I had no need to rush this morning as the first ferry across the River Exe wasn’t until 10:40. I had considered getting a train from Exmouth to Starcross, which would have taken less than an hour and cost less than £8, but I’m pretty sure this would be considered cheating in my own unwritten rules. So it was either the ferry or walking (which would take around 5 hours). The ferry won. This gave me time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast. Those that know me, may also know my other unwritten rule of, always having coco-pops (or other local variant) at a hotel breakfast. Usually you can just take a sprinkling on something healthier, but today I had to commit to a whole variety pack box, which is quite a lot of coco-pops (and the by-product, a significant amount of chocolaty milk). Luckily I had time.

After breakfast I found the ferry berth and still had an hour to wait. I started to wander around the small dock, when the little bridge opened and a fishing boat went into the harbour. I thought it was good to catch that moment, but further around the harbour the same boat had parked up, was being emptied of stuff and was ready to be lifted out of the water by a big crane. That was my waiting time sorted!

The ferry left on time, and arrived in Starcross just after 11 (£6 cash). The first thing you notice is the railway line is right along the coast line, as disembarking the ferry involves walking along a station platform, and up and over a footbridge. I wouldn’t be much fun with a loaded touring bike. Trains would be a feature of most of the first part of the walk.

The next thing I noticed, was a big building which my map professed to be “Atmosphere Railway Pumping Station”. I’ve heard of this before, and it was a mad invention by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Initally the path was quite boring, following the cycle lane and alongside the railway which gave me time to ponder Atmospheric Railways and the Brunels (Isambard and his father Marc). The railway was a disaster, the train was pulled along by a vacuum in a pipe below train, in the tracks. The train was connected to a piston in the pipe, but obviously the pipe would need a slot, and this needed to be sealed, with a leather seal. This seal didn’t work too well (what a surprise) and much of the vacuum was lost. When it worked well trains could run at 70 mph, which was unheard of in 1848 but it seems it was not very often. The train ran for 4 months, and according to Wikipedia, it cost over £400,000 to build and the scrap was sold for £81,000 (in 1848 money). A complete disaster. This got me thinking about comparing the Brunels with Elon Musk (just to be clear, I’m not a fan) and his crazy ideas. He is due to crash a rocket into the moon as I write this, so who knows what is next. History has judged the Brunels well despite some big financial, and loss of life, disasters. I wonder whether opinions on Elon may change as time passes.  I asked AI about the Brunels, which came up with the following “Marc Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel were celebrated 19th-century engineers, but their bold projects caused major worker deaths, financial failures, and stubborn design mistakes.”

When the coast path got to Dawlish Warren, the quality of the route improved, following a narrow breakwater between the railway and the sea, with a magnificent backdrop of the red cliffs. I could stop pondering 19th and 21st Century megalomaniacs.

I needed to get a move on, as I was meeting my in-laws in Shaldon who were joining for part of today’s walk. The path next to the railway was good for fast walking, unfortunately on a couple occasions the railway went into a tunnel, and the path headed up massive climbs over the headlands. Nevertheless, it was a nice walk.

I was aiming to meet them at 1:30, and I got into Teignmouth by 1:15. My plan had been to walk over the bridge, and I texted so say I would be 10 minutes late. A reply came back, saying the Shaldon ferry had just departed and was heading towards me. I quickly hit a bakers for lunch, and jogged towards to ferry. It was a tiny boat, almost full and ready to go, so perfect timing. It was a quick journey, and saved me quite a bit of walking. I had known about the ferry, but had decided to take the bridge as a known, known, rather than an unknown wait

It was good to meet up with Pip, Clare, Sam and Otto (the dog), as they had tried to join me a few times as I walked along the Dorset coast but failed for one reason or another. After the relative flatness of the morning, the coast path was just ferocious ups, and downs, from Shaldon onwards. It was tough going, but with amazing views and a couple of downpours of rain to keep us cool. I had to get my sticks out, and it was declared a two stick path!

As usual, when walking with other people, there is never too much to say about the actual walk. I think this is because focus goes on chatting to your walking companions, rather than focusing on, and remembering, the actual walk. Although, as BT used to say, “Its good to talk”! We walked to Maidencombe, where they had parked, and the route continued the vicious up and down theme. We parted at about 4 pm, and I had to head off as I still had over 15 very hilly kilometres to do, while the others headed to a cafe, and maybe a paddle on the beach. It would have been nice to stay longer, but I knew I would be racing against time later.

The path continued, up and down, but was much more wooded. There was a short section called the Valley of the Rocks, there weren’t too many rocks but the trees were magnificent. The path wasn’t too well signposted, and I did a few unnecessary loops until I started taking more interest in navigation. I really couldn’t afford too many extra bits. The other striking feature, was getting glimpses of the sea and rocks below. The sea came right up to the bottom of the heavily wooded slope.

I reached Babbacombe, which is almost a suburb of Torquay, but is unfortunately on the wrong side of the headland. There was a great temptation to take a short cut, but I resisted. This proved to be the right choice, as The Bishops Walk was a superb path that (generally!) contours  around the headland.

After a little bit of road walking, I started to get a good view of Torbay and Torquay, my destination for today. The views were great.

Almost as I got to the town, there was a sign to see the “London Bridge Arch”. As I started this walk at London Bridge, I thought I’d better have a look – maybe I could declare the end of the London Bridge to London Bridge walk. It looks nothing like the original, and I think I’d better keep walking. There were a couple of hikers taking photos, and when I said I’d walked from London I don’t think they believed me.

I soon dropped down to sea level, but obviously there was one more hill before I could relax. The hills were getting harder and harder, it had been an over 1,000 metres of climbing (ascent) day so no wonder. Torquay was very busy, with lots of people, various fairgrounds and an annoying noisy car scene.

I’d chosen a hotel on the far side of the bay, so I had a bit of a walk. The hotel had a big sign painted on the sea wall, which was good to see and provided a target. I checked in with just enough time for a shower before the restaurant closed – which was perfect timing.