The South West Coastal Path Chronicles: Abbotsbury to West Bay

Date: 19th July 2021

Distance: 9.28 miles
Time: 3:26:33
Ascent: 512 feet

Total SWCP so far: 589.26 miles

Route

Progress

Profile

Martin and Marina's Bit

Once again the team was woken by night-owl Martin at 4:30 in the morning so that we could Beat the Heat and start our final walk of this trip nice and early. To simplify the transport logistics, we chose to walk east to west, the opposite to our usual direction and so started at Abbotsbury and finished at yesterday's destination, West Bay.

We started walking at 06:25 and even then it was warm. But the early morning light was amazing and we hardly saw any people until we were well progressed. If you can handle the early start, on hot days like this one, this is the way to do it.

The profile suggested a very easy day and in fact we only ascended 512 feet in total so from that point of view, our expectations were met. But what we didn't appreciate until we got there was that much of this section involves trudging through deeply pebbled beach. The pebbles are small and move under foot, making it very hard going. After what seemed an eternity of slow and exhausting trudging, Lesley admitted she would happily trade the pebbles for a nice big stepped hill to climb. None of us were arguing!

Amazingly, we arrived at our destination at 10:30 a.m. which must be some kind of record and gave us the chance to drive home on slightly less busy roads.

Job done. Next trip already planned. With only five more days of walking, we should have completed the entire South West Coastal Path!

Derek and Lesley's Bit

Westbay to Abbotsbury......

But it's not! We actually walk from Abbotsbury to West bay for logistics.

It's another hot day so the "knocker upper" has done his job again and we are again walking by 06.30

Did Marina spot a naked walker on the beach? Not sure as he was lucky too far away to tell.

The walking was hard going as a lot of it was along the beach on pebbles.

The temperature rose and so did we up a steep incline away from the sea onto the cliff top. The sea was like a mill pond not a ripple in sight.

Again finishing on a steep downhill into west bay where we met Katherine & Nigel a lovely couple who had started on the path at Minehead on the 21st June walking a half marathon a day raising money for Maggies.

They still looked fresh & we wished them well for their last 100 miles.