Friday 6th April, 2018
Orcombe Point above Exmouth with pyramid of the different rocks we'll pass through. Cold and windy but dry unlike the last 2 weeks which have been biblical and we'll find that out in the amount of mud.
One of many holiday camps which look favela like from a distance. Look a lot more luxurious closer up. Probably as many large camps as towns along the route.
Typical Devon rock faces. The sea turns red for a few hundred yards out then suddenly turns to blue (or grey dependent on weather).
Fossilised plant roots which had dug through the mud of the time.
Budleigh Salterton pebble beach typical of the region.
Rising again - it's all up and down today.
Typical inaccessible bay. Unless you're into rock climbing on crumbling rocks.
Ladram Bay looking east to Sidmouth.
Stacks sitting in the sea at Ladram Bay.
You're never far from a long drop into the ocean.
Duncan at Ladram Bay.
Stack a stone's throw from the beach.
Where we've come from in mid afternoon.
Sun's going in.
Grass, wood, lichen, grass
Rising up again to the Iron Age fort of High Peak which has a lot of flint.
Atop High Peak.
Typical view south - sea's still red.
Saturday 7th April, 2018
Above Seaton and another dry day.
Red cliffs giving way to white (chalk?) with granite (?) blocks.
Massive cliffs where you can see all the different strata and caves. Most of the walk is along old land slides with luxuriant vegetation.
Garlic fields - memories of the Cotswolds.
It's been pretty muddy along the way and very muddy in parts. The worst is yet to come as some sections are Glastonbury Festival like for hundreds of yards at a time. Slow walking.
The mud's worth it with views like this.
Stacks turned from red to white.
Climbing again.
Great views - of cliffs about to calf.
Rookery.
Start of Undercliff of Doom. No way back! It's as arduous as the guides say (why did we scoff?!) and we only just reach Lyme Regis by nightfall.
Amazing vegetation under the cliffs, unfortunately most time is spent watching the path.
Undercliff forest.
Sunday 8th April, 2018
Our Lyme hotel on the Cobb. Were we glad to see it last night!
Looking back to Lyme.
After getting lost after Charcombe, due to various deviations due to cliff land slides, looking towards Golden Cap. We've not seen the sea since Lyme.
Up Golden Cap at 627 feet the highest point on the south coast. It felt it going up it. Not as desolate as it seems and we lunch here.
Where we're headed from Golden Cap.
Seatown - our local beach when we stayed in Dorset a few years ago. Just looked it up - was 5 years ago. How time flies...
As they say in these parts, what goes down must go up...
Hardy gorse.
And hardier trees. You can tell which way the wind blows... from the south west.
Thornecombe Beacon.
We're headed somewhere into the distance. At the midway point at West Bay we have a choice of 4 or 5 hours to Abbotsbury and risking last food orders at the 2 pubs, or a beer at the local and bus to Abbotsbury with a relaxing evening. Latter won out.
Monday 9th April, 2018.
Folly chapel at Abbotsbury.
Fleet lagoon and Chesil Beach. This is the morning's view when not looking at muddy paths.
We stop for a cuppa at a typically muddy spot. As it gets worse and worse we cut off into Weymouth early.
