Nearly a week has passed since I completed my Southwest Coast Path challenge and already some of the memories are starting to fade!
So, before I forget everything, I thought I'd better sit down and write about the good, the bad and the ugly of the adventure.
Already, I have been asked several times, what was my favourite part? That's a tough question to answer, because there were so many good bits. Obviously, the weather can make a huge difference to how much you 'enjoy' a stretch, but on the whole, I had near perfect weather most of the time.
I'm going to go with a Top 3 of sections I enjoyed.
1) Padstow to Berryl's Point in North Cornwall. Yes it was a lovely sunny day but some of the scenery was spectacular. It really did feel like I was in the Mediterranean at times. The walking was relatively easy as well, with no stupidly steep ascents or descents!
2) Marazion to Lizard. This stretch was absolutely beautiful and relatively easy walking. I was blessed with the weather yet again.
3) Mount Batten to Bigbury-on-Sea. Once again, the weather was perfect, but this section had a few stiff climbs but some lovely scenery as well, particularly the Yealm estuary.
I loved walking alone, but having the time to chat to whoever I met along the way. I had some great conversations with complete strangers. It was also great to meet up with fellow hikers from time to time.
So if those were the best, what part did I least like? Well, there were some absolutely brutal sections in North Devon, but in their own way, they were quite enjoyable. I found the stretch between Braunton and Bideford incredibly boring, because it was estuary walking along paved paths with few views to look at. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that the day that I came closest to ‘giving up’ was the stretch from St Ives to Pendeen Watch. It was an absolute b*stard of a day and a half. Yes, the weather wasn’t great, but it was the scrambling over the slippery rocks that I found not just physically tiring, but also mentally draining. It might not have been so bad if I wasn’t carrying a heavy backpack. When you are, you have to be so careful to avoid injuring yourself, because the momentum of the pack wants to take you in a different direction than you would like, quite often! The other thing I disliked about that stretch was the feeling of making little progress. For instance, I could see Pendeen Watch in the distance and calculated that it was about 3 miles away. I thought that should take me no more than 90 minutes to walk there, but it actually took 160 minutes!
Having said all that, there were still some nice views to be seen.
What would I do differently? In the ideal world I would have a much lighter pack and equipment! Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have taken quite so much stuff with me. It’s amazing how little you need when it boils down to it!
Would I do it again? You bet I would. If time and finances permit, I would love to do some more of the long-distance trails. I have reached a level of fitness that I would like to maintain, so there’s only one way to do that!
Anyhow, here’s a few statistics about the walk.
The official path distance is 630 miles but I walked in excess of 702 miles (toing and froing).
I climbed 108,897 feet (33,192m).
My phone reckons I did 1,814,759 steps.
I stayed in 32 different campsites, 2 wild camping spots, 13 B&B / Hotels, 1 Youth Hostel and 1 night at friends.
I used 12 ferries to cross estuaries (legitimately part of the coast path).
I lost 8lb (3.5kg) in weight.
I broke or lost 4 pairs of sunglasses.
The only piece of equipment to have let me down, was my inflatable pillow, which developed a leak after 41 days.
My legs and feet are still aching a bit, but I’m slowly getting used to life in a bed! I am yet to download all the video’s that I took, but in the coming weeks, I will put some up onto YouTube. Once again, thanks for reading this blog!
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