NORTH WALK:- Mein Head takes a bashing - only another 580 miles to go!

Tuesday August 26th: Well - here we are - a motley crew it has to be said - at the Official start of the SW Coast Path in Minehead - where I was starting my "North" walk of the entire path. The start of the path is commemorated by a metal sculpture representing a pair of hands holding a map. A map was definitely needed as painted on the path by the sculpture were two arrows going in completely different directions! - but it turned out that they have changed the official route since putting the sculpture up.

I was joined by (L-R) my brother Roger, an old friend (in both senses of the word) Bill Duncan, sister-in law, Teresa and my eldest brother Keith - plus their faithful hound Ed for whom it was just another "walkie" It was Tuesday 26th August - and we were all still recovering from a weekend of excess, celebrating my 50th birthday! Friends and family joined me at "The Great House" in Timberscombe, nr Dunster for a House party and BBQ. A good time was had by all, one of the highlights being me cracking my head on a beam, when I got a little over enthusiastic during a Karaoke/Air Guitar competition with my friend Michael Ricketts. We won, as it happens - all down to my guitar technique of course! But Timberscombe was also the perfect location to carry on with my walk, only being 5 miles from Minehead and with plenty of willing Taxi Drivers to pick us up at the end of the days' walking. The first stretch from Minehead was a modest 9.5 miles to Porlock Weir.

Notable absentees were Bill's partner Patricia Radway - who spent the day preparing for a forthcoming Job interview AND more importantly - preparing to cook us all a Pasta supper on our return. I think the sight of my knobbly knees and varicosed legs at breakfast confirmed that she had made the right decision - the pasta was good by the way! Also unable to join us was Roger's partner, Kim Laughton who was distinctly unwell with some sort of virus/stomach complaint all weekend, which was a great shame. Roger and Kim had come over specially from Holland for the party and enjoy the week in Exmoor - but the bug laid her pretty low.

So the five of us set off and after a couple of steep climbs through woods out of Minehead we were on the cliff path heading for the village of Bossington. It was not long before we came across an alternative path - there seems to be quite a few of these - permissible options to the Official SW Coast path - often more scenic and closer to the actual coast. This one was described as "Rugged" and in theory was an additional extra hour of walking - but unfortunately was also supposedly prohibited to Dogs - being an area of wild conservation. Ed was pretty wild about it himself to be honest - he loves a rugged path. So we decided to split up and Roger, Bill and myself - (3 more rugged guys you would be hard to find!) took the alternative, whilst Ed, Keith and Teresa stuck to the official path.
NOTE PIC : Roger - Rugged Aussie Hat - "Sheila" Backpack
It was a beautiful walk through heather laden valleys - strenuous in parts - but worth the detour - and we met up with the others at Hurlstone Combe for a lunch stop

After that - it was on to Bossington Village and then a steep incline down towards Porlock Marsh - a saltwater marsh which had formed after a terrific storm many years ago which breached the Pebble ridge on Porlock beach and flooded a large area inland - which still floods periodically after spring tides when the path becomes impassable.

From here it was level walking all the way to Porlock Weir, where we joined the pebble beach for a short stretch and could soon see arms being waved at us manically from the Car Park. My parents and Kim were waiting for us - we had agreed it would be about 4:30pm by the time we got there - in fact it was 4:29 - that's what I call timing - and we were greeted like long lost adventurers having crossed the Antarctic, when really we had just strolled along the coast a few miles - but we all wagged our tails appreciatively and headed for the Ship Inn for some well earned refreshments.

What should have been a simple round of drinks turned into a drama, as the Barman, who was Polish of course, and had been breathing rather heavily and sweating profusely, proceeded to inform us that he had just been stung by a wasp to which he was allergic, and was in the throes of anaphalytic shock. Expecting him to keel over at any moment - we made sure he finished our order promptly, and then left him to it. Personally, I think he had just been having a dalliance with a member of the kitchen staff - and had rustled up a cunning ruse to elicit sympathy and a fat tip!

TWO DAYS Later we came back to Porlock Weir for the next stretch - a 12.5 mile walk to LYNMOUTH.
This time, it was just myself, Keith,Teresa and Ed who was now a big fan of the SW Coast Path

Much of the days walk was through woodland areas - just inland, with occasional glimpses of the coast through the trees. The path had been altered due to landslips - which seems to be a common problem throughout the route. After a couple of miles we came to the delightful thatched Worthy Toll House - still taking tolls from car owners - and a little bit further on - Culbone Church, which appears in the Doomsday Book and is the smallest church in England, still holding regular services. Not enough room to swing a choirboy - you could just about get 30 people in apparently - or perhaps just 15 American Tourists. The woods surrounding the church once housed a Leper Colony - but they weren't allowed in the Church - there were too many fingers inadvertently left in the collection bowl apparently.

After a brief stop - we headed on towards the Glenthorne Estate where there was a delightful Lodge with very impressive Boar Head Gateposts. Some steep paths up and down followed as we then headed for Foreland Point - where there was an alternative and apparently very strenuous path to a lighthouse, suitable for people with Mountain Goat like qualities. Having just walked 10 miles - we decided to give that the body swerve - and pressed on towards Lynmouth

The last stretch was perhaps the most scenic - or would have been on a nice day, with views stretching out across Lynmouth Bay. We finally bowled into Lynmouth about 5:00pm and were met by Roger and Kim who had spent the afternoon there. We managed to have a nice cup of Tea without encountering any Anaphalytic Poles and headed back to "The Great House" Timberscombe.

Another leg of the walk had been done - next up is to head back to Lulworth Cove and from there walk to Weymouth and around Portland Bill - I'll keep you posted .

SOUTH WALK:- The Start - Only 602 miles to go ....

Saturday August 2nd:- After boring everyone for months with my idea to celebrate reaching the half century - by doing something a bit different - I have finally started my SW Coast Path walk and will now continue to bore you with blogs and numerous pictures of cliffs, beaches, large areas of blue sea, and other coastal attractions. The idea is of course to raise some money for a good cause - so I hope you will also visit my Charity Page - check out the Widgety Didgety Wotchamacallit Doofer link which is at the top right hand corner of this page. My chosen Charity is The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation - who work on environmental projects throughout the world. Their Patrons include David Attenborough, Dame Judi Dench , Gary Lineker, David Gower, Phil Collins - a good line up for "A Question of Sport" ! There are some useful links at the bottom of this page.

I actually started at what officially, is the finish of the SW Coast Path - South Haven Point - just across the water from Sandbanks, Nr Poole. It was Saturday morning - August 2nd - raining persistently of course. Note the splodgy drops of rain on the accompanying pics! I was joined by my old friend, Mike Ricketts and his brother-in-law Paul Foreman who together with his wife, Karen very kindly put me up for the weekend. Not only that but Karen was our Daily Taxi service - so many thanks to them both and to Mike for arranging it. The plan was for all 3 of us to walk all day Saturday and see how far we could get - and then start again from the same place Sunday- well that was the plan!

The first part of the walk was across the beach at Studland Bay - a notorious haven for Naturists apparently. How many naked bodies did we see - not a single wrinkled winkle - not a single sagging mammary, but then it was 8:30am in the morning and pouring with rain! ! - still after that disappointment we cracked on up onto the cliffs, passing the dramatic Old Harrys Rocks, and after several miles, our spirits were bolstered by arriving in Swanage ( and how often does that happen!) where we had a quick coffee stop and lo and behold Mr Sun put his hat on! On the path down to Swanage - we had passed a young lady in a hurry. She was on her final stretch to complete the whole path, having started on june 16th - 6 weeks flat out - about 15 miles/ day which seemed pretty good going.

As we started to climb out of Swanage and onto the dramatic cliffs of the Jurassic Coast, my good friend Mike , started to suffer from blisters, a bad knee, itchy bottom - you name it - he had it. Nothing to do with the fact that the following day was the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix , I'm sure! For Paul, however - this was literally a walk in the park. Having spent 20yrs in the forces, Paul had always been fit - but has recently taken part in the Dorset Doddle - a race from Weymouth to Swanage - just a mere 31 miles - and also completed The Three Peaks challenge. That involves walking up and down Snowdon, Scafell and Ben Nevis in the same day!!! He and his daughter Harriet, completed the challenge and also raised £1000 for a local charity - brilliant. Paul is not only fit but also well prepared - so Mike's blister was soon patched up and we cracked on through Durlston Country Park and headed for a well known landmark - Dancing Ledge where the waves "Dance" over a flat ledge in which has been carved a small swimming pool!

It was a beautiful afternoon - the sun cream was plastered on and we headed for Winspit and St Aldhelm's Head. At Winspit - Mike veered off and limped inland to Worth Matravers where there was a Pub and a possible cream tea! Resisting the urge to follow, Paul and I carried on, our end target for the day was Chapmans Pool beyond St Aldhelms Head, which was close by to a Car Park - hence the ideal picking up point!

Along this stretch of coast - there are numerous old quarries and remains of war time buildings. Also Tilly Whim caves - long since closed to the Public. Tilly was apparently the name of a former Quarry worker - and a Whim was the name of the wooden hoist used to move the Quarry stone into the waiting boats.

The view towards Chapmans Pool Bay was superb and we rounded the headland to reach the path inland to our meeting place at West Hill. We had walked 16 miles - that felt like quite enough to me, for the first day. Our "Taxi Service" arrived pretty much spot on time - and we headed to Corfe for a well earned Cream tea - the first, but definitely not the last of the walk!

DAY 2

Paul and I were up at 6:30am - ready for an early start - no rain - but damp and misty. As for Mike - he carried on snoring - victim of the Dodgy F1 Knee. The plan today was to try and reach Lulworth Cove . We drove to West Hill, left the car to be picked up later, and by 8:00am were back on the very damp path with the outstanding views obscured by the mist. We were going to walk a modest 12 miles - but along the way - there were several demanding climbs and this section of the path was described as "Severe" by my SW Coast Path handbook. The first climb got rid of the previous day's aches and pains. The initial part of the walk was along a stretch known as the Kimmeridge Ledge where the dramatic cliff are composed of Kimmerdige Clay, a blue-gray shale traversed with distinctive bands of cementstone and a 3ft thick band of bituminous oil shale.

Slightly off putting was the fact that the path was not only quite close to the sheer cliff drop in places - but also had massive cracks all along it . That section of the path is disappearing into the sea on a regular basis apparently. I shall recommend it to Mike, as a walk that he MUST do!

Just before we reached Kimmerdige - we passed Clavel's Tower - a lighthouse shaped folly from the 1800's - it has now been dismantled brick by brick and moved back 25 yards from the crumbling cliff top. It will soon be a superb Self catering unit - completely isolated on the cliff top.

Kimmeridge itself was a hive of activity. The Dorset Wildlife Trust were setting up for a "Seafest" day - celebrating Marine Life . Kimmeridge has an excellent Marine centre - and years ago had a thriving shell fish industry. What it doesn't have is a single bench or seat of any kind - so we sat on a wet log and refuelled.

The next point of interest was a "Nodding donkey" a small oil well - which apparently was once the most productive on-shore field in Britain. And then we entered the Lulworth Army range - a part of the coastal path which is sometimes closed - but always accessible at weekends.

At some point we bumped into a few fellow walkers - there weren't many as it was a pretty foul day - but one of them tagged along with us - a "diamond geezer of a cockney" called Ray. It turned out that he was training for a trip to Everest Base Camp! - so he was walking most weekends - up to 8hrs at a time - and this particular stretch of coast was ideal - with several short but "Everest" like climbs - although slightly lacking in snow, and despite advertising extensively, he had yet to find a Sherpa to hire!

Ray walked with us all the way to Lulworth Cove - and seemed pretty fit already for a 56yr old.

One of the most scenic areas was around Mupe Bay, and then we walked along what is known as the "Fossil Forest" - where you can see large fossilised tree stumps all along the beach - and ammonites are quite common. Millions of years ago - this area was an inland lagoon surrounded by forest apparently - all very well documented at Lulworth Cove Information Centre - a popular Tourist spot - which we reached at about 13:00pm after tramping across the pebble beach - always a killer!

Our "Taxi Service" arrived - slightly late - so wont use them again. Mars Bars and coffee all round went down a treat and the first part of my walk was over - 28 miles - we worked out that we had walked about 2.5 miles / hr - across quite a varied part of the coast - so knowing that I can now more easily plan my start and stop points.

There will be no "Taxi Service" in the depths of Cornwall.

Next walk will be from the START of the path - up in Minehead - where I shall be heading for Lynemouth. - I'll keep you posted!