I’ve been walking along the South West Coastal Path starting in Plymouth and ending in East Prawle to the east of Salcombe. This time Bex joined me. Although the weather forecast had not been good with sun and showers, in the event we had two sunny days with only one hail shower lasting 30 minutes but enough to make us change into our wet gear.

This section has several river crossings, the first at Plymouth from the Citadel across the Sound to Mount Batten, the second over the river Yealm east of Wembury. The next crossing over the river Erme had to be timed with low tide as there is no ferry service so it was boots off for a wade. After that, the next crossing is over the river Avon to Bantham but the ferry service doesn’t start until 30^th April (we had looked it up in the SW Coast book and it said 1^st April), so a surprise for us. The walk around the river is several miles and would have spoilt our plans to finish near Salcombe so we sort a taxi. The farmer who runs the campsite near the ferry board helped and we got a lift in a van (diverting on route to pick up a tractor mower !!) but it worked out OK in the end. The final crossing was from Salcombe to East Portlemouth; we reached there just before 5 pm with the last ferry at 6.


Looking west over Ayrmer Cove near where we camped

This is a fantastic bit of the coastline with some severe sections in terms of gradients or should I say a succession of gradients. In total it was about 45 miles and so made for long days of walking. The logistics meant we had to cross the Erme estuary at the end of the first day as low tide was near 5 pm. The nearest pub from there is at Ringmore but with several steep gradients between. In fact we reached the pub “The Travellers End” at about 7 ready (having taken the 8.45 ferry at Plymouth) for an evening meal and a very welcome pint. We decided to freedom camp near Ayrmer Cove within earshot of the breaking waves and awoke to a covering of frost on our tents but little wind and no rain in the night. The next day was a little cooler with a NE wind but sunny, making a great walk to Hope and on to Bolt Tail and Head, a spectacular coastline. “Sharp Tor”, an outcrop before Salcombe, is a particularly wild spot giving great views of the coast in both directions. After that it was through woods and a long drag along the road to Salcombe and the ferry. We had a cottage in East Prawle for the weekend so we walked across country to East Prawle for a relaxing break. We did a couple of walks at the weekend with Tony and Emily to Prawle Point eastwards to Lannacombe Bay (where Kate Bush has a house overlooking the coastline, a lovely spot) and saw many birds including two Cirl Buntings, lots of Wrens and also on one of the many lanes that thread the countryside around these parts, a fairly long Adder snake. I haven’t time to mention all the flowers and butterflies we found along the coast and country lanes (even if I could remember them all) but I will recommend a wild salad that “we” collected on our strolls that made a great mixture (preparation of nettles needs more practice..!!) to accompany our dinner.

Bex climbing upto "Sharp Torr" after Bolt Head with coconut smell of gorse all around

Now I have only five days walking left to complete the coastal path, that’s from Exeter to Salcombe although I have already walked several bits of this, it will be nice to connect it together.

View looking over Salcombe from East Portlemouth as we walked to East Prawle in the evening.