Walking the Jurassic Coast

The south-eastern coast of Devon is called the Jurassic Coast for good reason. The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site covers 95 miles of coastline running from here in Exmouth, Devon to Studland, Dorset. It shows evidence of 185 million years of the earth’s history. The coast here showing rocks and fossils from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fame of the film series Jurassic Park (I find the website linked to about the films an intriguing representation of Baudrillard‘s concept of hyperreality - the films now need their own historical interpretation - should you view them in production of chronological order - just as scientists have spent decades determining the chronological order of the rock strata here!) has raised the profile of this area, but its Jurassic history was already well identified before the Hollywood industry took the era to heart.

More details on our walk along the Jurassic Coast later, first an update on our morning.

Breakfast

I woke, as is now normal at 5.30am made my breakfast and began on the epic blog post about our trip to the moor. The amount of detail in a post sometimes takes much longer than a simple description might, but I find it is worth it as I come back to read these blogs in later years. So, while time consuming, getting it right was also satisfying.

Drew got up at 7am and having posted the blog at 8.30am it was time to get showered etc. and dressed ready to head out for Saturday's adventure - a walk along the Jurassic Coast.

Exmouth to Budleigh Salterton

We left the house at 9.15am and made our way down to Manor Park in the middle of Exmouth. Rather than Google Maps, which is great for roads, but less so far paths. It is Drew's Strava that provides the route map for today.

Manor Park has the remains of an old watermill from a nearby village running in place of a fountain.

In a nice touch the path directing us to the starts of the Jurassic Coastal walk is also marked out with dinosaur footprints rather than just arrows. 

Coming out of the park we walked along Exmouth Beach, which we have visited previously on the first day we were here and last Thursday. The Exmouth Parkrun is coming to an end on the beach just as we walk past, reminding me of Lloyd and his family who often fit worldwide Parkruns (as well as their local one) into their holidays. 

The views remained as wonderful as ever.

After walking past the Exmouth Lifeboat Station

We soon reached the start of the Coastal path.

For anyone who wants to see all the photos from our route today you can access them on Flickr. They start here and you click/swipe left to move forward. 

The first highlight on the route was the Orcombe Geoneedle, placed here by Prince Charles in 2002 at the formal opening. It demonstrates the different strata of rocks in the cliff here including some for each of the eras represented.

From the Geoneedle the walk begins to climb toward the Haven Devon Cliffs Holiday Park, this static caravan park is so large that they have streets and caravan numbers.

The Coastal Path stays close to the cliff along this route until you come to Sandy Bay and the Straight Point Firing Range beyond. 

Walking around the Firing range with all its warning signs, the path then starts to climb and climb. 

As the map at the beginning of the post shows there is a very steady, then steep climb from 6 km to 9km along the route and the legs certainly feel this. However, the views are worth it.

The last mile or so was through a wood with dense trees and undergrowth. I began to wish I'd spent more time paying attention to the Radio 4 countryside programmes, like Countryfile and Open Country, that my mother used to listen to, which have people going along various routes identifying bird song, as there were six distinct songs that could be heard in the woods, but my identification skills led me to identify none! The woods also had a proliferation of butterflies - I counted eight different species, but again my identification skills failed me. I should have read this page before I went out. 

We come into Budleigh Salterton after two and a half hours and 10.4 km (6.7 miles)

The effort was quite energising, but I for one was ready for a sit-down and something to eat after the morning stroll. 

Lunch

Budleigh Salterton has a large range of coffee houses and lunch stops. We choose the Gingerbread House.

Which prides itself in providing local produce of the highest quality. Its map of local suppliers takes up one whole wall of the cafe.

For lunch Drew opted for cheddar cheese sandwiches, Drew loved the fresh bread and the strong cheese which provided a good kick to the palette. 

I went for the Moroccan Lamb pasty that was available. With large chunks of lamb, carrot and potato inside the pasty, the Moroccan element from the wonderful sweet and spicy flavour of Ras el hanout cooked through the meat and veg - lovely.

We washed our food down with an americano and a latte.

Budleigh Salterton to Exmouth

In planning today's walk, we had noted online that in addition to the coastal path between the two places, there was also a disused railway line walk. So having come to Budleigh Salterton by the coast we returned to Exmouth via the railway, now a cycle and walking path. Again, Strava provides the directions:

As you see it is both shorter and a lot less steep than this morning's journey. In this case 'a lot less steep' felt like flat compared to this morning. Though we did come across some cyclists who struggled up one of the inclines - mind you they were both in their 80s or 90s.

The walk was pleasant and well shaded, again the air was full of birdsong. 

The route led to the top of Exmouth, a short distance to our house which is above the town centre. We arrived back at 2.05pm. The return journey only taking one and a half hours and being 6.9km (4.6 miles). My step count was 15,800 for the morning and 10,250 for the afternoon. 26,000 steps is well above my daily 10k goal. Drew's step count is always higher than mine - he has smaller strides - his came to 31,331 steps by the end of the day!! [Co-pilot's note: I also, dear readers, included in my numbers the walk down to the church, a little distance away, to meet Mr B. My legs aren't that freakishly small.]

Back in the house

We got back to the house and consumed plenty of fluid. I wrote the blog post about the previous night's dinner. Then I copied the photos from the camara and began the process of labelling them for Flickr - I didn't finish before it was time for me to prepare for Mass, so they didn't get posted until later.

I know how much I've benefitted from walking since I retired, my initial 4 miles (since lockdown now 5 miles) six days a week have made me lighter, fitter and healthier. It also means this kind of extra effort takes far less out of me than the days when I was 20+ stone and would grumble about walking short distances up the hill of Treforest Campus. It seems odd to be able to go far greater distances now I am older than I would have dreamed of in my 40s, but I'm very grateful for it. 

Exploring Exmouth

The image at the start of today's blog links to reminders of my childhood, but more of that later.

Breakfast

Having gone to bed at 10.30pm on Friday night, I awoke Saturday at 4.30am eager and ready to blog - which, along with loading up and naming 200+ photos did take a little while.

As I do most Saturday mornings, I made breakfast at 4.30am, but didn't get around to eating it until 6am. I know from previous years blogging that I am along in liking Weetabix with hot water left go cold until it comes up with the spoon in chunks. My daily Weetabix has hot water, but then is eaten in 10 minutes, so it is still warm, but on weekends I make it as I get up and enjoy the delight of it cold some hours later. It was washed down with Orange Juice and multiple cups of tea.

Walking down to the Estuary

Having taken the car off charge at 8.30am (at 100%) we put a load of washing in the washing machine, did some other jobs around the house and left at 11am. 

The route was something like this:

Note the blocked out areas aren't important, just names of places I needed to get the map to go in the right direction, not actual places we visited, so I removed them.

First we walked down Ashleigh Road on which we are living, it is quite steep, but gives good views of the estuary.

At the bottom of Ashleigh Road, for the first time we turned right, past Phear Park and down on to Withycombe Road, which on crossing the Exeter Road is renamed as Hartopp Road which when it meets the barrier of the Main Road and Railway line turns left and becomes Halsdon Road, at the end of which is the Railway Station. 

From that point we walked past the Exmouth Rugby Club - which has a sideline out of season of renting its pitch to Mobile Home drivers who want to stop in Exmouth!

We walked onto the Imperial Recreation Ground and this is where the map and reality separate. In fact we were able to walk along the side of the estuary for the whole of the small peninsula. But as cars can't access this route Google Maps doesn't show it as a through route. Of course, hugging the coast made for a longer route than the map implies, but allowed for a much better view of the estuary, Dawlish and Dawlish Warren opposite 

and back up the estuary to Lympstone Manor.

The memories evoked by the broken-down Sea Scouts hut which is the top picture in today's post is of course my own time as a Sea Scout. Unlikely as it sounds to almost everyone who knows me I was a member of the Swansea Sea Scouts for almost two years. I looked fetching in our white uniforms and white sailors' hat, even if I have to say so myself (as I don't know anyone else who will!!) [Co-pilot's note: Yet, dear readers, he cannot tie a knot.] 

Like Exmouth the Sea Scout building in Swansea wasn't much to look at, and the leftover part of a ship that we used to board to learn some of the nautical terms was indeed a wreck in the technical use of the term. You had to walk softly on her so that the planks didn't give way - no sign of Health and Safety in those days.

Still, I know my siblings will remember back to then as my Dad, who would drop me down to the Scout hut on Swansea docks, used to play chicken with the edge of the dock and scare them and everyone else who saw him! 

Exmouth Marina

Once past the Recreation Ground and the run down buildings we continued to hug the coast rather than do what the map shows. So we continued upon it until we reached the Exmouth Harbour Master's office, which is none to salubrious.

At this point it becomes an easy walk and cycle path past the Exe Sailing Club

Once we are passed the point where the estuary becomes the sea

We came to the Exmouth Marina, a very tastefully updated area which were the former docklands. The first thing we encountered was a lifting bridge.

Once the boar had gone by it quickly lowered again and we were able to get across safley.

Walking back into the town

From the Marina we walked on to Rockfish where we had eaten the night before and form there went up St. Andrew's Road towards the town centre. Almost immediately Drew was accosted by an 89-year-old man who was mesmerised to see that he still carried a camara, given that the old man had sold his camara to a second-hand shop recently (and not for a good price). The gentleman went on to regal Drew with his military history, he being the first commissioned officer appointed by Queen Elizabeth II when she became Queen in 1952 (70 years ago, for those who failed to note we had been having a platinum jubilee this year!!). 

On hearing our accents, he told us that his daughter had graduated from Cardiff and his Grandson had recently returned home from three years at my old employer, the University of South Wales. Stories over, we continued on our route - with Drew bemoaning that strange people seem to be attracted to him for some reason!!!

Leaving St. Andrew's Road we walked on to The Strand, the centre of Exmouth and looked at its various features. It being Saturday afternoon it was quite busy. So we continued onto The Parade and up North Street and Ryall Grove on to Ashleigh Road. As we climbed up Drew, lagging behind, [Co-Pilot's Note: Maintaining, dear readers, a sensible distance.] took a photo of me making progress up the hill.

When we got back we remembered we'd not taken photos of the outside of the house, so we remedied that and share them here.

So after two hours and 3.5 miles we were back at the house ready to take the washing out and load up the latest set of photos.