Budleigh Salterton to Beer

Budleigh Salterton to Beer - Tuesday 21st April 2015

Path Facts - Length: 14.9 miles, ascent 2816 ft

8am breakfast. Superb! Loads of food, Dorset cereals + cooked veg breakfast. Luckily there's a 15 mile walk to burn some of it off. Left 8.45am. The path goes along the sea front at Budleigh Salterton before heading around an inland detour to negotiate the River Otter. Nice route though. Good paths, some woodland and the river made for some nice walking.

Fairly gentle for the first few miles then the large red cliffs either side of Sidmouth came into view. I wasn't too well informed about the Jurassic Coast prior to this walk but gradually picked up bits of information throughout the week. Its interesting how the history of a place changes your perception of a place. You go from thinking that the red rocks look impressive to thinking - this is 250 million year old desert that has found itself transported to modern SW England. Jaw dropping really.

Approaching Sidmouth those red cliffs needed climbing! Arrived at Sidmouth about midday. Got a snack and a take away lunch to eat on route later. Sidmouth is quite a nice place. It has some character. But we didn't stop for long due to a fairly long stretch still ahead.

After Sidmouth there are three cliffs in short succession that require some fairly strenuous exertion. Either steep slopes or steps or both.

Stopped between Little Weston and Weston Mouth for packed lunch. Got to Branscombe Mouth about 3pm with two miles left to Beer. There's a great National Trust cafe here which was unexpected as it wasn't marked on the map or the gude book. Stayed a while here in the sun before a difficult prising of the butt off the chair to conquer the last two miles.

 

Arrived about 5pm at the Anchor Inn which was great. Good location, accommodation, food and drink all in one spot!


Info

Accommodation - Anchor Inn

Location *****

Room *****

Facilities *****

Noise ****

Food ****

Ambience ****

Price *** £89 for the room


Food – Anchor Inn

Quality ****

Price ***

Dawlish to Budleigh Salterton

 

Dawlish to Budleigh Salterton - Monday 20th April 2015

Path Facts - Length: 9.3 miles

8.30am breakfast in our self contained room in the basement of the Blenheim. Not a cloud in the sky. Left 9.15am. There were large waves hitting up against the sea wall.

There were quite a few stretches of road up towards Dawlish Warren and on to the ferry at Starcross.

Took the 11am ferry to Exmouth (£4.50 at the time of writing).

Exmouth was ok. The town isn't well signposted from the ferry so we took an unnecessary detour. Had a coffee in the town centre overlooking the geometrically ambiguous triangular square in the centre. By this time the weather was basically scorchio! The wind had been cold on the ferry but out of the wind it was tropical.

Walked back along the esplanade out of the east side of Exmouth and had lunch at a Hungry Horse pub which was probably the worst of a few not too promising options. The food was pretty bad.

Coming out of Exmouth is where the Jurassic Coast starts, marked by the obelisk at the top of the cliff from the beach.

Passed through a megatropolis caravan site then views opened out to Budleigh Salterton beyond the red cliffs.

Budleigh Salterton is really nice. Stopped at a café on the sea front about 3.30 pm. Found the B&B and checked out suitable eateries for the PM.

The B&B (Appletree Cottage) was great. Really quiet. Nice house. Friendly owners. Very reasonable.


Info

Accommodation - Appletree Cottage

Location ***** very close to the path

Room *****

Facilities ***

Noise *****

Food ****

Ambience ****

Price ***** £54 for the room. Very reasonable.


Food – The Feathers

Quality *****

Price ***