Having a few spare days in the UK at the end of September, I took the train and bus down to Lyme Regis to pick up where I left off 15 months ago walking the Southwest Coast Path in South Devon. This latest installment covered about 50 miles over four days, walking generally west to east along what’s known as the Jurassic Coast. In 2001 the Jurassic Coast was designated a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO and it remains England’s only Natural World Heritage Site. According to UNESCO, “The cliff exposures along the Dorset and East Devon coast provide an almost continuous sequence of rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era, or some 185 million years of the earth’s history. The area’s important fossil sites and classic coastal geomorphologic features have contributed to the study of earth sciences for over 300 years.”

Without more ado, here are some of the photo highlights from my four days’ walking.

Back at my desert home in St. George, Utah, I am enjoying the warm (and dry!) days hiking and swimming. My next overseas adventure will be during the holidays. Christmas morning will be spent exploring Petra, Jordan with Maggie and other clients on a guided KE Adventures trip. So, until the New Year, a hiatus from blogging. But not, of course, from the outdoors!

The Vagabond Hiker

Back in Devon after four years! The last (and only) time I was in Devon I completed 9 days of hiking along the Southwest Coastal Path (SWCP) from Westward Ho! in Devon to Padstow in Cornwall (see my 2018 blog post). In contrast to those 2+ days in Devon, this time I am spenting 4 weeks, with a two-fold hiking focus: completing some of the southern portion of the SWCP and exploring inland Devon, principally the two moors: Dartmoor and Exmoor. To keep the length of the posts reasonable, I have divided the hikes into two posts. The five days of coastal hiking inn-to-inn is the focus of this post; the inland walks will be the focus of the next one, hopefully published in a few days.

From my AirBnb the South Devon coast was easily accessed by train from the lovely city of Exeter. In about an hour I reached the touristy town of Paignton where I started my generally West-to-East walking adventure. That was Jubilee Sunday and my post begins there. . .

Lyme Regis is purportedly lovely, but when I hiked through at the conclusion of my fifth day walking, I was in a hurry to catch my bus, the weather was questionable, and the tourists profuse. Perhaps for these reasons I have no photos of the town. I did manage to catch the hourly bus from there to Axminster station where I was able to connect with a train back to Exeter where my car waited for me. Stats were 56 miles and 9600 ft elevation gain over the five days. Certainly not as strenuous as some of the North Coast of Devon and Cornwall where I averaged about 3000 ft of ascent each day, but an amazingly varied geography with wonderful towns and villages conveniently located along the way. I am more than ever resolved to continue to “fill in” the sections of the SWCP that I have not yet walked.

The Vagabond Hiker

P.S. A note on the photos. I recently purchased a new mobile phone, a Samsung Galaxy A52, which I used for all these photographs. My travels make it more than ever necessary to have dual SIM capability which this international version possesses. I am still learning about the camera, though. . .

It scarcely seems possible, but it has been more than two years since I spent an enjoyable month traipsing around Cornwall. I was at first skeptical of writing another blog post as I had done two already that I thought must have encompassed all that Cornwall had to offer. But of course that’s not true; in reviewing my photos, I realized that west Cornwall, bounded roughly by St Ives and Penzance to the east, has its own distinctive look and feel. For this post I completed a series of day hikes: some loop hikes that incorporated both coastal and inland portions, and some simply point to point walks along the South West Coast Path. For the latter the convenient Cornwall bus system helped immeasurably. Using my Ordnance Survey (OS) app — with premium subscription — I was able to plot out these custom hikes, download the maps, and follow them with the GPS function on my phone. I used an OS guide book, Cornwall Outstanding Circular Walks, for ideas. Though only four years old, sadly it isn’t currently available from either Amazon or AbeBooks.

Pendeen loop from Botallack: 8.5 miles and 1100 ft elevation gain. Fantastic views, old mines, and a neolithic dolmen high on the moors. What’s not to like about this hike?

Lands End loop from Sennen Cove: 6.5 miles and 1000 ft elevation gain. This short hike takes in the most westerly point in mainland England.

SWCP from Porthcurno to Penzance: 10.5 miles and 1750 ft elevation gain. A one-way bus fare took me to the start, a popular beach; my apartment in Penzance greeted me five hours later at the end of this longish walk.

SWCP from Marazion to Praa Sands: 6.75 miles and 1100 ft elevation gain. The village of Marazion is 2 miles east of Penzance with the tidal island of St Michael’s Mount a half mile offshore in Mounts Bay.

Lizard Point loop: 7.75 miles and 1100 ft elevation gain. An interesting hike to the most southerly point of mainland England. I did it clockwise to reach the popular Kynance Cove beach before it got too crowded.

And finally one photo from my frequent coastal walks right out of Penzance, this taken shortly after Storm Ellen came through.

As I write this blog I am back in Hastings after the next named storm of the season has just passed. Next week I fly to Venice, followed by a two hour drive to Trentino. I have an AirBnb in a smallfor 4 weeks in a small town in the Pale di San Martino Nature Park, an area of the southern Dolomites that I have yet to explore. The flight from Heathrow will be my first since March and should be an interesting experience. Fortunately, Italy seems to be currently doing alright after a rough time earlier in the pandemic.

The Vagabond Hiker