We have convinced ourselves that our legs have another long distance walk in them. Time will tell if our confidence is hopelessly misplaced.

After talking to some people about the Coast to Coast Path (St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay) which we were seriously considering, we have instead decided to walk about half of the South West Coast Path.

The South West Coast Path (SWCP) is one of the 14 National Trails of England and Wales.

It starts at Minehead (Somerset) and finishes at Poole Harbour (Dorset). In between it follows the north coast of Devon, the entire coast of Cornwall, and the south and east coast of Devon.

At 1,041 km (630 miles) it is the longest of the National Trails. Although the highest point above sea level is only 318 m, the total height climbed is 35,031 m, almost four times the height of Mt Everest.

The SWCP is rated as ‘strenuous’ so this year we have designed our long, long walk into shorter days than we did on the Camino and Ireland. The path generally sticks to the cliffs above the coast (which is great as walking on sand and shingle is extra hard). The cliffs make for some spectacular walking but the coast is very undulating, crossing innumerable river valleys, so there are many rapid, steep descents before almost immediately climbing back up again. A real test of our knees!

The South West Coast Path was originally created by Coastguards patrolling England’s southwest peninsular checking every cove and inlet looking for smugglers, so it closely hugs the coast. The Path was also used by fishermen looking for shoals of fish and checking the sea conditions.

We will be walking 500 km of the Path, starting in Westward Ho! and finishing in Plymouth. We have 30 walking days with additional ‘rest’ days in Padstow, St Ives, Penzance, Falmouth and Charlestown.

I have posted our full itinerary (SWCP ITINERARY) on the page bar , just under the header photograph, of our home page.