Teignmouth to Budleigh Salterton

The supermarket had got the better of us, as we shopped for food yesterday evening, we now had a fruit strudel to cook for breakfast! A warm fruit straddle, and leftover ice cream makes for an unconventional breakfast, but it seemed as good a start as a bowl of porridge. 

We set of into the crisp, chilly morning and walked along the sea wall between the railway and the sea. We’d read that you should take the alternative route if the tide was in, but we were two hours before high tide so we thought we’d risk it. It turned out to be fine, I think the tide would have to particularly high, and stormy for it to be impassable.

We then followed roads, and tarmac paths round to Dawlish. Here, the train line also runs along the sea, and it’s occasionally in the news when a big storm washes part of the railway into the sea.

Now at high tide, a number of waves were crashing over the path on the sea wall, so we took the alternative route slight inland. Later we crossed over a foot bridge and back onto the sea wall to continue round to Dawlish Warren. 

Also we’d realised the day before that the ferry from Starcross to Exmouth had stopped running despite the signs saying “end of October”. Luckily our friend Lucy lives nearby in Exeter and offered to give us a lift. So we met Lucy in Starcross and she drove us round to Exmouth, where we had a bite to eat.

Lucy joined us for a short section before having to head off.  There’s an interesting monument at Orcombe Point; The Geoneedle. Each section, running down the middle, is sculpted out of a different type of rock underlying the path from here until the end at Studland.

From here is was a couple more miles to our finish for the day. Luckily we have a number of good friends in Exeter. Pat came to pick us up, and we stayed the night at Alex & Lydia’s.  We spent a good evening with lovely food and good company.