South Devon Walk Day 3

Wednesday was as hot and sunny as the day before and we had planned to take a slight detour from the coastal route to reduce some of the walking given the discomfort Keith was feeling from the previous day. Our landlady insisted we do the full walk though and even offered a lift to the start. That meant Sandra and Jerry going their own way with her while the remaining four of us set out with the intention of meeting them at Mothecombe at lunchtime.

The views were fantastic but the walking was quite slow to start with. The first two photos show Alison and Jane, and then Keith coming to the end of the road and the restart of the coastal path. There are then two more pictures showing views from the cliff tops with Burgh Island, near our destination, in the far distance. We were covering some 12 - 13 miles that day.

By lunchtime Keith was in quite a lot of discomfort and he and Jane decided to travel the remainder of the way by taxi, a mode of transport they adopted for the last part of the week. We met up at lunchtime as planned and the rest of us struck out for Challaborough in the heat of the afternoon. Some of the hills (mountains!!) were very steep with coming down as, if not more difficult, than going up. I ended up running down in a couple of cases as it was easier.

I love the last picture which shows Alison to the right with Sandra and Jerry on the far left of the picture. It gives good indication of the weather which was energy sapping and left us all quite burnt, as well as the undulating nature of the walk.

Despite it all we were at our destination before 3.30 and Alison and I were quickly in the water enjoying a cooling swim followed by a bit of a kip on the beach. Looking up the beach later, we saw Jane and Keith along with Sandra and Jerry tucking into chips and soon joined them followed by a trip to the bar just across from the beach.

We'd been split up by the tour company for the night with Jane and Keith some few miles away leaving us with a very prim and proper landlady who made us feel pretty unwelcome despite her husband's best efforts.