Swanage to South Haven Point - 6 miles

We've done it - YAY!  We've walked the whole 630 miles of the 'SWCP'?!  Just how impressive is that?!

 

 

Lulworth Cove to Worth Matravers - 13 miles

This walk was an absolute killer.  Do not even think about doing it unless you are fitter than a Border Collie.  By the time we'd walked from the coast path back to the village of Worth Matravers we'd walked 15.3 miles and had also completed 1395m of ascent which apparently is the equivalent of walking up Ben Nevis.  ...........................And to think Ann was considering doing the '3 peaks challenge'??  No way would she be able to do that.  Even I found today's walk hard and I'm a super fit collie.

I sooo wish we'd started counting the number of steps we went up and down at the start of this walk.  We counted the steps on the last 'up' section and it was way more than 200 so we're guessing we've gone up and down thousands today.

Ann says this is the hardest walk she has ever done in her whole life?!  We've probably been walking for about 8 hours today.  Started just after 10am and didn't get back to the car till about 6.20pm.  Thank god the clocks don't go back till next weekend because otherwise we would have been walking in the dark.

Although this section was described as 'challenging' on the SWCP website Ann stupidly didn't really take much notice of it because she was determined to do the walk come what may?!  Obviously we've walked the 'Bude to Hartland Quay' section which is described as the 'most severe' section of the entire coast path.  That was hard - but we did it in June when it was light at night and we were prepared for it to be 15 miles of hard walking.  The 'Pendeen to St Ives' section is also described as one of the most difficult sections.  So we stupidly thought that this section would be reasonably OK.

.........................One must never assume?!!!!!

Oh well, at least the scenery was stunning and we've done it now - Yippeee!

 

Worth Matravers to Swanage - 7 miles

 

This was one of the wettest walks we have ever done on the SWCP.  It was squelch, squelch, squelch all the way.  Thank goodness it was only 7 miles and wasn't too strenuuous.

Polperro to Looe - 5 miles

Polruan to Polperro - 7 miles

Freathy to Cremyll - 10 miles

Left St Ives at about 7.45am.  I hadn’t had a proper walk – just a trot around the field.  But I knew something was going on so I had two poos, just in case I didn’t have another chance for a while.  Thank goodness I did.  Ann put me in the car and we drove for two hours to Cremyll.  We could have got the bus from Cremyll to Freathy at 9.24am but arrived at about 9.40am.  Ann phoned for a taxi. We’d already checked that a taxi would cost us £10.  Taxi arrived, took us to Freathy and we’d walked at least half a mile before the one & only bus that we could have got passed us.  Money well spent I would say especially as we would have had to have left at 6.45am to ensure we caught the bus.

It’s been a beautiful sunny day.  So hot that Ann had to take off her anorak and her ‘thin with all the warmth’ top was much too hot?!!

It was a relatively easy walk today.  Initially there were a few ‘up & down’ bits but nothing too strenuous.

Freathy is a very strange place.  There’s one little road that runs alongside the coast and there’s loads of little ‘holiday chalets’ all over the cliff tops.  Ann asked the taxi driver who owned them and who came to stay in them.  The taxi driver said that there was a ‘permanent community’ in Freathy and they had a community centre with a bar and a cafe and a shop?????

Approaching Raime Head we spotted ponies roaming wild so I had to go back on my lead.  However just before I went on my lead there was a slimy green pool for me to wallow in.  Yay!  There were quite a few people wandering around at Raime Head and a horrid German Shepherd dog went mad at me and I hadn’t even done anything to him.  His owner told him off and said he was a very naughty boy. 

Walked right to the top of ‘Raine Head’ and was allowed off my lead, Ann took a few photos and then I went back on my lead because we had to walk back via the ponies to the coastal path.  I didn’t mind though.  I went into ‘very well behaved good dog mode’.  Everyone was looking at me and saying, ‘Yuk, where’s he been?’  I just ignored them.  For a start why does everyone assume I’m a boy?  And secondly what business is it of theirs where I’ve been? Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyway from Raime Head we had a very easy walk into Cawsand/Kingsand.  As soon as we got into Cawsand we stopped for lunch at a lovely little cafe with a view of the sea. Ann had ‘cheesy chips & coffee’ and I had a drink of water out of my ‘folding travel water bowl’, which I think has sprung a leak?  Ann put it down for me and I had a drink but then all the water started running down the hill?!  We’ve now dried it out by the radiator but will have to check it out tomorrow because we can’t see any obvious ‘leaking’ places??!!

Coming out of Cawsand/Kingsand we got a bit lost.  We walked down a lovely little road with gorgeous little houses – it’s such a lovely place – and ended up at the end of the road ...................on the beach.  Well on the rocks?!  There was a ‘geeky’ guy sitting on the rocks so we asked him if we were on the right route for the coastal path.  Don’t think it was the correct route but he said we could get to the coastal path via the rocks.  So that’s what we did – walked across all the rocks until we hit the coastal path again.  Couldn’t have done that if the tide was in.

Anyway not long after that we hit the ‘Edgecombe Country Park’.  There were big signs up all over the place saying that doggies had to be on their leads all the time because there were sheep and deer roaming around.  So back I went on my lead for more than an hour.  ....................We didn’t see any sheep or deer.

Got back to Cremyll about 2.45pm.  The sun was still shining so Ann had a cup of coffee at the Edgecombe Inn.  We sat at one of the picnic tables for about half an hour and just soaked in the view towards Plymouth in the sunshine.

Today has been a fabulous day for a walk.