Having very much enjoyed the SWCP North Devon path, probably our favourite section, we had high hopes for the county's south side. To be fair though, our frame of mind was very different when walking through Lynmouth on day 3 of the trip versus walking through Plymouth on day 42. In North Devon, we were still beginners in this, our first foray into long-distance hiking (or 'thru-hiking' as it is known in other parts of the world) and excited about the big adventure to come. Whereas when we reached South Devon, we felt we'd overcome most of the obstacles that might cause us to throw the towel in and experienced a lot of coastal sights, smells, sounds and tastes. In short, we were almost ready for home by this point, but still hopeful that there'd be more amazing things to take in and a strong will to finish the physical challenge.
The start to South Devon was disheartening, as you will see from the video. We're not particularly fond of big cities, unless they have a massive amount of charisma,and Plymouth was an awful example. But once we rounded Mount Batten, the track quickly returned to the peaceful coastal countryside that we were used to and hope returned. I was worried that we might struggle to find good wild camping spots on the busier south side, but there were plenty of opportunities and the memory of the one on the Pig's Nose near East Prawle will go with me to my grave.
Overall, we enjoyed the South Devon section, but we'll probably remember it more for the bad weather it hurled at us and the stamina needed to hike and wild camp through it. Reaching Lyme Regis was a big relief and it was at that point that we truly knew we could reach the end and knew with certainty the remaining number of days needed to do it. That was our mindset after 8 weeks of hiking. We were still enjoying the journey and the sights, but we were dreaming about a very large bed at home, a power shower and some serious sofa time.
By Darrell Grundy - visited on 4 August 2015