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.