< Previously: Jurassic Jaunt 4.3 – Leaving Lyme for Salcombe Regis and a Branscombe Return
After the dog attack from the previous night, I was rather shaken but decided to head back to Ladram Bay to draw the red sandstone stacks, again via Otterton now I knew there was a good bus service to Budleigh Salterton and Exmouth (the 157). I headed into Sidmouth and had a nose around nearby Kennaway House while waiting for the bus. It was closed during the food festival but now was open, it had an art exhibit on, but my eye was taken by the information board about Sir John Henry Kennaway’s legendary beard that caught the attention of Edward Lear…
The bus ride to Otterton was again very painless, it was a rather mardy day, with a little threat of rain but hopefully it would hold off, but I had my poncho just in case.
I noted they had a community shop which looked really useful. I checked with them about water in the village – like usual, it was ‘while we are open we’ll refill your bottle’. Very nice of them, but we need far more water fountains and taps that are 24 hours, please! Thirst does not only happen between 8-6 weekdays and 3 1/2 hours on a Sunday?
Transcript
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I’m going to put it in the wind, it’s Monday and I’m walking from basically Ladram Bay,
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from near Otterton to Budleigh, and maybe further.
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I had a quick look, it’s all those things where you turn in the corner and usually you
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don’t know what you expect and you think, oh am I going to see lots of, usually it’s
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like, oh, not that hill, oh god that hill.
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I turn in the corner and went, oh, which might be famous last words, but it was like, okay,
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that’s three miles I can do for my sleep maybe, but you know, we’ll see.
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I spent, I dawdled a bit at Ladram Bay, painting and drawing the, not literally drawing the
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rocks, it wasn’t like some kind of naughty Uluru type, anti Uluru type, but I just
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because I want it very red, that sort of colour, red sandstone, and you can hear the quarry
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in the background.
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I was afraid it was like, is that, is that thunder, or is that, is that some kind of
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range?
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And I was like, oh, it’s, I turn and turn and I was like, oh, quarry.
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So yeah, the bus goes from Budleigh Salterton, in his Budleigh Salterton, like it’s getting
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wrong in the last podcast, Budleigh, wotsit, just call everything, wotsit, wotsit
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and Budleigh, wotsit, and Sid, something, what’s it, Mouth, and Salcombee, wotsit
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you know, I’ll do it.
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Just like my artwork at the moment, I’ll do it, I’ll do it, and I’m going for abstract,
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and that’s my excuse.
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So, yeah, I’m going to, I’m going to walk 500 miles, depending on when I get to Budleigh
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Salterton, the last bus is 86 something, apparently there’s a pharmacy, and I keep
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missing pharmacies, because I want to see if I can get some, like, these, I’ve got those
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horrible, useless, normal oderitas, which, one, do nothing, unless you get the proper
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trainer ones, and two, let’s try some gel insoles, because it’s a bit, yeah,
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feetsies are a bit hurting, and there’s a lovely community shop in Otterton, I’m very
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recommended, you can get a water refill there, and of course, as like always, it’s
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when the shop is open, which doesn’t usually help me, because I always get these
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places too late, and there’s a pub in there, the pub looks nice, I didn’t try it.
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The annoying thing about Lodger and Bay, is that I didn’t realise, when I was going
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through there, talking about that area, and saying, I’ll come back here and paint it,
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which is what I’ve done, I didn’t realise that the coastal path is the only way to it,
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and there’s a big sign on the entrance, because I walked along the road back, yeah,
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last night I had to walk all the way five miles back, and I was a bit painful, and
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I managed to walk along some trackways, which are not too bad, some old trackways,
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but I had to re-walk a little bit of the coast pass of it, which is a bit uppy, but not too bad,
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but it was that walk, that walk up the Salcombe Hill, was just like, ouch, what didn’t help,
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what really didn’t help was, as I mentioned on Facebook, as I was repairing myself that,
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I was like, oh, well, I got some wine, wine helps, especially wine plus ibuprofen,
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I know you’re supposed to do that, but you know, sometimes it’s like, wine, a bit of wine,
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I have a profan, it’s fine, and yeah, these dogs just started attacking me,
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this woman just didn’t have control of the dogs at all, I wasn’t even walking anywhere near her,
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I was walking, not even past her, I was walking in a different path entirely,
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so I was walking across, and she was walking towards me, but I was walking away pretty much,
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and you can see when she was shouting, the dogs were like, oh, and they came and came at me,
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and they were growling and being very aggressive, even though there were smaller dogs, just two of
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them, and so I had to use my plastic wine bottle, because of course I put things into a plastic,
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because around Sidmouth you’ve got these sort of, this is a designated no-alcohol area,
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so I was like, oh, I put some into a plastic, so I didn’t have aggro, and so I was swinging
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that at the dogs, not wanting to hurt them, but just like, get away, get away, a bit like the
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cows earlier, the cows were more friendly, they did try and eat my trainers, and they did try and
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eat my, steal my backpack, you see, these cows, you think they’re normal, you think they’re
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innocuous, but I got my eye on new cows, so they started eating, munching my straps and my backpack,
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while I was trying to do my painting, but anyway, less fun was that, and I was like,
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you know, control your dog, you know, and call the police, I’m afraid I couldn’t, because I had
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one percent on my phone, but I was just like, really, and she made some sounds about, a weird
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comment about, oh, it’s your backpack, and it’s like, sort of, you train dogs, and then I would just
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come back from China, and I was like, that’s very strange, and the heat at the moment, I said,
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this backpack goes to Made in America, which it is, it’s guilty, and I was like, what’s China
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going to do, what’s China going to do with backpacks, I’m confused, why would the dog coming back from
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China, well, the good question is, why the dog was in China, why China, and I had so many questions,
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I did not stick around to find out, but it made me so annoyed, and so kind of scared in that
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moment, and I was just like, can I go through one of these trips without having a dog incident,
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I mean, we had the nice dog, Cassie, the Staffie, who I got to know, and we’ve had some other lovely
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dogs, some well-behaved doggoes, we like doggoes, big fan of doggoes, and the big problem is,
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owners, owners can’t control their doggoes, and they don’t want to, and they must make up
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these lies about, oh, oh, oh, if my dog doesn’t like someone, then, oh, I don’t like them,
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because there must be something wrong with them, no, you just haven’t controlled your,
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you haven’t taught your dog how to behave around other people, it’s an excuse, so anyway,
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I’ll report back later, I’ve got full battery pack today, so I should have been, you know,
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in the previous days, the reason why there’s been a flood of podcasts, and suddenly it’s just
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when I get some battery and signal, so it’s just been, sorry about getting the three podcasts at
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once, but it’s just, that’s unfortunately how it is someplace, especially when I’m moving,
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I don’t have any power, no power, no power now, and quite often, no signal,
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campsite’s really weird, it’s like it’s there for one minute, and then next minute,
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and just getting 2G, I don’t understand it, so anyway, I’ll speak to you soon.
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I arrived in Budleigh,
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it’s awesome to find it, not only half closed at the amazingly late time of
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5pm, but we’re still building it, it’s weird because I’ve seen so many pictures of the
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Otterton, is it the river Otterton, Otter Estuary at Budleigh Otterton, you know, there’s lots of
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birds and lots of, there’s sort of, there’s wetlands and there’s like a meandering river,
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but when I arrived, I had that clanking noise that I heard, oh yeah,
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I’m still trying to divine the coastal path because they don’t bother, oh there we are,
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well it’s a public footpath, that doesn’t mean it’s a coastal path,
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because of course they gave me one sign in the town and then no sign since, but yeah,
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let’s just say I got some, all the fish and chip shops are closed because obviously Monday,
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why would people want fish and chip shops on Monday, that ancient law about if you’re open every day,
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you have to close one day of the week, it used to be traditionally Sunday,
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they have a lot of Sunday, it’s a weekend trade, so easy close on Monday or Tuesday,
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so I went to a, got some kebab shop cheesy chips because I promised myself some chips,
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if I continue one, then it’s a vimto and yeah, I liked Budleigh Salterton so much,
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I decided I’d rather never come here ever again and I’m walking to Exmouth,
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because I just want, partly because I want it done, partly because
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if I got the bus from there at 6:30, not only do I have to hang around,
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I kind of a version of Hastings, we forgot to pay their bill, yeah, it had kind of
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a less classier Seaton vibe, or like Hastings but low rent,
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apparently the home of Walter Raleigh, and I’m sure it was a lovely place until everyone moved
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there, because hence all the building work, but the thing we were building in the estuary was a bridge,
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a sort of a footbridge across the mouth of the estuary, which is like
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way to go ruining it, and the other one is, the first thing I arrived into was what seemed like
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an industrial estate, and it turned out that was supposedly a nature reserve, which is the old
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bridge, across you have to walk kind of like two quarters of a mile, so from Danger Point, which
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the most euphemistically named thing ever, I’m sure for sailors it might be dangerous,
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but it was the most uneventful Danger Point I’ve ever seen, so you walk inland
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it’s not the quarters of a mile or a half mile, you walk over a ridge, and I arrived and found the
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south coast path of them enclosed, because what they’re doing, and I assume this is what they’re
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doing it for, is that they’re doing it so people don’t have to walk that little bit inland and back,
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not realizing that I’ve walked a lot of the south coast, south east of the coastal path in the south,
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and there are places, I’m trying to remember the name of the place, I was really beautiful,
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but you literally have to walk about a mile and a half in, or two miles in, go over a little
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bridge and a mile or two miles out, and it’s a similar kind of deal, but much nicer, and certainly
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doesn’t have cranes and clanking, and it’s like, and so to make a nature reserve, they’ve actually
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made it, they’ve landscaped it, which doesn’t make any sense, or it’s actually, as all these things
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are, it’s a hidden tidal coastal defence plan, which is when they talk about, oh it’s improvement,
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it’s quite often means, oh if we don’t do this, things, our homes might flood, so, but it’s just like,
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in such a beautiful area with all these apparently very legendary for, you can see lots of bird hides,
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I think it’s legendary for bird life and all that, I’m sure they’re not very happy about this
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clanking noise every five minutes, and these cranes, and usually, I’m a big fan of cranes,
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we’re not a big fan of them, but you know, part of the urban landscape, you don’t expect them on
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the coast to walk in someone that’s renowned for its picturesquewness, it might be because it’s
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slightly out season, it’s 11th of September, but it’s still like, I suspect they started that
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during season, which is a bit strange, but this is these new passing rocks everywhere,
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and planting loads of trees, that’s not a nature reserve, if you’re actually
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planting loads and loads of extra things, that’s landscaping, that’s not preserving the nature,
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that’s kind of making it, and it looked like an industrial state or an off-ramp of a motorway,
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and that was my first experience, and then I went into a dam, which took me a long time to find it,
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because it’s about a third of a mile from that estuary, and it was all just endless
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holiday lets and houses, eventually when I got there, I went to the pharmacy that I was thinking
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of getting some gel insoles, they only had women’s ones for that, that was a pointless trip,
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and no sort of odor eaters or something like that, but I’m thinking this is going to be the end of the
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trip anyway, so may as well just live with the flat-footedness that will ensue, but
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what I’ve promised myself is I’ll get to Exmouth and get a taxi, because that’s the end of the trip,
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the end of the walk, all of the Jurassic coast, and there won’t be anybody there waiting,
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and little flags or anything, but my little present to myself is a taxi home, or not home,
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it’d be very expensive, it’d be one hell of a big, although given how much I’ve spent on this project,
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and zero return, they probably mean just as cheap probably to take a taxi every day from London
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to each man I want to do, probably given the gear and the campsites and all that shit,
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I expect it probably would have been cheaper to hire somebody with a car,
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and do it while it won’t go, well I couldn’t have done it all on go when I was thinking about this
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thing, if I got up earlier today, if I did this or that, and I was like well no, because my feet
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need to rest, and I might doddle a bit in the morning, I didn’t get off the campsite till 11,
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I woke up at six, and there was a wake freight, it was so cold, another reason why I was like,
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because Tuesday night’s going to be even colder, and tonight’s going to be the same as last night,
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but it was the official weather, which is bullshit, because we were supposed to rain at
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three, didn’t, had a few spots earlier, had a few spots earlier as well, and four or five,
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we were supposed to then rain constantly until nearly 11, and it stopped at 10, and
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these areas have not conformed to even the hyperlocal weather systems,
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so yeah, if it’s going to be colder, I wouldn’t expect that to be different.
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Next, to our night, last night was okay, I made a mistake, I got too hot in my down sleeping
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bag, and I took off, because it’s kind of weird, sometimes you want to have a layer between you
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and the bag, sometimes it depends on the bag, it depends on the situation, sometimes it actually
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gets in the way, if you put too many clothes on, the reason why people feel cold in sleeping bags
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is quite often they’ve got in there fully clothed, you’re not supposed to do that, you’re supposed
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to get a rating that’s good for where you are, and then allow your, I don’t know which way is which,
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just this pretty footpath, I’ll follow it, I almost want to follow on the coast,
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it’s not going to get lost around the expert, and again, famous last word, but I know what the
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coast is, if we just follow the coast we’ll hit the expert, and so far it seems it’s very much like
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not a coast path, as I thought it might be, it’s just like some kind of park path,
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I looked it down the map and saw it, that’s four miles and also it doesn’t feel very
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strenuous, but the strenuous bit was a bit, I just want the hill eyes went up, but we shall see,
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we shall see, but I’d much rather never go back to Budleigh, because I was like, it’s one of those
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places where, as I say, a long time ago, I’m sure it was lovely, but I put a picture of, it’s the home
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of Sir Water Raleigh, I think, there was lots of Sir Water Raleigh references, and the funny thing was,
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I think a bit true from one of the, you have all these boats everywhere,
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that were sort of Budleigh In bloom, you know, with boats with flowers in, and there was a paddle on,
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I was, I wanted to picture, I was thinking, oh shit, creek without a paddle, and it was like,
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I saw all the stuff about Water Raleigh, including Millais painted the boy,
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The Boy called Raleigh, who was painted it, which is probably the reason why I know it,
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actually, probably one of the reasons why I know Budleigh Salterton is all would be Water Raleigh,
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but I was like, oh, this is the ship that Raleigh got the fuck out of there on,
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no wonder he went touring the world, you ever visit Budleigh Salterton, you will see
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where it is, we are on the right path, good, I could guess that,
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oh, and it’s a woodland walk, oh, we know how we love these, but you know, I can just march
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through these, I don’t think we’re in an undercliff, but it’s very, it’s very similar to undercliff,
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it’s fine, because it’s cool, just don’t fall over a tree stump, but yeah, so
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we’ll see, I can always bail in land, I hope I don’t end up having to do two taxi journeys, but
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there are buses to Exmouth, the only problem is that as I said, oh, you know, you can get
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trained from Exmouth to Exeter and then get the nine back, I need to double check on the times
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and that, but I think those buses leave quite early in the night, obviously when I get them,
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it’s well down the line, so they’re quite late, but I think the one I get that says to lock it,
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the 9A, but there’s no fucking way I’m walking up that hill again, like I did last night,
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that’s just like too much, whichever way, bailing to a bus and then finding a
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bus that links up, I’m going, I’m not going to lock up that hill, which won’t be famous last words,
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but I will show that for a cab for that, because I just, you know, the end is in sight,
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I need to preserve my foot feet and that hill is just, I mean, it was,
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just when I realised there was fog at the top, I was like, shit, because
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Marley had to then put the white torch on and then hope the motorists, which were surprising
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me a lot, even though it’s a little tiny road going up the back road, and it was like quite late
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nine at night, there was quite a few of those mini vans going up there, probably people going back
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to the campsite, but not giving me a lift, probably, I don’t think there’s a couple of people from
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the campsite who were very nice, who didn’t know that I was the person, one of them had
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seemed to be painting on the last podcast, the one of the church, afternoon, and
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they were like, oh, did you really live in that little tent and they’re going, I’ve got one smaller,
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that’s always the question, these people doing these massive, like four, six, eight people
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tents, these palace tents, and the caravans and things, I was like, oh, do you really live in
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that? Is it possible to live in a small space and not take up lots of space like you’re doing?
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It’s a mindset, a bit, yeah, so hopefully we’ll get to Exmouth later tonight, and I’ll take a view
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about what I’m doing, if I can find a nice late night meal, or not that late night,
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because I think it’s four miles, and it’s going to be like this, I’m going to do it in a few hours,
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because that was a surprising thing, I did, I didn’t set off to about three from Ladram Bay,
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and I was at Danger Point an hour later, and then at
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Budleigh Salterton, about five, so that’s two hours, and you know, that’s three and three quarters,
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I think, three and a half, so it’s reasonable to expect to do this in two, so I’ll get there
23:45.520 –> 23:51.760
before it’s dark, but we’ve got some overage, and of course I’ve got my head torch,
23:53.360 –> 23:59.440
I don’t want to be going over unknown paths at night, but I’ve noticed there’s so much intersection
23:59.440 –> 24:11.440
with roads and parks and things, there’s weirdly a range in one part of it, which I might have to
24:11.440 –> 24:21.760
go around, it’s all the pointers or range, but it depends on their firing, but yes,
24:24.480 –> 24:34.000
I’m not impressed by Budleigh Salterton, and so let’s press on and finish this project.
I asked if they had any gel insoles as my feet were killing me and I felt that the Saucony Peregrine 12s are resilient but don’t have enough cushioning. I kicked myself because I could have got some in Sidmouth while waiting for the bus. Sadly they didn’t, and apparently the best place would be Budleigh Salterton, so I decided to check there
I walked to where I stopped the walk the day before, and noticed a big sign on the road entrance to Ladram Bay Holiday Park warning that it was private and absolutely no public access. Oops?
Maybe I shouldn’t have wandered in to buy a drink from the path? And not wandered around the beach part to look at the stacks? It’s confusing because there are no Private – Keep Out signs on the path side of the park, so I wandered around with no issue or anyone challenging me. I resolved to go back but stay on the path this time when near the park, and if challenged just say I was stopping for a break. As it was I had no hassle from humans, but other creatures were another matter…
As I wanted to get a view of the Otter Sandstone sea stacks (the oldest rock geologically in the Jurassic Coast, from the Triassic period) I sat on the field above, hoping not to get hassled and thinking this was likely owned by a farmer not the park. As I painted the stacks a friendly (?) cow decided to take interest in what I was doing, making it hard to paint, even licking my feet, or was it trying to eat me? Then another cow arrived and tried to steal my rucksack by chewing and dragging one of the straps!
The irony is when I’d been at the Clavell Arms a few days before I was mocking some rather cutesy artwork in the toilets showing cows ‘photobombing’ the artist’s view of the landscape. Obviously not as impossible or surreal as I thought…
I had to finish up and leave because I was attracting a crowd of them, it seems that they’d either been fed or hijacked picnics in their field before, so associated people with food. I then walked down to the park itself, keeping on the path religiously this time.
I did another piece, either technical pen or fountain pen, I’m not sure, with wash. By this point I’d been hanging around for over an hour, and decided to get walking. I had plenty of time but was aware of those moody clouds and not knowing how long it would take to get to Budleigh Salterton. I had seen photos from the Otterton Estuary before, and had high hopes for picturesque views.
There were intensely dark, moody skies as I walked towards Budleigh and Danger Point, so much so I worried about rain – it was supposed to rain in the afternoon but that must have been inland because I didn’t have a spot of rain. I’d looked at the map and saw Danger Point, recognised this from my sailing days, and wondered if the coast was at all dangerous and rugged? I
t turned out not, lots of views of fields covered in agricultural plastic and some the stubble had been burnt, lending a rather starkness and abstract nature to the landscape, matching the grim austere skies.
It turns out not at all, Danger Point itself felt like a total let down (at least for landlubbers), about as dangerous as an Andrex puppy. I heard clanking in the distance, large bangs which I assumed was quarry work – I mentioned this in the podcast. It turned out to be something else entirely.
When you hit the Otterton Estuary there’s a 1/2 to 3/4 mile walk inland to the bridge over the River Otter. The clanking got louder, resonating around the estuary, and as I got over the bridge the coastal walk came to a resounding halt, like those noises. Big red signs saying ‘Footpath closed’. Where to now?
I guessed I should follow the very new looking road – there were no signs there to tell you where to go – and was surprised about how this ‘Nature Reserve’ looked. It looked more like the landscaping you’d get on the off-ramp of a new motorway service station, or an industrial estate. Lots of newly planted trees, car parks, brightly painted tarmac and bright yellow paths. It looked really ugly.
Eventually I found the new diversion path to Budleigh Salterton, and worked out what was clanking – there was two large construction cranes on a spit of new rock jutting into the estuary. It turns out they are building a walkway bridge over the Estuary cos the walkers presumably don’t want to walk the ‘exhausting and difficult’ 1/2 mile inland. Lazy walkers, and also building that over a natural reserve and site of well-known beauty is criminal.
Apparently they are ‘recovering’ the estuary and later talked to someone who said they had flooded the cricket pitch and talked about the work in glowing terms of reclaiming the estuary for nature. I don’t call planting mass trees and installing new bridges and making it look like a lay-by is at all good for nature. Doubt any of the many famed birds that were living here liked the noise or upheaval?
This totally put me into a dark mood and probably tainted my experience of Budleigh Salterton, which was mostly closed seemingly…I did find one pharmacy open, and it didn’t have any gel soles in my size. Walter Raleigh famously came from here, and Millais painted ‘The Boyhood of Raleigh’ here, the last time anything interesting happened here, it seems.
Closed things, construction and salty signs warning of private – keep out seemed to litter the place, it seems new money had moved in, and it was upscaling to a less nice Broadstairs. And being a Monday, all the fish and chip shops seemed closed, so got some not very nice chips from a pizza place.
I was going to go back on the bus to Sidmouth, which is what I should have done, but I couldn’t face coming back to Budleigh so made a rash decision to walk onto Exmouth, the signs said it was only a few miles (yes about that…) and either get the train to Exeter and 9 bus back to the campsite or a taxi. I just wanted at this point with my hurting feet to just finish this project and go home.
So I walked on, and the going was pretty easy, and was weirdly like a highlight of the previous two years – we had a military range perched next to a holiday park like Lulworth, we had green valleys with rivers at the bottom with steps and a bridge spanning that llike the ones near Osmington, all that was missing was a crumbling art-deco hotel, a shingle beach and an angry dog. Well we’ll come to the latter.
All of this almost whizzed by, I actually wondered if it was indeed only a few miles, but around the aforementioned Sandy Bay park I realised that the signs were lying to me – the Exmouth 3 miles was actually the shortcut, there was a bonus extra 3-4 miles if I followed the coast. Boo. So I might not get into Exmouth before dark then.
So I was surprised when I eventually came across a weird pyramid thing, I’d totally forgotten about the Geoneedle at Orcombe Point, a sculpture that includes all the rock types of the Jurassic Coast, and marks the end, or beginning of the coast, depending which way you go. Had I really finished this project?
I felt I had skipped a lot of artwork, but also felt that I needed to end this, if I wanted to do any more work around Exmouth I could always come back (this turned out to be incorrect on both counts).
It felt rather an unassuming place and rather a disappointment after all that walking and work. So sudden? So soon? But it seemed very popular…I headed on.
I said my own goodbyes around the corner at Rodney Point, which is a beautiful place, helpful yet rather rusted steps take you into the rocks and close to the crashing waves. This felt like the right place to say goodbye to the coast. It was getting dusk so onwards to Exmouth, which has one of those infinite esplanades that seems to go on forever.
As I came down the steps, oddly there was a group doing some sort of aerobics/Zumba class to Gala’s Freed From Desire, which both jarred and also summed things up – I was now freed from the desire to walk this coast. Also we had the barking dog, their dog in the van decided to go off on me, so another Jaunt cliche ticked off.
Transcript
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00:00.000 –> 00:17.840
So I’m at two miles from Exmouth, so let the noisy women go because it’s past why they’re
00:17.840 –> 00:24.400
making loads of noise. It seems to be a thing of this trip. The last sort of well,
00:24.400 –> 00:34.800
X miles, I don’t want to say four miles because I think it’s six, but the signs lie. The thing
00:35.520 –> 00:42.880
you’ve got to remember about, you know, there’s lies, damn lies, stats and the Waymarker signs on
00:42.880 –> 00:47.280
the coast past because they quite often either you get weird repeats like you’ve got a glitch in
00:47.280 –> 00:51.200
the matrix and they’re saying, but that was a mile ago it said it was two and a half miles.
00:52.000 –> 00:56.960
And this one, it didn’t mention that it was actually saying it’s on the Exmouth four, but
00:56.960 –> 01:03.440
there’s a shortcut and one of the things I don’t do on this, I’ve never done on any of this
01:04.480 –> 01:10.480
sort of several years worth of trips is take a shortcut. So I had to walk the extra couple of
01:10.480 –> 01:17.440
miles. So I should be there by now, but yeah, my feet are killing me for having a rest, but
01:17.440 –> 01:26.560
I am too supposedly two miles from Exmouth. And yeah, it’s kind of been a weird, weird mash-up of
01:28.160 –> 01:34.480
the greatest hits of the walk because we went past a range as a range of Start Point right next to
01:34.480 –> 01:40.720
range congruously right next to a holiday home park, which I stayed in a fair few of those.
01:40.720 –> 01:46.240
There’s a little grove who steps down and reminds me of Osmington and the bits around there.
01:47.920 –> 01:51.920
I’ve been thinking about one of the things you know we need to have is a worrying stopper,
01:51.920 –> 02:03.360
a dog’s worrying sheep and then a faded grandeur 1930s hotel like in Weymouth. And we’d be there
02:03.360 –> 02:10.560
really. We’ve had the sandy bits and that exposed bits and we’ve had a few steps as well in honour
02:10.560 –> 02:18.160
of yesterday, the steps from hell. So yeah, and a fair few benches. Of course the classic benches,
02:18.160 –> 02:25.760
which I hardly ever encountered a bench in the first part of this walk, you know, in the first
02:25.760 –> 02:30.560
year or two. It was like the old one, but then as soon as you hit Devon, as soon as it was after
02:30.560 –> 02:35.200
Weymouth, it was like bench, bench, bench, bench. Well not so much the Abbotsbury bit, but yeah,
02:35.280 –> 02:40.480
certainly around Bridport, suddenly like benches everywhere. And now I’ll get disappointed
02:40.480 –> 02:43.200
if I turn the corner and I’m like thinking I really want to have a rest and I was like no
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bench. That’s what happened of course here. It was ages ago. Oh and I could have stopped,
02:47.440 –> 02:56.080
but there was three women doing a whole Dot COtterton. I mean the whole thing on a bench in
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ear shot and I was like that’s gonna drive me mad because you know I come to these places for this.
03:00.720 –> 03:11.840
Yes, a distant sound of aircraft or cars. No, you know for quiet and I don’t really
03:11.840 –> 03:19.680
want to sit next to someone going, someone chattering away. So yeah, I’ve not really
03:19.680 –> 03:26.960
ever explained why I started this trip, but it was it goes back to a trip to Studland. I’m walking
03:26.960 –> 03:30.480
in a sandy bay in Studland. I was actually walking in a sandy bay, which I don’t remember is just
03:30.480 –> 03:37.040
quicksand. That was really risking my life. And then I got to Swanage and it was still
03:37.040 –> 03:42.480
nice evening and I was up at the, this is this whole very strange, I think it’s just in a state
03:42.480 –> 03:49.920
where there’s a whole sort of, not so much a concrete garden, but a perfect stone garden.
03:50.480 –> 03:56.640
It was for someone I was trying to make it into a fancy resort, a stone in Victorian times.
03:57.520 –> 04:03.600
And I saw the path, I said I want to keep walking and I’m glad I didn’t because now I know what I
04:03.600 –> 04:11.120
know about Dancing Ledge and Kimmeridge and whatever. I wouldn’t have got very far. I was more people.
04:11.120 –> 04:17.120
I wouldn’t have got very far and I would have had to end it early. So it took me so many,
04:17.120 –> 04:23.440
so many decades to learn what to do, what to carry and what to do to survive that thing.
04:23.440 –> 04:32.400
I think a lot of people do try and do that without any preparation. They get surprised at how
04:34.160 –> 04:41.200
rugged it can get from what seems to be kind of quite civilized and park-like and suddenly gets
04:41.200 –> 04:56.640
into quarries and no water. So yeah, the thing is, you know, it’s sort of bittersweet at the end
04:56.640 –> 05:00.960
of it. It’s like, you know, I’m glad I’ve done it or I’ve nearly done it. I mean, I’ve got two
05:00.960 –> 05:06.400
miles to go. So I’m glad that I’ve nearly done it. I’m glad, but it’s, yeah, it’s sort of,
05:07.120 –> 05:11.840
there are a few bits where I might come back to, but I’m kind of like, I really should have done
05:11.840 –> 05:15.360
this last year though. I don’t think I would have stayed the course if it had been too,
05:16.240 –> 05:20.960
I was expecting it to take an extra week last year and the weather turned on me and then
05:20.960 –> 05:31.200
my stomach kicked in and the weather is about to turn again. Unfortunately, it’s going to start to
05:31.200 –> 05:35.440
get colder and wetter, as I said in the last thing, last bit. So, you know, it’s a good time,
05:36.080 –> 05:42.640
but yeah, I’m limping pretty much because the next bonus two miles, we’ve had Stealth Hill as well,
05:42.640 –> 05:49.280
we had a stealth hill after I wasn’t expecting this. The hill that went up for miles, it was like,
05:50.480 –> 05:55.120
where those women were, it was like, it’s like a, you just get up and up and up and it’s like,
05:55.120 –> 06:00.160
is this, is this hell, is this the hill, this is a hell is the hill that never ends going up and up
06:00.240 –> 06:07.600
and up. Not a bad incline, just gentle incline, just exhausting. We’ll never ever be at the top
06:07.600 –> 06:10.640
and then you get the stories like, oh, there’s going to be a fun decline. Of course, it’s much
06:10.640 –> 06:21.760
more steeper, ascent, descent, descent. So, yes, the end is in sight and I will, I’m going to treat
06:21.760 –> 06:28.880
myself to a taxi home, I think, it’s because, you know, my feet, these are so hurting.
06:30.800 –> 06:36.560
And it’s very much like the walks of old as well, because when I was in my 20s and 30s, I used to do
06:37.360 –> 06:42.800
20s, you know, 20 plus or sometimes 20 plus, usually about 10 plus miles of walks. There’s
06:42.800 –> 06:46.800
always this point where I’d be like, ouch, my feet are hurting, I’ve got to get to the bus, or
06:47.360 –> 06:53.040
I’ve got to go this, this, this, and, you know, I used to bribe myself with wine gums, and I don’t
06:53.040 –> 06:58.560
have any wine gums on me, but I do have popcorn, actually, that’s a good idea. So,
07:00.320 –> 07:07.920
I will podcast when I actually get to Exmouth, but I will, which will be a celebration
07:08.480 –> 07:12.320
of Exmouth, and I can go to Exmouth, and now I can do something else.
07:28.320 –> 07:32.320
And I’m back at the campsite, it’s 10 o’clock, can’t wait to
07:32.640 –> 07:39.840
do noisey, because people are sleeping, although it’s not the curfew time, but, you know,
07:41.200 –> 07:47.360
although it’s my last night here, so, it’s so bothered, but I’m not gonna be blasting at music,
07:47.360 –> 07:56.480
but okay. Yes, I got to Exmouth, you can see that in the, well, there’s two photographs, I tried to
07:56.480 –> 08:02.800
find an Exmouth sign, and the Esplanade seemed a bit like that hill I referred to that went
08:02.800 –> 08:09.760
always up, up, up, up, forever. Exmouth, Xplanade, I was like, is there any Exmouth, is this just
08:09.760 –> 08:13.920
one long Xplanade with nothing else, and houses behind it, that’s what it felt like, it went off
08:13.920 –> 08:23.840
for miles, my feet were so hurting. But yes, I made it, I, as I found, I found a pub, got a
08:23.840 –> 08:29.680
number of a taxi, had a weird thing called a Pink Hooch, I didn’t know they still made Hooch,
08:29.680 –> 08:37.280
let alone Pink Hooch. It was cold and wet and fairly disgusting, but I drank it anyway, and then
08:37.280 –> 08:42.960
the taxi came, and I’m not gonna reveal how much it cost me, it was silly money, but, you know,
08:44.240 –> 08:50.640
interestingly, still less than what was charged to me about the decade and a half ago, two decades
08:51.440 –> 09:00.000
when I missed the last bus from Lulworth to Wool, and I think that cost me a 50 quid, and that
09:00.000 –> 09:07.040
was just horrendous at that time, so it wasn’t as bad as that, and it was 14 miles. The other
09:07.040 –> 09:12.800
option was to really piss around with getting a train to Exeter, and then going to Exmouth on the
09:12.800 –> 09:18.160
number nine bus, and finding Exeter bus station, I’ve got no idea Exeter bus station, I bet you
09:18.160 –> 09:22.880
when I think it’s nowhere near the train station. I’m sure John would know if he’s not here,
09:25.200 –> 09:32.000
and then I still would have had to walk up that hill, and I just could not face that hill again,
09:32.880 –> 09:36.400
you know, I mean, where’s Kate Bush when, I mean, you need someone to run up that hill,
09:37.600 –> 09:43.040
she can run up that hill, but I don’t want to, so I’ll come hill, not Solsbury hill, that would
09:43.520 –> 09:47.680
be a good Peter Gabriel or Kate Bush link, but yeah, so I’ll come hill, it’s horrible,
09:48.480 –> 09:53.360
done it twice, but either ways, and it’s just like no, no, and no.
09:56.080 –> 10:04.720
But yes, finished, I took a photograph of the, is it geo needle, I didn’t realise that was the
10:04.720 –> 10:09.920
end point of the Jurassic coast, I took a picture of it and then read the little thing and went,
10:09.920 –> 10:14.240
oh, that’s what it’s for, I just thought it was a random piece of art,
10:14.960 –> 10:20.640
just thought it was just an art, you know, the art through everywhere, doing art,
10:22.720 –> 10:29.440
but yeah, it was, but the bit that really kind of was like, yeah, this is the end of this
10:30.080 –> 10:36.800
Jurassic Jaunt project for me was, short minute later, you know, shortly, you know, around the
10:36.800 –> 10:44.960
corner, there is a set of steps down to, I think it’s called Rodney Point, it’s just underneath,
10:45.600 –> 10:49.520
you know, just around the corner from there, and it’s just before the Esplanade beach starts,
10:49.520 –> 10:54.480
and it’s got all the, you can see the rock strata and the red sandstone, and the red sandstone is
10:54.480 –> 11:00.880
the oldest of the Jurassic rocks in the area, so apparently it’s the oldest part, and people
11:00.880 –> 11:08.000
like Lumpy would know exactly, but it’s, you know, apparently about the time of when life was
11:08.000 –> 11:16.080
returning after the big extinction, but it was sort of deserty, and it was just nice seeing those
11:16.080 –> 11:21.360
layers, I took a few pictures, and I’ll probably use that picture as the artwork for this final
11:21.360 –> 11:26.160
thing, I mean, I’ll probably might do another one tomorrow when I’m heading back on the train,
11:26.240 –> 11:32.880
I’m planning to go to Exeter, and then, unfortunately, I’m outside of my network rail
11:32.880 –> 11:40.160
card zone, because network rail cards only work to the Weymouth, I might, I might maybe
11:40.160 –> 11:46.000
be able to wangle some kind of reduction because of the Weymouth bit, I’ll see what the ticket
11:46.000 –> 11:51.360
office says, because I’m, the bit from next to the Weymouth, I won’t, but the Weymouth,
11:51.360 –> 11:56.560
the Weymouth, the Railroom, I should be able to, so if I get two separate tickets I might be able
11:56.560 –> 12:04.880
to, but it really depends, I don’t know what time I get back tomorrow, it’ll be nice, I think,
12:04.880 –> 12:13.920
I think the portrait thingies are on, I think so, yes, because it was the day before I left, so it’ll
12:13.920 –> 12:22.880
be almost exactly two weeks, so they might, might be there, I don’t know, I’m not sure if I can
12:22.880 –> 12:27.760
get back, but back by six, it’ll be nice too though, and let’s say I’m not going to hang around here
12:27.760 –> 12:36.000
anyway, so I’m just making some food, I had a wonderfully long shower, my footsies are very
12:36.080 –> 12:45.040
pissed off at me, they are not happy, I think I actually started developing a blister, I actually
12:45.040 –> 12:51.120
had to put a blister, well even better, I had to put a blister sticker on, and then the first one
12:51.120 –> 12:56.080
didn’t stick, so actually then surgical taped it in place, it’s why surgical tape, it’s wonderful,
12:57.360 –> 13:01.920
micro, micro, was it micropora tape or it’s got my computer tape and that, that stuff,
13:02.160 –> 13:06.240
very good for holding these things in place when they don’t, they don’t behave,
13:07.440 –> 13:14.880
it’s like the gorilla tape of the medical world, but yeah, I need to look into that,
13:14.880 –> 13:20.160
because there’s this sort of side of the shoe that’s rubbing, and I didn’t manage to get any
13:20.160 –> 13:23.760
insoles or any gel thing with jigs, and that would be useful as well, I’m going to get some
13:24.400 –> 13:32.560
chunky odoury to stuff, or put some gel insoles that might be helpful as well, because yeah,
13:32.560 –> 13:38.640
I’ve noticed these trainers, all these Saucony Peregrines are a little bit hard on the feet,
13:38.640 –> 13:43.840
I think they don’t have as much cushioning as my previous ones, but they still hold up very well,
13:43.840 –> 13:47.920
apart from I say that little side to side heel bit which is rubbing, so,
13:48.640 –> 13:54.400
but yes, it’s kind of weird to be the end of, end of this project after two years,
13:56.960 –> 14:01.040
and it was weirdly emotional seeing the genital, honestly, realising that was,
14:01.040 –> 14:07.040
after the fact, we, well, typically, that was the last, and I did, I actually said, oh,
14:08.080 –> 14:13.120
it wouldn’t be a, you know, if we’re going to do the greatest hits, we’re going to have to have a dog,
14:13.120 –> 14:20.720
yes, there was, some strange reason, right at the end of the esplanade, there was a bunch of people
14:20.720 –> 14:29.120
doing kind of aerobics, or kind of, you know, I don’t know, Zumba type things, Feed From Desire was
14:29.120 –> 14:33.680
a track they chose by Cascada, and that was funny, because I listened to the lyrics, it was in my
14:33.680 –> 14:38.320
head, and I was like, Freed From Desire, you know, this man has got a strong belief, you know, and
14:38.400 –> 14:43.680
I was like, wow, that’s weirdly appropriate, really appropriate timing, it was like, that’s weird,
14:43.680 –> 14:47.280
but then there was a dog in their van, and he’d come out and barked at me like crazy,
14:47.280 –> 14:50.880
it must be the backpack, they always blame it on the backpack, I don’t know why,
14:52.480 –> 14:59.120
but yeah, so we did have a dog, I didn’t find a piece of faded 1930s sort of old school
14:59.920 –> 15:03.680
beach architecture, that was only the one I didn’t find, but yeah, the rest of them, yeah,
15:03.680 –> 15:08.800
we’ll take them all off, even the little thing going down was very much like the
15:09.520 –> 15:14.720
fossil forest in the other way, with little, there wasn’t really any fossils, but it was that sort of
15:14.720 –> 15:21.680
going down to that level, and being able to get into the level, the blocks, the, not blocks,
15:21.680 –> 15:26.400
the strata, you know, the beach level, but you know, you can also see all the rock strata,
15:27.120 –> 15:34.160
that was really good, so yeah, there was quite a lot, not last sort of four, actually six miles,
15:34.720 –> 15:40.080
I haven’t actually properly tottered it up, I mean, this is a crap of OsmAnd, as soon as you try and,
15:41.120 –> 15:47.600
as soon as you try and do a coastal paths thing, it then tries to root you to some other random
15:47.600 –> 15:54.400
part of the world, and it’s just like, stop it, you know, you have to bunny hop all destinations,
15:54.400 –> 15:59.440
to get anything close to it, the technology is still not there, and I’ve been trying with that
15:59.440 –> 16:06.560
technology for the last, or two decades, you know, mapping technology, and Google map used to have
16:06.560 –> 16:11.440
a little measuring tool as well for that, and again, you have to sort of go in and out, in and out,
16:11.440 –> 16:16.480
you know, because it just as a crow fly, which the woman in the taxi was asking me,
16:17.520 –> 16:21.760
how long was that, and I was like, well, I think it’s about 50 miles, but it’s not really 50 miles,
16:21.760 –> 16:29.920
because that’s as a crow flies, from swanage to maybe be shorter, but the, from swanage to
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Exmouth, I think is about 50 miles, but that’s kind of directly what I’ve had to do is walk in and out,
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in and out, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, and then sometimes then
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then walk home, walk there and walk home, so the total miles would be impossible to work out and
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would be much, much higher than that, I mean, I’d be happy if it was 150 or 100,
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probably lower than that from all of the in and out, and then, you know, it’s probably hundreds
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rather than 50, but yeah, so that’s not the end of the jaunts, so if you’re listening to this
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podcast, there will be other jaunts, it’s just there won’t be Jurassic jaunts, that’s that, that’s it,
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of the Jurassic coast, I think for now, I’m just having my chocolatey drink,
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in quotes, supposed recovery drink, I don’t know if this, this shizzle works really, but
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I’d much rather have brandy in it, brandy would aid my recovery much better,
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but I’ve got my red wine here, so I’m just sort of marinating some mushrooms and, oh a beef
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jerky, my beef jerky, I’m trying to finish it off because it was actually very nice in
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past, I’m going to see what it’s like in a risotto, and then go to bed, I hope I don’t get
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waking up by the cold like I was last night, that’s why I’m putting on my, I’ve got my base
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layers and I’ve got my mid-layer one as well, and it was raining, it stopped thankfully,
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so yes, thanks for listening to the last two series of Jurassic jaunts, or following the
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blog post back to jaunt one, I wish I’d started podcasting back then, it would be quite interesting
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to listen back, but I ramble way too much, and yeah, there will be more, jaunt five,
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I’m trying to plan, I did see some artwork, it was Kennaway House in Sidmouth, had a load of
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local artists, fairly kind of like, I would say some interesting stuff, others it’s like, yeah,
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you’re sort of, and some of the prices was like, oh that’s scary, really low, I think there are a
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lot of beginner or old people who do the groups there, but there was one of Botallack, and I was
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like, oh Botallack, so the Cornwall one would be good, but the Cornwall’s an odd one, especially
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how to get there, and also all the stuff around, or transport in the area would be very limited,
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so probably have to do more kind of this thing of what with the tent, and yeah, the weather can
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be so variable, which is, I like the cold, and slightly rainy dark weather today, because it’s
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much better for my walking, so that’s the kind of season I want to walk in rather than the hot days,
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so I might have to re-figure about where, when, and the year I want to do it, and also, but I know
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how evil it can be around spring, or late autumn in there, because my mother used to live there,
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and it’s just so random around Bodmin Moor and Tintagel, and that’s all very…
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you know, weather’s on shuffle and Devon, it’s super shuffle and Cornwall, but the extremities go
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worse, so Devon will just like do thunderstorm, we’re raining now, oh it’s sunshine, oh it’s not as
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shuffly as Skye, Scotland has it beat on that shuffle, it’s like every half an hour it changes on
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sky, and some of the islands is just like really, even like today I was like putting on my sunglasses
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and taking them off again, putting on my, you know, mid-layer and taking that off, it’s like uh-huh,
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make up your mind, um, but yeah Cornwall does that, but then it’s much more extreme, so you get
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so much more extreme storms, extreme rain, so it’s kind of like, you know, it’s not sort of like,
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here it kind of shuffles through, there’s nothing really, really with bits, there’s nothing this
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time of year, nothing really like heavy, heavy stuff, so I don’t know, so yes, that’s the end
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of Jurassic Drone, and um, yes, I hope you stick around for series three, whatever that might be,
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it might even be abroad stuff, um, I don’t think Greece, because the more I think about how I hate
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the heat, I don’t think camping and heat and me was going to work very well, um, but I’m not going to
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get advice and look out for it, um, I need somewhere that’s kind of like cold, but not too cold,
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some suggestions please, you know, somewhere that’s like sort of 15, 10, max 20 degrees,
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you know, but it has nice breezes and it doesn’t get really, really baking, because that used to be
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Britain, and hey, climate change, it’s not anymore, so anyway, speak to you soon.
I got into Exmouth as it got fully dark, exhausted. I was going to find the train station, but realised that the last 9A had gone from Exeter, and the 9 ran later I think, but would mean doing that horrible scary walk up past the Blue Ball Inn up Salcombe Hill. I decided to treat myself to a taxi to celebrate the end of the project…
I really shouldn’t have, because I didn’t realise how much that cost (and how much that nice lady in Kimmeridge charged so little per mile), So I had a drink at a sea-front pub and waited for the taxi. This all seemed like a deflated ending to this project.
So I got back to the campsite, made a late meal and planned my pack tomorrow. Checking the buses I aimed for the 10:26 bus to Sidmouth, then onto Exeter. I had breakfast, packed up in time and made it to the bus stop…only to have the 9A coast by and refuse to stop! Even when I walked into the road, it basically threatened to run me down. I spoke to Stagecoach customer support as I waited an hour for the next one, sitting by the road.
Stagecoach denied there was ever a stop there at Trow Farm even though I’d been using it for days, and denied that there was even one at the Donkey Sanctuary or any of the stops I used! So my stress level went through the roof – what if the next one doesn’t stop? I moved to the ad-hoc bus stop nearer the Donkey Sanctuary (pictured) and even missed another bus – I had no idea our old friend the 899 came this way!
But eventually the next 9A came along and did stop, partly cos I was prepared to stand in front of this one…I got to Sidmouth, then checked Google and it suggested I go to Honiton, which was nearer and the next bus went there. So I went to Honiton.
After an argument with the ticket office person over ticketing (she said I had to retrace my steps and go to Dorchester South to get on the ‘correct line’, which was crazy. She said I couldn’t just buy a ticket to Weymouth and then travel direct to London. This has not been my case ever, as long as you have connecting tickets other routes are fine, within reason) I got on the train and headed home, And yes the guard didn’t even pause at my ticket, so she was wrong.
I realised when I got bacj that I had missed a part of the coast, so my Swanage – Weymouth completed was rather premature. If you remember back to Abbotsbury and Puncknowle I was meant to do the Bridport to Weymouth section, but my hatred of shingle got the best of me as did my backpack breaking on Jaunt 2 (and no way was I doing the 14 hell miles of Chesil Beach). I did parts of it – but not the whole section. It’s only 7-8 miles, I could do it as a day trip, but economic factors means I don’t know when I’ll be able to do that now.
Sad, I could have easily done it on this trip if I’d realised, it is far from Durdle Door level, it’s all beaches and shingle. Annoying rather than strenous. This will be the last of the Jaunts like this, economic reasons means I can’t afford them anymore. Short Jaunts will happen locally mostly, but not these several week marathons unless I wild camp. Sad, end of an era really.
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