South West Coast Path Statistics

We thought we should post a post trip reflection blog post. To break up the text I have also included some photos that didn’t make the blog posts.

The Walk

The path is 630 miles long, running from Minehead to Poole Harbour. It is the longest way marked national trail in Britain and the final section was completed in 1978. The total ascent gained on the path is 35,031m (114,931 ft) this is almost four times the height of Mount Everest. The fastest time for completing the coast path is 10 days, 15 hours and 18 minutes.

The path is extremely popular, 30% of visitors to the region do so because of the path and hikers spend 439 million pounds annually in the area, this equates to sustaining just under 10,000 full time salaries. The South West Coast Path Association is the registered charity which maintains the path, it costs approximately £1000 per mile to maintain. Some of this money comes from central government or Natural England but the rest is from donations.

The path was originally a coastguard route between lighthouses to patrol for smuggling. Hence the path is mostly as close to the coast as possible and never the direct route between two places.

Fun facts:

After walking the path we have…

• Gone up or down 30,000 steps

• Crossed 230 bridges

• Opened and closed 880 gates

• Climbed over 436 stiles

• Walked past 5+ naturist beaches

Routing & Shortcuts

The guide book we were using breaks down the distance into 45 days. A few of these days offer an “official shortcut”, we defined this as a description outlined in the book in a non disapproving tone. For example a shortcut from Instow to Appledore via tidal ferry shortens the day by 6 miles which the guide book recommends. However, the book also notes it is popular for walkers to skip the tarmac section between Mousehole and Penzance but makes a snide comment that getting the bus for this section often leads to other shortcuts and the route is left in tatters!

On other occasions we were forced to take shortcuts; seven miles of the path directly after Lulworth Cove are within a military firing zone, this is closed on week days and some weekends. We hit this section mid week and due to our time pressures were forced to skip it, rather than wait four days.

The only other major shortcut we took was missing the Isle of Portland circuit. Although we did 2 miles of this by walking across the bridge to the Portland YHA, we decided that as the island is only attached to the mainland by bridge it technically did not count as part of the coast. Additionally this whole section can be missed by following the guide book and taking an alternative route called the South Dorset Ridgeway which goes inland.

We plan to walk the Isle of Portland and the Lulworth ranges section another time.

Gear

We both tried to carry the minimal gear possible with very limited comfort items. We carried sleeping bags, roll mats, a tent and stove to enable us to wild camp. My bag weighed ~13Kg which is 24% of my body weight. Olly’s was ~15Kg 23% of this body weight, so we were reasonably equal.

Side note, Olly has a faster pace and ends up walking ahead of me. Often when meeting others on the path they made comments such as. “Is he trying to get away from you?” Or “I hope he waits for you!” And quite a few times followed up with: “your bag is much bigger than his”. To this last statement I would always reply with no it isn’t it just looks big because I’m small! I did wonder whether its fair that Olly carried more weight than me, but from occasions where I carried 1.5L of water and lots of food I think the extra weight would slow me down even more.

We found that carrying 500ml of water when not wild camping was sufficient and resisted the urge to bulk buy snacks or carry more than a couple of nights of food. We were both glad to have packed gloves and a warm coat as there were a few cold mornings, but mostly if we found a good wild camping spot before dark we would have to sit around until dusk and that’s when we needed the coats most.

Comparing the weight of our rucksacks to those of applicants joining the army they are on par with combat service support roles but half the weight of infantry soldiers. The British army annual fitness test requires this weight to be carried for 8 miles in less than 2 hours. This is double our average walking speed, although our walking speed took into account cake stops.

Aches & Pains

Both of us came away with little niggling injuries. After the first day I had cramp in my trapezius (muscle between neck and shoulder) and kept getting stabbing pains in my abdomen for the first week. I kept having to stop every 3 miles to take the bag off. However, I think this was a mixture of the bag being poorly adjusted, swinging the bag onto my back in an uncontrolled manor and not being used to carrying the weight. Luckily for me this went away after the first week.

Olly mainly had feet issues, lots of blisters in different places including his little toes growing extra points. But mainly what we think is metatarsal (pains in his little toe joint). This was particularly bad in the first week and we did consider stopping. Luckily it wasn’t so bad the following few days.

Even though we have not been walking for a week we both still have achy knees and Achilles, hopefully this fixes itself and isn’t permanent.

Money

We had a budget of £30 per day, this included everything; accommodation, food and transport. We did manage this! Which was helped by the large number of nights we wild camped.

• 10 nights in hostels (6 were YHA)

• 8 nights in B&Bs

• 3 nights in campsites ( 1 YHA)

• 17 nights wild camping

Our expenditure over the whole walk can be broken down into:

44% eating out, 35% accommodation, 11% groceries, 5% taxis, 3% bus/trains, 2% ferries.

We could have definitely done this cheaper by wild camping more and using the stove we carried more but, this was a holiday after all!

Reflections

The big question is: Would we do another long distance walk?

Personally, I would. I was very apprehensive and wasn’t sure if I could do it. However I found this easier than I was expecting although other trails may require carrying more supplies and I wouldn’t want to carry any more weight.

Olly is not so sure, he thinks 2 week walks are a better idea than 6 weeks.

However maybe we would answer differently in another week/month/years time!

I 100% recommend walking the South West Coast Path to everyone, maybe not all at once due to the time it takes. The path is incredibly variable and there are probably only a few miles (which were urban sections) that I would not want to repeat.

Swanage to South Haven Point

The final day! This was a short day today, and turned into a lovely day to finish on.

We left our B&B, which was conveniently on the path, and climbed up onto Ballard Down. Walking over the top we saw the views of Old Harry Rocks; white cliffs in the crystal blue waters.

From here we walked down to Studland beach. Hoping for a café to keep with the tradition of a mid-walk coffee break, we were disappointed to find the first two cafes closed. Luckily a little further down the beach The National Trust had us covered and we treated ourselves to a second breakfast.

The beach reminded us of the beaches of the Outer Hebrides we’d visited earlier in the year. The shallow golden sands and blue waves lapping against the shore. 

At the end of the beach we reached the marker. 610 miles walked, over the last 39 days. Quite a sense of achievement! A very varied and interesting walk, especially as I’ve not seen very much of Devon or Cornwall before. I got to see many new places, usually in lovely weather. 

Now we had to get back to Anya’s parents, but unfortunately the chain ferry to Portland was being refitted for 2 months. So instead we had booked a taxi to the closest train station, and 3 trains later we arrived back. 

Lulworth to Swanage

Today started with a taxi ride around the Lulworth firing range. Luckily although the range is closed to walkers for 24hours a day the road running through the range is open for cars until 9am.

Our driver sped through the country lanes and we were at Kimmeridge Bay in 20 minutes with only one minor altercation with the mobility bus (someone really should have reversed instead on driving up the banks to squeeze past with 2cm to spare).

The weather was much improved from yesterday’s rain and we enjoyed the new scenery. There are oil rich clay beds at Kimmeridge Bay intersected by layers of hard limestone. 

The limestone has been left as prominent wave cut platforms and the gently dipping beds mean the waves are very regular and form at 90° in some places.

We continued to Chapman's Pool which is similar to Lulworth Cove in shape / origin but a little less pretty and a lot less touristy.

There were a few steep ascents and descents but I was kept entertained by "history lessons with Olly" where I quiz Olly about the last 500 years of world history in an attempt to improve my limited knowledge.

We stopped to eat our packed lunch in some sunny fields before continuing past Dancing Ledge where we saw quite a few coasteerers and some climbers. Olly had a sudden recollection he had been to Swanage before and had climbed on those cliffs.

We next passed into the Durlston Country Park where we saw the Anvil Point lighthouse and the Tilly Whim Caves (which are actually old Portland stone mines). Apparently this spot is good for spotting dolphins, but alas not today. There are was also a giant globe.

Quite often during walking I just go from one random thought to another and today I suddenly wondered  "do dolphins ever stay still, how to they sleep?" After some discussion Olly googled the answer. They sleep one half of their brain at a time as they don't loose consciousness as they have to actively breathe.

We arrived in Swanage just after check in time for our hotel. Booking.com said there was a hot tub, we wondered if it was this (see view from our window below). Unlikely though as there are pond plants and fish. 

Reading the small print the hot tub and bar are closed for winter. Instead we had a nice Italian dinner in town and an early night.

Nature fact: Below is a picture of the cocoon of some brown tailed moth caterpillars. We saw a lot of these today and some warning signs about the irritating hairs (see Porthallow day blog post). 

Seatown to Portland

Today was a long day, the aim was to combine two shortish guide book days into one longer day.

We left our camp spot at 6.30 just as it was getting light. There were a few hills to climb before West Bay and some interesting smaller cliff afterwards.

At some point there was the option of walking along a shingle beach to avoid climbing another hill. We took it but only saw all the warning signs for unstable cliffs after we reached the other side.

Its turns out that further on there was compulsory walking on shingle which gets very tiring and we were happy to head inland to Abbotsleigh for some lunch at the half way point (12 miles).

We routed back past the Swannery (which was unfortunately closed) but the path then spends a long time winding through fields to avoid the West Fleet (brackish lagoon) where many rare birds nest.

The rest of the day was spent traversing the edge of the Fleet which seemed to never end.

We got to Ferry Bridge after dark. This is where the second book day ends but due to some rushed planning we hadn't realised this and were booked in at the YHA on Portland.

We noticed a bus stop which would take us into the Island, with a bus due in 10 minutes. Olly said this would be cheating so we set off on the 2 mile trudge along the main road.

As the bus drove past us Olly mentioned we had made the wrong decision and he didn't even know why he said it was cheating as he actually didn't think that.  The only good thing is we have done that bit now so we don't have to do it again.

We got to the YHA at 18.30 so that means we walked for 12 hours today and we both feel it! 

I thought I had found a new caterpillar today but unfortunately on closer inspection it turned out to be an unwell fox moth caterpillar stuck on its back.

Portland to Lulworth

We left Portland by bus this time; making our way back to Ferrybridge. It was raining as we left, and the forecast wasn’t for much improvement. We took the tarmac path towards Weymouth, turning off onto some quiet suburban roads at some point, and then rounding Northe Fort into the harbour.

Crossing over the bridge, and back along the other side of the harbour, we continued along the promenade. There were actually a surprising number of people out and about on the beach. Mainly paddle boarders. 

After a long stretch along the beach, we took clifftop fields to Osington Mills. We had a short break for some lunch; illegally using a pub’s picnic bench.

Our route from here took us up into the clouds, and for the next few miles there was not much of a view, only grey. 

Luckily that had cleared by the time we reached Durdle Door, and were greeted with an atmospheric view. 

It was reasonably busy at Durdle Door, with many passing tourists.  We continued along the track to Lulworth Cove. More impressive from the hilltop, in my opinion.

We then headed to the pub, to kill and hour in the warm before checking into the youth hostel. 

The eagle eyed readers will have noticed that we seem to have missed Portland. We decided to skip the Isle of Portland circuit, mainly to allow ourselves enough time before the next of our travels. Also, our day tomorrow involves crossing a firing range which we can’t as it’s closed, so we decided that when we come back to walk that section we’ll also walk the Isle of Portland.