Front Page News

Oooh, look, we made the front page of the Totnes Times with our little walking adventure.

Totnes Times 17 April 2013

* Donate to the charities via uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walktotnes

Day 12: Dawlish to Totnes

We started the final day walking along the sea wall by the railway line from Dawlish.

We had to dodge a few waves in places because the tide was high and crashing against the wall.

On the other side of the tracks repair and clearance work was being carried out on the cliffs where there had been recent landslides onto the railway.

We left the South West Coast Path at Teignmouth and came inland up the Teign estuary towards Combeinteignhead (great name!) 

We were soon in familiar territory, crossing the lush green rolling hills that are so characteristic of the area.

We had lunch in Kingskerswell and met our friend Dan who joined us to walk the final 10 miles.

As the day went on the temperature dropped and it attempted to snow. We have seen all four seasons in the past four days!

As we passed Berry Pomeroy castle and we saw a sign saying only 3 miles to Totnes the reality that our long walk was about to come to an end suddenly hit us. What would happen when all of this is over?

Totnes stayed tucked out of sight until the last moment. We finally spotted our destination about half a mile away at the top of the final path descending into the town.

London to Totnes
250 miles - 12 days
Completed!

We spent the evening in the pub meeting amazing supporters and sponsors and we were really touched by all the messages, comments and stories about what the charities mean to all of you.

Day 11: Sidmouth to Dawlish

The penultimate day of the walk. Time has gone very quickly, it's hard to believe we're nearly at Totnes.

Sidmouth to Dawlish was a gentle walk compared to the cliff climbs of the past few days. We needed a slightly softer day for our legs to recover a bit!

We've been so lucky with the weather again. The sun was out all day and where it was sheltered from the wind it was pretty warm.

When we got down to the sandy beach at Exmouth it was good conditions for a spot of beach art (well, a little doodle in the sand), as you'll see below.

From Exmouth we crossed the river estuary by ferry over to Dawlish Warren nature reserve.

The last part of the walk to Dawlish followed the railway line along the coast which felt like we'd entered the scene of a life-sized model.

Totnes arrival finish line plans

It's our penultimate day. Tomorrow we land in Totnes! 

Invitation.

If you would like to join us for some celebratory drinks in Totnes tomorrow evening, check our Facebook page for details. We should be arriving by about 6pm, but will post an update tomorrow.

Hope to see you there!

Day 10: Lyme Regis to Sidmouth

If you've been reading this blog regularly you've probably noticed we've been consistently impressed by the things we've seen on this trip.  Today was no different.  In fact, today was the first time we had sunshine and blue skies all day.  This made everything all the more impressive.

We left Lyme Regis and promptly climbed a hill. For about 6 miles the path was mainly under cliff through wooded areas, with occasional glimpses of the sea. The ground conditions were good but we had to really keep an eye on where we were treading as the path was not exactly stable.

After Seaton we had more sharp inclines and open cliff walking at the top.  After getting some knee problems on the sharp descents we decided to take to the beach for the final mile and a half into Sidmouth. The signs of recent mudslides and rock falls were a bit alarming - it's not every day you see an upside down tree!

Here are some photos from Tuesday's walk...

Day 9: Maiden Newton to Lyme Regis

Monday was our most physically demanding day so far. Legs ached after 11 hours of pretty tough walking.

But we're not complaining because it was also the most stunning day so far.

It all started back at the house of our CouchSurfing host Jenny. She very kindly drove us to Dorchester station early this morning so we could catch the train back to the start point at Maiden Newton.

From Maiden Newton we took bridlepaths and a former railway line to Bridport. So far all good!

Once the route hit the coast we started to climb... a lot! We got to the summit of Golden Cap which is the highest point on the south west coast path. The second and third steepest were not far away! But only after we dropped right down to sea level to cross some little stream, then up again. 

Due to footpath diversions where there had been collapsed bridges and landslides, the walk ended up being a few miles longer than we expected and we only just made it to Lyme Regis before dark.

Hard day, but inspiring!