Over two years, 2018 and 2019, we have walked from Minehead in Somerset, the coast of North Devon, the entire coast of Cornwall and the coast of South Devon to Brixham, 780 kilometres of the 1020 kilometre South West Coast Path

The question for us is: do we return and do the remaining 240 kilometres from Brixham, the coast of East Devon to Poole in Dorset?

The remaining section is more urbanised than North Devon and Cornwall, being the “English Riviera” with major seaside towns such as Paington, Torquay, Teignmouth, Exmouth, Lyme Regis and Weymouth.  But there are also quiet undeveloped areas and the 150 kilometre Jurassic Coast, England’s only natural World Historic Site, for fossil hunting, along with the highest cliffs on England’s south coast.

This section contains rocks, cliffs and fossils from three geological eras: the Palaeozoic (570-250 million years ago), the Mesozoic (250-60 million years ago), and the Cenozoic (65 million years ago to the present day). This results in a wide range of geographical and geological features including red sandstone and mudstone cliffs, marsh-fringed estuaries, sand bars, bright white chalk cliffs, the single largest shingle ridge in the world at Chisel Beach, an ‘almost’ island of hard limestone (Isle of Portland), sandy beaches, off shore rock stacks and arches. And there is the fossilised record of mammal evolution with the fossils of fish, amphibians, reptiles and dinosaur footprints.

As if this isn’t interesting enough, there are also attractive Georgian sea fronts, inland pastoral countryside, Norman castles, elegant Regency towns, grand terrace housing, charming picture-postcard villages, picturesque fishing villages, working harbours, the most scenic part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway, caravan sites, golf courses, amusement parks, military airfields and firing ranges.

Going back would also give us the satisfaction of having walked every inch of Britain’s longest national trail.