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 ***

St Marychurch to Dawlish

 

St Marychurch to Dawlish - Sunday 19th April 2015

Path Facts - Length: 10.3 miles

8.30am breakfast surrounded by hundreds of U3A under graduates (I think that's sufficiently cryptic to put it politely) at the Anchorage Hotel. This was an ok place and reasonably priced for two single rooms. It was also only about half a mile to re-join the path.

We left at 9.30am and picked up the path by Petit Tor. The weather was sunny but with a cool wind. There is a nice wooded section of path but with fairly intermittent waymarkers so you have to keep your wits to stay to the path.

 

The route finding was also tricky around Maidencombe. It was pretty hilly after Maidencombe on route to Shaldon.

Got to Shaldon and crossed the Teign on the ferry for the bargain price of £1.50. Teignmouth is ok. It was really sunny by this point and we found a good café for lunch.

Heading out of Teignmouth the path soon runs along the side of the main railway line down to the West Country. We've been travelling down for 5 years now doing various bits of the path, passing along this stretch, watching the walkers and thinking about the distance future when we'd walk this bit. So here we are!

This section stays level with the train line for some way then there are some ups and down avoiding the train tunnels on the closing stretch into Dawlish.

Arrived at Dawlish about 3pm. There was a marginally awkward conversation with the landlady about whether we were gay and that, in her view, it was ok if we were. So we had to explain that yes we really did want the twin room and weren't in denial about a potential latent tendency in this direction! That's the first time that's happened in 5 years of walking the path.

Had a walk around Dawlish. It's quite nice. There's a river that runs through a park through the centre of the town. We had a swift pint in the White Stag which was very localsy and not that recommended. One drunken guy was borderline threatening.

Continuing what seemed to be the Dawlish general theme, we passed by the intriguingly named Gay's Creamery where they sell fudge and the like. Being in slightly post walk, post beer mild craziness we were trying to think of good slogans for their merchandise. after some refinement the clear winner was "I had my fudge packed by Gays".

Ate at the Gurkha Restaurant. This was basically the only place in town that was open and it was still mostly empty. Luckily it was also very good.

 

Info

Accommodation - The Blenheim

Location ***** right on the path (also right next to the train line but barely heard anything)

Room ****

Facilities ***

Noise ****

Food ****

Ambience ***

Price *** £78 for the room


Food – Gurkha Restaurant

 

Quality ****

Price ***