Up and Down and Up and Down …..

Babbacombe tp Teignmouth  11km+
Ascending 637m+  Accumulated ascending 1236m

This was a tough section of almost constant ups and downs. A roller coaster path. It was very strenuous but compared to yesterday was a quiet section. Apart from the village of Babbacombe at the start and the village of Shaldon at the end, the entire day was rural cliff walking.

We were very tired by the end of the day and didn’t help ourselves by turning an 11km day into about a 15km day. Babbacombe has a Cliff Railway, a cute rail cable car that goes from Babbacombe Beach up to Babbacombe village, a vertical rise of about 200m. The top of the railway was close to our Guest House so when we left at 9am we went to see the top station. It wasn’t running today but was interesting to look at anyway. We then walked back into the village to buy some food for lunch from Tesco Express. From there we had to go back to the Coast Path at the cricket ground on the outskirts of the village because that was where we had left the path yesterday to get to our accommodation. We found this without too much trouble and re-joined the path and went to Babbicombe and Oddicombe Beaches.

From here we went astray partly our fault and partly others. At Oddicombe Beach there had been a major cliff fall and the path was diverted inland through some suburban streets but not very well sign posted. Also today there was a major running event on (more on that later) and they had put up temporary signs to tell the runners the course and we confused these with the Coast Path signs. We also came to a split in the path that had no indication which way to go and of course we took the wrong option and got hopelessly lost in suburbia. We climbed from the beach up to the village and back down again before re-finding the split in the path and taking the other option. It was now 11am and for two hours walking we hadn’t made any progress at all. You readers are probably as confused as we were.

Today was the City to Sea Marathon and half marathon, organised by Winding Paths, that ran from Exeter and finished at Babbacombe. The course was on the Coast Path from Shaldon to Babbacombe. The same path we were walking but the runners were coming toward us. All day we were stepping off the path to let the runners past. It was all very amicable but after a while we ran out of variations of wishing them well and giving encouragement. This was a brutal run for them (some were running an ultra-marathon). lots of steep climbs and descents, hundreds of steps, a pretty rough track most of the time, and it was blisteringly hot. We were suffering just walking so I don’t know how they could run. In fact a lot were walking on the worst sections. They all had an app on their phone so they knew their elapsed time, where they were and how far to go. There was only one drink station on the 10km from Shaldon to Babbacombe. Judging by the outfits the runners were wearing they had come from all over Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. I even saw a guy in an All Blacks top.

The morning started out cloudy, humid and a bit hazy. By mid morning it was sunny and hot. Except for the two beaches at the beginning the path was entirely on the top of cliffs and thankfully 80% was in woodland so although the sea was very close to us we seldom got to see it. Near the end there were spectacular views down to Shaldon and across the River Teign estuary to Teignmouth. The last descent to the estuary was very steep and would have been treacherous in the wet. At Shaldon we caught a little ferry for a 5 minute ride, £2 each, across to Teignmouth where we are staying tonight. The guest house is only a five minute walk from the ferry and right in the middle of shops, bars, cafes etc.

Two new firsts today. We saw our first squirrel and had our first ferry crossing (another one tomorrow). Also a first I missed from yesterday. For the first time on the path every where you wanted to go it was 30p for a pee.  We didn’t have any ill effects from yesterday’s walk but our bodies are very tired tonight. Tired but very happy. Tomorrow is supposed to be much easier than today.

 

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