village with its castle ruins of 1105, and get the heritage steam train from there to Swanage. Much as I love old steam trains we are here to walk.

It was another misty, murky morning and we didn’t think we would see much on any of the above options and they were a bit long and hilly for us. We decided to get the bus all the way to Swanage, and then hoping the mist may have lifted, do an out and back walk from Swanage. There was a bus every hour, it cost £3 each, went on a circuitous inland route, and took an hour and a quarter. It seems that on suburban buses, no matter how far you go, it is always £3.

Swanage is a small and unassuming town of about 10,000. It is not very attractive in itself but does have a long sweeping sandy beach, is the terminus of the heritage Swanage Steam Railway which runs to Corfe Castle, and is located between Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door to the west and Old Harry’s Rocks to the east. It is basically the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast.

We located the Coast Path in Swanage and climb up around Peveril Point across the grassy Downs, through some woodland to Durlston Country Park. At Durlston Castle Maggie on MapMyWalk announced we had walked 4 kilometres which meant we had walked 1,000 kilometres. A high five and we asked a kind gentleman to take our photo. He and his friends were amazed two old geezers had walked so far.

Also at Durlston Country Park overlooking the ocean, is a stone sphere sitting on a solid rock platform cut into the hill. It is one of the largest stone spheres in the world, is made of Portland Stone, weighs 40 tonnes, is 3 metres in diameter and was made in 1887. The surface is carved in detail and shows, continents, oceans and certain specific areas of the world. New Zealand is shown. Around the globe are plaques carved with verses from English and Roman poets, and the bible.

We walked on a bit further to Anvil Point to see the lighthouse. The mist had come in again and we couldn’t see the lighthouse until we almost tripped over it. It was built of local stone in 1881 and positioned as a waypoint for ships passing along the English Channel. We couldn’t see the cliffs ahead or the sea below so decided to turn around and head back to Swanage.

We are staying at the Pines Hotel, a fairly bland mid last century hotel in a great location on a cliff overlooking Swanage Bay. Except it is now total white out and there is nothing to see from the hotel rooms, terrace, lounge or dining room. It is only the third hotel we have stayed in that has a lift up to our second floor room. It is about a kilometre out of the town centre and a flat walk along the beach promenade and then up a hill. This is one kilometre we won’t have to do tomorrow. The hotel has 147 steps down the cliff to what is effectively their own private beach. Very few people would come this far out of Swanage to swim when they can swim anywhere in the bay, so it is used just by hotel patrons. After settling in we went down to the beach for a refreshing swim. Almost as warm as Oriental Bay in summer.

It is a long walk into town so we dined at the hotel. It is a bit upmarket for grubby walkers like us who just want a quick and simple meal. All the dining room staff were dressed in black and white like penguins and were very polite. All the diners looked incredibly old, but then we forget that we are just as old as they are. Barbara: pan fried chicken supreme, creamed potato, rosemary red wine sauce. Me: roast pork belly, apple puree, black pudding crumb, maple syrup, smoked paprika. They both came with roast potato, carrots, broccoli, corn and green beans.

We can’t quite believe tomorrow is our last day of walking. A short, easy walk to Studland Bay and South Haven Point, photo at the sculpture at the end of the South West Coast Path, ferry across to Sandbanks and a bus ride into Poole. And that’s it, all done, back to the real world.

Wednesday 17 June 2026

Day 51 of walking
Weymouth to Lulworth Cove
Distance: 19.35km
Total distance: 996.47km
Climbing: 727m
Total climb: 32,346m

Today’s section started with a dead flat walk and ended with a roller coaster. The walk out of Weymouth was on the esplanade on a dull and gloomy morning. The splendid Georgian houses on the sea front which should have been standing proudly , glistening in the morning sun were hardly visible, hiding in the mist. At the end of the beach the path went inland slightly to bypass Furzy Cliff and then went through the Southside Funfair, all still and quiet before opening time. There is another huge holiday park here and the massive faux Art Deco Riviera Hotel, abandoned and neglected when we were here three years ago and looking like it is falling apart even more today.

On the hill above the hotel we were looking for the Osmington White Horse. This is a large image of a horse and rider carved into the white chalk hillside. Carved in 1808 and restored in 2010, the figure is King George III who often holidayed in Weymouth. We missed seeing this last time and were determined not to miss again. We asked a man walking his dog, who we assumed would be a local, but he had no idea having been in Weymouth for only a day. Next we asked a lady walking her two dogs. She was local and pointed it out to us there and then. It was much further away than we expected and so looked very small. It was also not white but a dirty sort of brown. I think the fact that it was a gloomy misty morning meant it was not looking its best.

After some very gentle walking along some low cliffs the next highlight was The Smugglers Inn at Osmington Mills. This is a lovely thatched roof place, its origins dating back to the 13^th century. It was one of the main landing places for smuggled goods from France in the 17^th century. It is often voted the ‘Best Pub in Dorset’. Some more gentle walking on grass and through woodland until we went down to the beach at Ringstead Bay. The coast is all pea sized pebbles as we saw at Chesil Beach. Luckily we didn’t have to walk on it, just sit and drink our coffee and try and make out the outline of the Isle of Portland in the mist. The mist was hanging around the higher cliff tops and it was much clearer at sea level.

Then the tough stuff began. A gradually steepening climb up to White Nothe and some remote former coast guard houses. We were way up in the white stuff and you could only see about 50 metres ahead on the path. We then got on the roller coaster, a series of very steep descents and climbs with intriguing names like Burning Cliff, Middle Bottom, Bats Hole and Scratchy Bottom. Some rocks off shore are called The Calf, The Cow, The Blind Cow and The Bull. The geology had changed to a series of sheer white cliffs. This is a very dramatic part of the coast and has two iconic landmarks of the South West Coast Path, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove.

Geologically Durdle Door is just an arch of limestone rock, set out at sea, and joined to the mainland with a narrow sliver of land. It was formed by the tides eroding the rock and eventually the tides will destroy the arch. Just along the beach at Stair Hole a new arch is forming in an ’infant cove’ and it will eventually replace Durdle Door. This place is incredibly popular with a camp ground and huge car park and is on the route of a hop-on, hop-off open top tourist bus. We have now been here twice and both times there were a lot of people about. Last time it was a hot, sunny, windless day and along with many others we swam. Some were swimming out and through the arch. Today it was windy, cold, and overcast. It is a very steep pebble beach with a strong undertow and today the wind was driving in some decent waves. It looked a bit unsafe unless you were a strong swimmer and nobody was in the water.

Just over the headland is one of the most picturesque coves in the south west, Lulworth Cove. A perfectly horse shoe shaped white pebble cove known for its brilliant blue crystal clear water. It wasn’t quite like that on this overcast and misty day. Just inland is the idyllic village of Lulworth and a little further inland the even lovelier village of West Lulworth. We are staying there at The Castle Inn, a beautifully restored thatch roofed pub dating from 1660. In the attic again, but up only one flight of narrow, uneven, twisty stairs. The corridor to our room is only the width of my shoulders and is far from straight or level. We love it when you just have to go downstairs to the bar for a meal. Barbara: Wild garlic rigatoni, spring pesto, burrata, basil and toasted pine nuts. Me: Wiltshire lamb sausages, champ potatoes, mint gravy, spring greens, beer-battered green onion. Both fantastic.

Tomorrow Macs Adventure have us walking 34 kilometres from Lulworth Cove to Swanage, with 1297 metres of climbing. Way too much for us these days. In 2023 we did this in two days and found it difficult then – although the first day was in pouring rain. We are concocting something different for our penultimate day of walking.

Tomorrow will be a milestone day. We only have to walk 4 more kilometres to reach 1,000 kilometres.

Tuesday 16 June 2026

Day 50 of walking
Abbotsbury to Weymouth
Distance: 16.35km
Total distance: 977.12km
Climbing: 291m
Total climb: 31,619m

We feel we made the right decision to shorten today’s 24 plus km down to 16 plus km by taking the bus from Abbotsbury to Chickerell. It made for a nice walk of a comfortable length, a good path, no big climbs, warm but not hot, no wind and interesting in a few different ways. Because there are so few buses on this route we were at the bus stop a good 20 minutes early to make sure we didn’t miss it. A full-size double decker, route X53 to Weymouth by First Bus, arrived on schedule and in 15 minutes whisked us down a narrow secondary road to the small village of Chickerell. The way these large buses navigate tight roads and small villages is amazing.

At Chickerell we walked about half a kilometre down a quiet country road and then a public path over a field to rejoin the Coast Path at the Fleet. We had chosen Chickerell because it is the closest point the bus route gets to the Path. On the public path to the Coast Path we came across a tiny stone church in the hamlet of Fleet. The Doomsday Book of 1086 mentions a church on this site and a survey of 1552 records a church with a tower and two bells. In the great storm of 1824 the church suffered badly when the Chesil Beach shingle barrier was breached and huge waves crossed the Fleet lagoon. The tower and nave of the church were demolished and all that remains today is a tiny church and a few grave stones. A new church was built further inland.

The Fleet is a nature reserve, a great expanse of lagoon water separating the land from the pebble ridge of Chesil Beach. The ridge is so high that walking around the shore of the lagoon you cannot see, and are unaware of, the sea on the other side. The walk was easy, mostly flat, farm land on one side and the lagoon with its bird life and a few boats on the other. We passed a couple of modest sized holiday parks, walked through a military firing range (no red flags flying today), around a military training centre with its high fence and razor wire, and across a short stretch of the muddy Fleet itself. Fortunately the tide was out.

The 29km long Fleet ends (or begins) at Ferry Bridge where it connects to Portland Harbour. Ferry Bridge is the start of the long causeway that connects the Isle of Portland to the mainland. We are not going out to the Isle this trip as we did a full one-day circuit of it in 2023. We stopped for our coffee break at Ferry Bridge. It is still another 5 kilometres to Weymouth the first part along a flat straight former railway line along the coast. The path then climbs up through some very, very, expensive suburban real estate before dropping back down to the coast onto a concrete sea wall. This leads to the massive Victorian Fort Nothe, guarding the entrance to the harbour and the River Wey, through Nothe Gardens, and suddenly you are in Weymouth alongside the river.

Weymouth is probably my favourite town on the South West Coast Path. It has the old harbour, full of fishing boats, ferries, day excursion boats and luxury yachts and the river is lined with a lovely collection of old buildings now housing bars, cafes, restaurants and the like. Leading from the river is the old town with a maze of narrow streets and lanes full of an amazing range of shops. Then a great sweep of sand and a promenade with arcades and fairground rides, fronted with Georgean houses. We swam at the beach in 2023 so I wanted to go and swim again. The weather had turned overcast, the wind had got up and it was a bit cooler. In the miles and miles of beach front I was the only person in swimming. Even the life guards had packed it in and gone home.

We are staying at the Red Cliff B & B which is about 2 kilometres along the beach from the river, on the way out of town. We didn’t want to have to walk back into the town for dinner so had lunch in the Old Rooms Inn on the river bank.  Not counting the hamburgers there were only five mains on the menu and two of those were “off”. Barbara: Hand battered Atlantic cod, with chips and garden peas. Me: Rainbow grain salad, mixed grains and salad leaves, topped with cucumber, baby tomatoes, roasted peppers and red onions, drizzled with French dressing and a topping of grilled chicken breast. This is the reverse of normal. Barbara is usually into the grain salad. For the second time this trip we had dessert: Bramley apple crumble with custard.

Monday 15 June 2026

Day 49 of walking
Bridport to Abbotsbury
Distance: 21.17km
Total distance: 960.77km
Climbing: 170m
Total climb: 31,328m

Our first mission today was to retrace our steps from Bridport 3.2 kilometres back to West Bay. This is a nice quiet walk along the river bank and all of it away from traffic. About half way to West Bay is a large Morrisons supermarket so we called in there to get some supplies for dinner tonight. Our destination Abbotsbury has two pubs but one had a fire in January and is closed for rebuilding and the other does not serve meals on Mondays, and today is a Monday. We decided to have our main meal at lunchtime and just get something cold to eat in our room this evening. On past trips we used to buy ‘Meal Deals’ quite often but not this trip. A meal deal is a combo price for a main (sandwiches, wraps etc), a drink (smoothies, juice, soda, water) and a snack (crisps, choc bar etc). One of each for a total of £3.75. If you bought a smoothie on its own it was £2.80, so overall it is a good deal. These meal deals are in all the main supermarket chains and even some Boots the Chemist.

At the east end of West Bay is East Cliff, an imposing, orange, vertical cliff towering over the beach. The Coast Path used to go up the edge of the cliff but a dramatic landslide in 2017 means the path is diverted inland, across some fields, through yet another golf course and comes down to the beach at Burton Freshwater through the massive Freshwater Beach Holiday Park. A small climb over Burton Cliff to Hive Beach where we stopped for our coffee break. The cliffs then flatten out and there is no more climbing for 10 kilometres until the climb up to Abbotsbury Village. This does not make the walking easier as sections of it are on pea sized round pebbles on a shingle ridge separating the sea from the fields. The walking is hard on the legs, slow and tiring. Your feet sink in the shingle which moves every time you try and step forward. You feel as though your feet are slipping and sliding in all directions. At first this is Cogden Beach which turns into Chesil Beach.

Chesil Beach is 29 kilometres long, up to 15 metres high and is made of 100 million tonnes of pebbles. It is a ‘storm beach’ and is still moving inland about 5 metres a century due to storm overwash. The pebbles grade from pea size in the west to potato sized cobbles in the east. Chesil Beach is one of the finest storm beaches in the world. It was formed in the Holocene Period 6000 years ago and was pushed on shore by rising sea levels and now protects the Weymouth lowlands and the Fleet, one of the most important lagoons in Europe.

About half way along our walk on the beach was the tiny hamlet of West Bexington, some beach houses, a car park, toilets and The Club House Restaurant. This is where we planned to have our main meal at lunch time. It was open and doing a good trade. We both had Focaccia sandwiches served with salad and a summer slaw. Barbara had a ‘Veggie’: fried halloumi, guacamole, spiced tomato chutney, pickled red onion, tomato and lettuce. I had ‘The Club House’ sliced roast chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato and aioli. We didn’t add the skinny fries. The sandwiches were huge and we should have ordered just one and shared.

After lunch we were able to get off the pebbles and make much faster progress on a service road behind the beach. After a couple of kilometres we reached a car park, toilets and a seasonal café (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). Here the path turns inland  for about 2 kilometres to Abbotsbury. The path was on grass and went around and through a few fields. In one field five tractors were tedding, collecting, baling and plastic wrapping hay and loading the bales onto a trailer. All a very slick operation. We were following the route on our Macs app and it took us up a steep grass slope to the highest hill around, to St Catherine’s Chapel. The chapel was built in the late fourteenth century and is dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria, one of the most popular saints in mediaeval England. The hill top location recalls the monastery of St Catherine on Mt Sinai and suggests it may have been a place of pilgrimage. From the hill we could look down on the Fleet (lagoon inside Chesil Beach), also the maze that is part of the Abbotsbury Swannery.

Abbotsbury is a pristine little village of stone with lots to interest. The 11^th century remains of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, the longest Tithe Barn in England, St Catherine’s Chapel, the Swannery where swans are bred, subtropical gardens, a children’s farm (where they farm children?), a Clock Work Shop where dozens of elegant and rare antique clocks are displayed.

We are staying at The Swan Lodge, possibly the least interesting building in the whole village. Just an ordinary house converted into an ordinary B & B. When we arrived there was no one here, the front door was unlocked and our bags were in the hall. Macs had a phone number in their notes so we gave it a call. Turns out the Swan Lodge is run by the Swan Inn over the road. This is the Inn that had the fire in January. A lady in her old painting clothes came running over to get us settled in. She and her husband are working frantically to get the Inn opened as soon as possible.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a 25km day from Abbotsbury to Weymouth. Anything over 20km is getting to be a bit too much for us at this stage of our walk. 90% of the path is not on the coast but goes across endless fields until you get down to the Fleet and then it follows the inland side of the Fleet almost into Weymouth. Outside the Swan Lodge is a bus stop, so in the morning we will catch a bus to the next village down the road, Chickerell, and from there, using farm lanes and public paths, get back onto the Coast Path, bypassing the boring fields. There are very few busses, we need to be on the 9.05am otherwise there is hours of waiting for the next one.

Sunday 14 June 2026

Day 48 of walking
Lyme Regis to Bridport
Distance: 21.14km
Total distance: 939.60km
Climbing: 746m
Total climb: 31,158m

Our 9.30am taxi turned up at 9.10am and we were back in Dorset at Lyme Regis ready to start walking at 9.30am. Our taxi driver was a happy chappie, he was Moroccan and overnight Morocco had drawn their World Cup Football match against Brazil which was something of an upset. Lyme Regis at 9.30am on a Sunday morning was already beginning to buzz. The cafes and restaurants offering breakfast or coffee were doing a great trade. People were already marking out their plots and setting up their little tents and shelters on the beach.

Besides The Cobb, famously featuring in Jane Austen’s Persuasion and the book and film of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Lyme Regis is best known for its fossils. The Jurassic Coast is a treasure trove for fossil-hunters and fossils are found at most of the beaches including Lyme Regis. The most common finds are ammonites – the spiral-shaped shells of extinct marine molluscs, and belemnites – once called ‘Devil’s thunderbolts’ due to their shape but are really part of an internal shell of a squid-like animal.

‘She sells sea shells on the sea shore’ The person this tongue twister is said to refer to is Mary Anning, the famed local palaeontologist who made numerous discoveries of great importance in the coastal cliffs around Lyme Regis. She rose from a poor and uneducated background to become one of the world’s leading and most revered fossil collectors and palaeontologists. She made the first of several important discoveries in 1811 at the age of 12, unearthing a 17 foot long ichthyosaurus (fish lizard), in 1823 she discovered a complete plesiosaurus (near lizard) and in 1828 a pterodactyl skeleton. Unfortunately due to the great social inequality of the time a woman of her background was never given the plaudits she deserved. In order to make a living she had to sell her finds to other scientists who then took all the credit for them. In 2010 however she was included in the list of 10 British women to have most influenced the history of science.

A major feature of the walking today is the large number of cliff slippages caused by a combination of wet weather and geology. After a walk along the promenade and sea wall at Lyme Regis the first diversion was inland on roads away from the coast, across yet another golf course, back onto some roads to meet the coast again at Charmouth. The interest here was a nice beach, a Heritage Coast Centre, a good location for fossil hunters, and for us a shop with an ice cold drink of apple juice on what was turning out to be hot day.

From Charmouth there is a long steep climb, with diversions inland away from and back to the crumbling cliffs to Golden Cap – at 191m the south coast’s highest point. The highest point on the entire Coast Path is Great Hangman – 318m, but it is on the west coast. The views up and down the coast were spectacular on this clear day, way beyond Beer Head to the west and the Isle of Portland to the east. We came over Golden Cap in 2023 in white out conditions and saw nothing, so today was pretty special. Golden Cap gets its name from the distinctive layer of bright yellow-orange sandstone (known as Upper Greensand) that forms the very top of the hill. From the summit it is a very fast steep descent to the beach at Seatown, a tiny village with a pub, pizzeria, sauna, car park and huge holiday park.

Another steep climb and descent over Doghouse Hill to the beach at Eype Mouth, a tiny hamlet with just a few small chalets and a car park. I was feeling very hot after all the climbing so had a quick swim before we tackled the last climb of the day at West Cliff before going down into West Bay. The whole of the coast today was steep crumbling cliffs and there have been many large landslides. The path keeps away from the more dangerous cliff edges but sometimes got very close to the edge and you could peer down to the beach and water below. This was a bit unnerving when you realised the piece you were standing on was severely undercut and there were large cracks in the ground around you.

West Bay is a working harbour but also thrives on the tourist trade. The original harbour was at Bridport a couple of miles inland on the River Brit. The river silted up and boats became too big for the river so a new port was constructed on the coast. This was named Bridport Harbour until the railway came to Bridport and in an early example of rebranding the name was changed to West Bay to be more attractive to tourists.

At West Bay we left the Coast Path and went inland 3.2 kilometres on a public footpath, initially through a large holiday park and then along the banks of the Brit and Asker Rivers to the town of Bridport, where we are staying at the Tiger Inn. It is tough doing an extra 3 kilometres at the end of a hot, strenuous day but West Bay has very little hotel or B & B accommodation, just the holiday park and some modern high-rise apartments. The Tiger Inn is a nice 18^th century establishment, and of course we are up two flights in the attic. Like every pub and Inn in England they are showing non-stop World Cup Football and there is a lively crowd downstairs and in the two outside beer gardens. It could be a long noisy night.

The Tiger Inn does not serve food other than breakfast so we went down the road to The Bull Inn. We stayed there in 2023 and knew they did evening meals. It was a Sunday and to our joy they were serving Sunday Roasts until 8pm. Two weary but hungry walkers after a strenuous day, tucked into a great roast chicken with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and vegetables with lashings of gravy.

Saturday 13 June 2026

Day 47 of walking
Beer to Lyme Regis
Distance: 14.98
Total distance: 918.46km
Climbing: 477m
Total climb: 30,412m

Today and tomorrow are the last of our taxi transfer days. We walked from Beer to Lyme Regis and a taxi was booked for 5pm to bring us back to Beer for the night. We arrived in Lyme Regis at 1pm and after a slow lunch and a swim rang the taxi company to see if they could pick us up early. The best they could do was 4.30pm. Tomorrow morning a taxi is booked for 9.30am to take us back to Lyme Regis for us to start walking. We asked the driver if he could come earlier, say 9 am. He rang around all his taxi driver mates to see if anyone could do a 9am pick up but no luck. So tomorrow will be a late start, probably not walking out of Lyme Regis much before 10am.

It was a windless, sunny, 21° day and fortunately at least 10 kilometres was in woodland in the shade. Of course it started with a climb out of Beer up East Ebb and then back down to Seaton Hole Beach. When the tide is low it is possible to walk a kilometre along the pebbly beach to Seaton and this is what we did. Seaton doesn’t have the Regency style of Sidmouth or the old world charm of Beer but it did have a Park Run. This is a world-wide phenomenon of a Saturday morning 5km timed run. Barbara does the Wellington Park Run along the wharves and used to do the Kapiti one along the Waikanae River. In New Zealand they start at 8am but in England they start at 9am. When we arrived in Seaton the run was in full swing. We chatted with the Race Director for a while and she said the one millionth Park Run would be run that day. They had considered starting at 8.59 today until someone pointed out New Zealand would have already run dozens of Park Runs by then, as they are 11 hours ahead and are the first in the world each Saturday.

Leaving Seaton we crossed the River Axe, Axminster is a larger town inland, and immediately had a very steep climb up through a golf course. The original Coast Path along the cliff tops has disappeared in large landslides so the diversion is through the golf course and through fields of corn. Soon we were into the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs National Nature Reserve. This is an 11 kilometre long by 750m wide strip of land, the result of numerous landslides, the biggest on Xmas Eve 1839, separated from the cliffs by a huge chasm. This was the first such landslide scientifically studied and was a huge draw card for Victorian tourists. The interesting thing about it now, is that it was subsequently never farmed and has been left to its own devices. It has become a safe virgin woodland and dense scrub habitat for birds, butterflies, flowers, shrews, mice, lizards, snakes, and much else.

It is called an English Jungle, but to us it was much like any stretch of NZ native bush. It was cool and beautiful to walk through but the path was difficult. Lots of sharp ups and downs, constantly winding back and forth, tree roots to trip over, fallen trees and boggy and muddy stretches. Only one place where you could see the coast and a few places where you were aware of the towering white chalk cliffs. When you start this section of the walk you are committed to either keep going forward or retreating back on the same path. There is no where down to the coast and no paths inland to roads and civilisation.It seemed to take an age to get through the “jungle” but then suddenly you emerge into Lyme Regis, or more specifically The Cobb and Lyme Regis Beach. It was a warm, sunny Saturday and the beach, ice cream parlours, cafes, restaurants and bars were packed. The beach is protected from the rough sea and wind by The Cobb and is a sheltered, calm, sandy, shallow place for families. The Cobb is the large curved harbour wall built in the 13^th century to protect the resident fishing boats. We were pretty hungry by this stage and decided to have some fish and chips, a first for this trip. We had fish and chips here in 2023 and went back to the same chippie. One serving of cod and chips, £13.95, more than enough to fill the two of us. Then another first for us this trip. Because we had just had fish and chips, and because we were at the beach, and because it was Lyme Regis, we had an ice cream. Neither of us are big fans of ice cream but these were as good as you get in NZ. Barbara: salted caramel. Me: black currant and clotted cream.

We then joined the sun tan oiled masses and went for a swim. A lot of people on the beach but few in the water, because it was cold! Colder than my swim at Beer yesterday, but so refreshing.

Somewhere in the jungle we passed from the county of Devon into the county of Dorset. This is the last of the four counties of the Coast Path, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. We were not in Dorset for long, the taxi ride took us back to Beer which is in Devon. Tomorrow we will come back to Dorset. We only saw The Cobb end of Lyme Regis today. Tomorrow morning we will walk about a kilometre from The Cobb into Lyme Regis town. Lyme Regis “The Pearl of Dorset” used to be just Lyme. Following the granting of a royal charter by King Edward I in 1284, the town added the term “regis”. This simply means it has some sort of royal connection or endorsement. There are about 19 towns in England that have added Regis to their name.

Friday 12 June 2026

Rest day number 7 Beer

Beer is a lovely village in which to have a rest day. It has a long history built partly on its good source of flint, both for stone age man for cutting tools and starting fires (it sparks when struck), but also in the War of the Roses for flintlock firearms (again it sparks when hit with steel and ignites gun powder). It does not have a quay or pier but it has a steep pebbly beach sheltered by Beer Head and so it has been, and still is, a fishing village. The fishing boats are hauled out of the water up the steep beach by steel cables and a motorised capstan. It also has a 2000 year history as a quarry, with Beer Stone used in the construction of Exmouth and Winchester Cathedrals, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. The stone is a white chalk limestone laid down in the Cretaceuos Age (65 – 145 million years ago) and is ideal for fine detailed carving. The quarry no longer operates but there are tours into the quarry caves.

Rest day is clothes and shoe washing day and after our chores were done we walked down to the beach. The old village of Beer has only one lovely main street running down to the beach. The street follows a fast moving brook in a narrow stone channel between the road and footpath. The beach is a large flat area of pebbles and then a steep drop down to the water. At high tide the sea does not seem to come up onto the flat area as it has dozens of beach huts, a couple of cafes, deck chairs and umbrellas for hire, fishing equipment and boats. The pebbles are not easy to walk on and so there are strips of matting to walk on to get to the cafes and down to the sea. On the way back from the beach we did some shopping in two or three shops to buy some things to take back for our much missed grandchildren. Not saying what we bought.

In 2023 we walked the Coast Path from Brixham to Poole and stayed one night here in Beer. That time our accommodation was the lovely Dolphin Hotel, a pub with rooms and meals. We decided to go there for lunch, for old times sake. Barbara: Nourish bowl of mixed grains and greens, roasted seasonal veg and yoghurt dressing, torn chicken breast. Me: Roasted butternut squash and coconut curry, rice, mango chutney, raita, poppadom and some of the torn chicken breast. The meals were quite large so Barbara asked for a doggy bag so she could take it back to our hotel and finish it for dinner.

It was a warm day, no wind, cloudy at first this morning but then a sunny day getting up to about 21°. In the afternoon I decided to go back down to the beach for a swim. Easier said than done. Due to the pebbles and steepness of the beach you really need sandals you can wear into the water. We didn’t have these and getting out of the water was very ungainly. I almost had to crawl on hands and knees. The steepness of the beach continued underwater. I was only about 3 metres out and couldn’t touch the bottom. Not a beach for children to go swimming. For the record I was the only one in the water and it was warmer than Lake Tekapo but not as warm as the Kapiti Coast.

Thursday 11 June 2026

Day 46 of walking
Sidmouth to Beer
Distance: 15.46km
Total distance: 903.48km
Climbing: 659m
Total climbing: 29,935m

Today was described as a Section of lofty cliffs cut by deep and narrow valleys, making for a magnificent coastal landscape but a testing one to walk, ie tough but rewarding. It wasn’t a long day but we knew there were four high cliffs to get over and we wondered how our weary bodies would manage. As it turned out we breezed over the climbs and arrived in Beer feeling fit and strong.

We awoke to rain this morning and a forecast for it to continue until late morning. As it was a relatively short day we did everything slowly this morning, hoping the rain might pass on. After we had called into the Tesco Express for some supplies we didn’t leave Sidmouth until just before 10am, and it was still raining. We walked out of Sidmouth along the elegant promenade, not looking so elegant in the morning rain, crossed over the footbridge where the River Sid meets the sea and straight into the steep ascent of Salcombe Hill Cliff. The path used to go up the cliff edge but after some major landslides it now goes inland through some suburban streets before emerging onto grass fields and then into woodland. With every climb there is a descent and it was a steep one down to Salcombe Mouth.

One hill done and straight into the next one, again across fields and into woodland. This one had two peaks, Higher Dunscombe and Lower Dunscombe separated by a shallow valley of woodland. The steep descent was to Weston Mouth Beach which was a shingle beach with a few wooden huts. We had to walk a little way on the beach. Second hill done and onto Weston Cliff. This was another steep climb but at the top a long stretch of flat walking across fields with crops. The grass was often long and when it has been raining this is a sure-fire way to get saturated trousers, shoes and socks. The path went inland through woodland and along a long farm road before descending to Branscombe Mouth. The village of Branscombe is slightly inland and the Mouth has a lovely thatched roof café, toilets, car park and a handful of timber chalets. Third hill done.

The last was a climb to Beer Head. When we did this 3 years ago the path went by the chalets and then along an undercliff between massive cliffs on your left and some pinnacles and the sea on your right before climbing to Beer Head. That path is now closed and we walked straight up a field to Beer Head looking down on the pinnacles and the cliffs. All the hills done, and a gentle down hill walk across fields into the picturesque fishing village of Beer. The name Beer does not come from the drink but from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘Bearu’ meaning Grove, referring to the woodland that covered the area.

The most dramatic change of the day was the red Sandstone cliffs changing to white chalk cliffs. The red and dirty oranges of the Triassic era having been entirely eroded away. The chalk cliffs and pinnacles at Beer Head are the most westerly chalk cliffs in England.

We are at the Durham House Hotel for three nights. Tomorrow is our last rest day and the next morning we walk to Lyme Regis, get a taxi transfer back to Beer for the night, the following morning a transfer from Beer forward to Lyme Regis and we walk on to Bridport. This will be the last of our transfers.

Our evening meal last night was excellent but cost us £59.90, about NZ$146. This blew the budget so tonight we are eating cheaply with some quiche, scotch egg, mandarins  and cherry Bakewell tarts purchased at the local Woozie’s Deli. There are a couple of good looking pubs in Beer so tomorrow we can go and check one out.

The rain hung around most of the morning but it eventually cleared and although it was misty at times we had some good views up and down the coast. It was very windy at Beer Head and our clothes were blow dried, but our shoes and socks were still saturated as we squelched into Beer. The hair dryer in the hotel room is working overtime.

Wednesday 10 June 2026

Day 45 of walking
Exmouth to Sidmouth
Distance: 22.98km
Total distance: 888.02km
Climbing: 536m
Total climb: 29,276m

Another excellent day of walking. More climbing than yesterday but nothing too strenuous and the path was smooth and dry all day. The walk out of Exmouth is on a promenade that is said to be the longest sea front in Devon. Inevitably at the end of the promenade the path zig zagged steeply up to the High Land of Orcombe. Here there was a monument called the Geoneedle which marked the beginning of the Jurassic Coast.

The UNESCO Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site stretches 155 kilometres from Orcombe Point outside Exmouth, East Devon to Old Harry Rocks in Studland Bay, Dorset and we will walk the entire length. As we walk from east to west the rocks are getting ever younger as we go on. The red rocks of today are from 250 million years ago (Triassic Period), from Lyme Regis the rocks are from 200 million years ago (Jurassic Period) and after White Nothe from 145 to 60 million years old (Cretaceous Period). It is due to this incredible and – unusually – very visible geology that the coastline was designated England’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It was easy walking on low cliffs hugging the coastline. Then you hit the truly enormous Devon Cliffs Holiday Park. There are probably thousands of near identical chalets all in regimental rows spaced equally apart. This is a city in itself with a café, bar, recreation centre etc. This and an equally large holiday park at Ladram Bay each have their own little beach with red sandstone sea stacks. It took an age to walk around the edge of the park and past the Straight Point Rifle Range.

Budleigh Salterton was a charming and genteel small town with a pebbly beach. The oval shaped and extremely hard (quartzite) four hundred million year old pebbles have been spilling out of the cliffs for thousands of years under the action of sea and time. Budleigh Salterton is located at the mouth of the River Otter which has a large nature reserve estuary. There is no bridge over the small river at the beach so the path goes inland about a kilometre to cross at the first road bridge. It is a very nice flat walk along the side of the river and back. The River Otter is famous for hosting England’s first wild beaver re-introduction. Beavers were an extinct native animal in England but a population of unknown origin was found in the river in 2008. In 2014 it was initially planned to remove the beavers but after consultation with local land owners and farmers a 5 year trial was introduced to monitor the effects of beavers on the environment. The beavers turned out to be keystone ecosystem engineers. Their dam building, tree felling and digging create thriving, complex wetlands. These habitats boost biodiversity, filter agricultural pollutants, and mitigate both droughts and downstream flooding by regulating water flow. And yes, there are native wild Eurasian otters living in the River Otter (hence its name). They are quite rare, elusive and shy, so are hard to find. On the other hand there are tours to go out at night at the right time of the year to see beavers.There was a lot of climbing at the end of the day after Budleigh Salterton: Danger Point, Black Head, Brandy Head, High Peak, Peak Hill. All quite comfortable, the highest, High Peak, was only 157m. At Brandy Head we stopped for lunch at an observation hut used by the RAF during WW2 to test weapons and gun sights. From Peak Hill it is all downhill to our destination Sidmouth, nestled in the valley of the River Sid. This is a genteel, old fashioned sort of town, its hay day being in the Georgian and Regency eras (1714-1837) and a lot of its architecture is from that time.

We are staying at the Hunters Moon Hotel. This is a fine Georgian House built in the late 1700s and became a hotel in 1957. It is named Hunters Moon after the country house in Ivor Novello’s musical Perchance to Dream, which I am totally unfamiliar with. The hotel is surrounded by two acres of magnificent gardens, wooded lawns and mature trees. In the dining room tonight we would have been the youngest couple. All the others could well have been born in the Regency era. There was a fine collection of walking frames and sticks. The dinner was quite formal with the waiters all dressed in black. There was the option of a three course meal (£35) or two course meal (£29.95). We chose a two course meal of main and dessert. For the record, here we go: Barbara, turkey roulade, stuffed with sage and onion served on crushed herb potatoes, Me, locally sourced venison casserole with juniper berries and wholegrain mustard mash. These came with vegetables of carrots, courgettes, red cabbage, boiled potatoes and potato mash rosettes. For dessert: Barbara, sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and a drizzle of cream, Me, baked peaches in a maple and orange syrup served with meringue and clotted cream. Coffee, chocolates and biscuits were served in the lounge after retiring from the dining room. Please note this is the first time we have had dessert on this trip.

Tuesday 9 June 2026

Day 44 of walking
Shaldon to Exmouth
Distance: 15.01km
Total distance: 865.04km
Climbing: 149m
Total climb: 28,740m

Today was probably the easiest day of walking we have done so far. A short day, a flat day, only 10% of the climbing we did yesterday, an interesting day and 99% of the time an ideal temperature for walking. We did have one short shower of rain late morning. A fairly large seaside town at each end and an urban busy section of the coast. From the Potters Mooring Hotel it was just a short walk to the river. The first ferry was 10am, from the far side, so we had a bit of waiting around to do. This is a small, seasonal, cash only ferry which takes about 5 minutes to cross the Teign River. We didn’t go into Teignmouth as the Coast Path started at the ferry and followed the coast. Teignmouth has a small pier which seems to have collapsed into the sea at the far end.

From Teignmouth to Dawlish Warren, for about 10 kilometres, the path is beside the Penzance to London railway line. This is the most scenic part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway first built in the 1840s. The walk is dead flat on a hard surface sea wall that separates the railway from the ocean. It is a very busy line carrying local and long distance trains and every few minutes a train seems to whoosh past. On the far side of the railway are high red cliffs with many areas where there have been large landslides. This is a high maintenance section of railway with crumbling cliffs on one side and wild storms from the ocean on the other.

About 3 kilometres out of Teignmouth the path goes under the railway at Smugglers’ Lane. This cannot be used 1 hour either side of high tide as the path is underwater. You have to be mindful of this and there is an alternative “high tide” inland route starting way back in Teignmouth. Smugglers’ Lane is the start of a couple of climbs over the only headland of the day to Dawlish. The trains go through two tunnels. The only other climbing all day is on the railway over bridges of which there are about 5. Dawlish is a small Victorian seaside town and the railway and path on the sea wall continue until you reach the River Exe. The railway and path then turn inland and run alongside the river. The railway goes to Exeter and beyond, and we walked as far as Starcross where the Starcross to Exmouth Ferry operates from. This is another cash only, seasonal ferry that only sails every hour. We had a 40 minute wait so it was a good place to have our lunch. £6 each but the ferry takes 20 minutes for the crossing. The estuary of the Exe is vey shallow with large sand bars and the ferry takes a very circuitous and meandering route through the deeper channels.

From the ferry, with some help from the locals, we made our way into the centre of Exmouth to get some supplies for lunches for the next few days. We were also killing time as our Macs notes said our hotel check-in wasn’t until 3.30pm. As it turned out when we did get to the hotel, check-in was from 2.00pm.

We wanted a rest from going to a pub for a meal. They can be quite slow as I guess they want people to keep drinking. We found a Tesco Express hoping to find a buddha bowl but they didn’t have any. Instead we found some grain bowls. Barbara had: Fajita Chicken Grain Bowl with sweet potato, charred corn, pickled onions and an avocado and jalapeno dressing. I would have had the same but there was only one left so I had to settle for: Hot Smoked Salmon Grain Bowl with edamame beans, pink pickled slaw and a coconut and lime dressing. These taste quite nice but it is a bit scary when you look at the long list of ingredients on the back of the packet. For dessert we had a Belgian Bun each. The ingredient list for these was just as worrying.

The Dolphin Hotel is only 100 metres from the centre of town, and oh joy, we are just off the foyer on the ground floor. It is very comfortable but unfortunately breakfast doesn’t start until 8.30am. We have a longer day tomorrow but no early start for us.