7.5 miles walked today
912.5 miles walked in total (10.61 average)
I left Colnbrook at 7.15 am today but didn't get to Lyme Regis until 11.45 am. The railways are all being dug up this weekend so everyone's taken to the roads instead. Nightmare journey. I'm not sure whether coming down for just a weekend is now a viable option any more - will need to make a decision soon.
It didn't take long to get parked, booted up and ready for action so I was off immediately - uphill of course - from the Cobb, through the bowling green and up the steps to the Landslip National Nature Reserve. Today's walk was described in my guide book as "a fair imitation of a corkscrew, very rewarding to some, but extremely frustrating to others". It was all undercover for a start - more a woodland walk than a coastal path. And extremely muggy with no air or hint of a sea breeze.
Fifteen acres of land - eight million tonnes of waterlogged chalk - was dislodged in the great landslide of Christmas Day 1839. This area had been left to regenerate and the trees are now enormous, letting no light in at all. The trees have thrown out very inconvenient roots - huge great things to step over or crawl under. Shannon rang me at quite a crucial moment to ask me questions about her homework - typical student doing her homework in the last week of the summer holidays instead of at the beginning. Because of this, I followed a couple of walkers who were also heading to Seaton, but, unbeknown to me at the time, were lost. Marvellous! So we did a bit of scrambling up hill and down dale through the undergrowth until we found the path again.
I soon lost them though as there was an uphill climb and I was struggling in the heavy air. There weren't too many places to sit down so I climbed a steep bank underneath some trees and perched there crosslegged to check the maps, eat some banana cake and gulp lots of water down. A party of eight walked past and their spokesman told me that I looked like I was meditating!
After a while, I carried on and eventually the path opened up and I had superb views of the sea again. Over to Beer and Beer Head - I couldn't see Seaton as it was tucked into the bay, but the signpost told me it was only a mile to go - hurrah! I walked the last bit with another couple who were walking from Lyme Regis to Seaton in sandals - imagine! She was suffering from blister problems though which serves her right! (I'd had a bit of a stumble earlier and had twisted my right ankle, but, luckily, it righted itself almost immediately. Good boots, these Brashers!)
The last stretch into Seaton went through a golf course and there were signs up warning walkers to watch out for balls "from the front and the right". Blimey - dangerous work this! I strode through completely unscathed and had another knee crunching descent on road to the River Axe where I did a sharp left into Seaton.
I found the bus stop quickly and only had five minutes before the bus came to take me back to Lyme Regis. I got talking to another couple of walkers from Swindon at the bus stop who'd also walked from Lyme and I counted seven of us on the bus - all looking highly disreputable and sweaty!
I didn't stop long in Lyme (only long enough to buy some arty farty ear rings!) but drove to my B&B in Seaton, where I was greeted by the proprietors, Tom and Andy, and five of their friends/ guests sitting in the garden. Tom immediately leapt up to make me a pot of tea and one of the "inmates" (as Andy referred to them) produced some lardy cake. We sat there for half an hour before I said I ought to have a shower as I was probably quite antisocial. "We didn't like to mention it" was the reply!
My room was fab with unrestricted views of Beer and Beer Head. So, tea was taken at the Eyre Court pub followed by a walk around the town and an ice cream on the prom. I'm really impressed by Seaton and could see myself living somewhere like this one day.
(Tom and Andy moved down here from Longford, about two miles from Colnbrook, and one of their visitors came down from Sutton for the weekend - small world.)
