Julie goes walking...

With all the walking completed for this edition of the South West Coast Path, we arrived back in Cambridge Monday evening.  We said a sad farewell to the beloved motorhome. Once again a big thank you to John and Michelle for letting us borrow it. Having the motorhome has made a big difference to the whole experience, and to the progress made on the path: thank you both.  It was good to see the cats: Missy and Gary. I'm under no illusions that they missed or remembered me, only that i was another person to feed them. Even so, it was nice to have a cuddle. Another big thank you to the best neighbour in the world: Laetitia, who has looked after the cats while we have both been away. Missy and Gary have been spoilt rotten with smoked salmon! Laetitia has even done the vacuuming - she is great.  I spent the day on Tuesday pottering: getting the garden back in shape, doing the laundry, cleaning the kitchen and a quick visit to the garden centre to sort out some plants for the w...

This blog relates to Saturday.  In an attempt to make today the last walk by completing the full 17 miles, we arranged for the taxi to collect us early'ish. This meant we started walking at about 10am from Downderry: the end of yesterdays walk.  The path out of Downderry to Portwrinkle (2.5miles) was a combination of road, steps, meadow and narrow walkways. It can only be described as steep, it continued climbing for nearly a mile (parts of which were very steep).   The rest of the walk to Portwrinkle was a roller coaster, luckily not as steep as the first mile. It took about 70 minutes to walk 2.5miles: the terrain really does limit progress.  Once at Portwrinkle we rewarded ourselves to a nice cuppa tea at the 'jolly roger' cafe.  We pushed onto Tregantle: 2.75miles. Tregantle Fort was built in the 1800's to protect Plymouth and the coast from the dreaded French! The fort and land remains owned by the Ministry of Defence and is still used as a military firing ...

This blogs relates to Friday.  Woke up this morning to... yes, you've guessed it: rain! Despite the miserable weather we thought we would go for it and walk.  There were lots of very, very steep ascents today, especially between Looe and Seaton: crikey they were steep. The path was a mix narrow cliff paths, woodlands, meadows and road walking.  The weather remained thickly overcast, with drizzle throughout. During the afternoon it got quite blustery. The forecast for the next few days are good.  Looe was a nice place, a very pretty estuary town. I imagine during the holidays the place is very popular. East Looe has a nice, big beach and easily accessible. After a quick cuppa tea we pressed on to up, up, up the hills to Seaton, finally ending todays walk in Downderry.  Like Looe i imagine that Seaton, Downderry and the other coastal villages are very busy during holidays, but sadly they all seem outdated. Maybe it was due to the dull, grey day, but Seaton and Dow...