Day 033: Seatown to Branscombe
Distance: 18.51 miles
Ascent: 5073 feet
Weather: Rain Morning, SUnny SPells Afternoon
Accommodation: Wild camp Branscombe
So, after a slightly wet night Malcolm, Eddie and myself got up packed our stuff and were on our way before 8pm. The day started with a slight inland diversion due to a landslide which became a regular feature of the day. We began the steep climb up Golden Cap, which was a tiring start to the day and my legs were feeling it from the long day two days previously. The view from the top was lovely, but it was raining fairly hard at this point.
From Golden Cap the path followed the cliff tops to Charmouth, a town with far more static caravans than actual houses. Unfortunately we encountered the second diversion of the day from Charmouth and this one was longer and far more annoying as it went steeply uphill and followed busy roads for quite a lot of its length.
Even with the diversion we reached Lyme Regis farily quickly, which is a lovely town with lots of nice shops, cafes and a little harbour. We stopped for a hot drink and a cake and by the time we left the rain had stopped and barely returned for the rest of the day.
The next 7.5 mile stage from Lyme Regis to Seaton, we had been warned was extremely difficult by a local and also a sign saying this part would take 4 hours. We set of and this stretch turned out to be stunning with a narrow path winding through the almost Jurassic Parkesque woodland, half expecting a velociraptor to jump out at any moment, following the gently sloping cliffs. This stretch was incredibly tough though, with almost constant ascent, descent and steps. One particular set of steps that was incredibly steep almost broke all three of us with a noticeably wobbly walk once we had reached the top. 3 hours after leaving Lyme Regis we finally reached Seaton.
In Seaton we had lunch in a pub, where Malcolm and Eddie kindly treated me to lunch and we settled in for almost an hour completely exhausted from the previous stretch. Unfortunately with Scotland losing the rugby we left with one walker slightly down.
A quick climb up over the cliff took us to Beer which appeared a lovely little village with a sizeable small boat fishing fleet, before we again headed up the cliffs and rounded Beer Head finally reaching Branscombe. This stretch in the evening light was really atmospheric, and the path took a lovely interesting route.
We finally reached Branscombe just as it was getting dark, and after a tip off/permission at the pub we pitched up behind the village hall, before heading down to The Mason’s Arms for the evening.
Today the weather was forecast to be wet all day, but in fact turned out to be dry for most of it. This on top of the beautiful scenery, and having Malcolm and Eddie around made this a great day.
Fall tally for the day:
Malcolm - 2, Eddie - 1, Me - 0. None of the falls were serious and though close a couple of times I have maintained my 100% record of not falling over.
