South Walk: Brixham to Dartmouth

Tuesday January 20th. My first day of walking during the working week - got a couple of days off - and the first thing I notice is how long it takes me to get to Brixham - got mixed up in all the rush hour - very painful journey. made my way to the large new Car park at the renovated harbour area - only to discover that they wanted £7 for the pleasure of a days parking. Managed to find a cul-de-sac and left it there for nothing - it was high up in a residential area and as I walked down to the harbour front - I hoped that I could find it again!

Brixham still has a large working fleet of Trawlers - but all seemed pretty quiet , I Left the harbour spotting a Seal on my way, although by the time I got my camera out - it had disappeared underwater, and made my way towards Berry Head where there is a reserve and site of scientific interest, in the form a large Napoleonic Fort and an important area for breeding sea birds

I made a slight detour to look around the Fort and view the lighthouse - before getting back on what was a well trodden trail towards St Mary's Bay. There was a large and deserted Holiday Village overlooking the coast near Durl Head - and it was a scenic area with interesting limestone rock formations and two large offshore rocks, called Mew Stone and Cod Rock, and the path was very close to the cliff edge. The next point of interest was St Mary's Bay - a large sweeping bay with small inland lake behind. which ended in Sharkham Point. This stretch of South Devon was all quite new to me, and it was very beautiful - plus the sun was shining, which always makes a difference albeit was pretty chilly.

Sharkham was a wide open grassland area with good views and then it was back up towards Southdown cliffs followed by a long steep downhill path to Man Sands, which was a fairly inaccessible small stony beach. The walk down, unsurprisingly, was followed by a steep walk up past some old Coastguard cottages and then followed the cliff path towards Scabbacombe sands, a very small and isolated spot, nestling in a large and open grassland valley. There were some small path diversion signs taking a different route inland, but I decided to ignore these. Possibly, they were trying to limit the footfall on the main path to try and prevent erosion which is a continual problem for much of the coastal path.

The next point of interest was Pudcombe Cove situated at the bottom of a large wooded valley with some splendid large Pine trees. Higher up the valley is 20 acres of National trust gardens in Coleton Fishacre originally created by Lady D'Oyly Carte of Gilbert and Sullivan fame in the 1930's.
On the beach itself were the remains of an old swimming pool built into the rocks.

I was starting to flag for some reason at this point - legs felt very heavy - and there was a steady climb from here to Inner Froward Point at the mouth of the Dart Estuary. This point was an important sea defence area and there are still many old defence Buildings and the remains of the Gun Battery positions and old searchlight positions. From here, you start to glimpse Dartmouth castle across the Estuary - while the path itself shortly passes above Kingswear Castle which has been renovated and is available for accommodation. The walk goes through a very scenic wooded area full of massive Pine trees through which you catch glimpses of Dartmouth which must be one of the most dramatic coastal towns of the whole walk. The path dropped down towards Mill Bay Cove and as I climbed up again I met one of the friendliest Robins I've ever seen.

As I stopped to catch my breath, he pottered around my feet and then flew up to a branch watching me. I got a few pics and he even allowed me to virtually poke the camera in his face trying to get a good macro shot, which I didn't quite achieve. I rewarded him with a few crumbs of left over sandwiches - which he took out of my hand!

The path led up to a road full of very exclusive properties and then gently wound down to Kingswear and almost immediately you are at the first of three ferries which continually trawl backwards and forwards across to Dartmouth. I took the first Car Ferry which was basically a flat platform pulled and pushed by a tug.

I only really went across, so that I could start my next walk from Dartmouth itself, which is a town I've visited many times. In fact the Ferry boat man must have thought I didn't like Dartmouth much -because after a quick cappuccino at the Ferry Inn, I was on my way back to Kingswear to catch the bus to Brixham. I was reminded again, that it was a week day, as I shared the bus with all the school kids on their way home. Kingswear is a scenic place in it's own right with spectacular views across to Dartmouth - and by this time the sun was getting quite low and highlighting the very prominent Naval College. Of course back in Brixham, I tried to guess where to get off the bus - and then had a hell of a job finding the car, wandering about the back streets like a backpacker looking for a cheap hostel.