Brixham to Teignmouth

After a near miss at breakfast this morning, where our host’s cat nearly vomited on me; we headed out into the chilly morning.

This is the first morning there has been a frost! We expect there was one yesterday morning but we hadn't got up early enough to see it. 

We passed a few small coves before hitting holiday park land at Goodrington and Paignton. Just as you think you are leaving the suburbs of Paignton you hit the suburbs of Torquay.

Then you end up walking for miles and miles through Torquay. There is an option to get the ferry from Brixham to Torquay, however we thought that would be cheating and it has stopped for winter anyway. The promenade in Torquay has been spruced up since I was last here. Also it was another beautiful sunny day which makes the area really feel like the English Riviera!

Most of today we were sheltered from the northerly winds and it really makes a difference to the "feels like" temperature.

After final escaping the suburbs of Torquay we passed through some rather hilly woods before descending onto Babbacombe beach.

Babbacombe is famous as in the spring/summer many cuttlefish come into the bay to mate and lay eggs. I’ve scuba dived in the bay quite often and there are also lots of crabs, lobster, nudibranch (sea slugs), and a congor eel living the the pier.

We popped around the bay and had lunch on Oddicombe beach before heading back up the hill following alongside the cliff railway.

The rest of the day consisted on many steep ups and downs through woodland and along field boundaries until we reached Shaldon.

There is a ferry that runs from Shaldon to Teignmouth, I thought is was running, Olly checked the website and said it wasn't, I re-checked and found it was (he thought we were already in November) and then when we arrived it had stopped early! So we had a detour to go over the bridge, found the Airbnb and ate a load of pizza and ice-cream for dinner. 

Fun nature fact, there are Sloe berries growing all over the coast path, I have made mental notes for collecting and making sloe gin next year.