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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Three days in the Yorkshire Dales

So.. a full Pennine Way adventure of two more weeks wasn't going to be it for me. Not on my own, and not carrying a slightly too heavy backpack with a two-persons cooking set and tent. But I didn't want to leave the UK without having had at least a peak at one of their famous National Parks, so I decided to do an easy three day's stretch on the Pennine Way in the Yorkshire Dales.

I traveled by train and bus to Skipton and, strangely, I had knee pain after my travel day, something which I had never had on the entire SWCP. I hoped a rest day in Skipton (staying two nights on a campsite) would fix it. I explored the town a bit and it turned out to be quite a nice town, lying next to the Leeds-Liverpool canal with lots of houseboats.

The next morning I took the first of the only two busses per day going to Malham. After recovering from car-sickness on a bench for a little while, I set off with a lot of other tourists towards Malham cove. The cove is quite well-known and indeed impressive, and there were some climbers climbing on it.

Behind the cove, towards Malham tarn, the Pennine Way got much quieter and I even had one little panic moment where all the straw-colored hills around me looked the same and I wished for a coastline to help me orient myself. But soon after, I stumbled upon a waymarker and I figured that I was walking just a few meters to the left of the Pennine Way. After that, wayfinding got easier.

The weather was beautiful but actually my knees still hurt so I wasn't feeling my best. I was planning to wild camp, but the landscape was so open, there were sheep everywhere (I think wild camping with sheep is okay but I wasn't entirely sure?), and I wasn't really feeling so much at home in this new landscape yet, so I decided to skip the steep climb over the Pen-y-ghent hill and go to the small village Horton-in-Ribbelsdale right away, where I would go the campsite that I had spotted on the map.

The Pen-y-ghent:

The campsite was great, it was run by an old man who welcomed me in a reception that gave off a Pirates of the Caribbean-like vibe and who handed me a tent label stamped with today's date after doing his all-paper administration. In the evening I had a nice call with Melli, who I am going to do a one-week hike in Germany with soon.

Because I had skipped a bit, I was now actually only a one-day stretch from my end goal, Hawes, away. My knees felt better the next morning, and as I was already awake before six, I thought I might as well do the whole stretch in one day. I really enjoyed the first bit of the hike behind Horton-in-Ribbelsdale!

After that, it got really windy because I was walking higher up on the hills, and the views weren't so varied anymore. The path was broad and there were some cars and a truck passing me. On a positive note, however, I saw a lot of the type of horned sheep that are typical for the Yorkshire Dales and a medium-sized bird with a long, arched beak.

I arrived in Hawes at around 1:30 and I went to sit into a café with lots of locals. I was glad to be out of the wind. In the café, I read the magazine 'The Yorkshire Dalesman' and found out that the bird I had seen was a 'curlew', a really rare bird that they are pretty proud of here! Sadly, it also said that it is in danger of extinction.

I did groceries in the lovliest little shop before I went to the youth hostel to check in and pitch my tent in the garden.

In the youth hostel I met two guys from Nottingham doing the whole Pennine Way, Jack and Shady. They asked me if I wanted to join them to the pub, and I said yes - I was up for some company actually. They were nice and chatty people, scolding me for having skipped the Pen-y-ghent, but envying me for having seen a curlew. We talked about all the ins and outs of backpacking/hiking and I advised one of them with knee pain to do warming ups and cooling downs (Yes, I'm a hiking nerd now;)). But it was evidence-based advice, as my own knee pain had in the meanwhile completely disappeared.

The next morning I was a bit jealous when they continued their hike on the Pennine Way. Britains oldest national trail is definitely something to come back for!

I'm staying in the hostel for two more nights now, doing some small hikes in the region, like going to two waterfalls.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Poole! (day 55/ final day)

In the morning I completed the 6km to Swanage, during which I had porridge on my last water and met another walker who gave me a high five because I would complete the path today.

In Swanage everything took bit longer than expected, the supermarket wasn't open etc., but I made it out of there at around 9:45. In the afternoon I would return to stay the night in the Youth Hostel in Swanage.

I climbed one more hill, saw a friendly couple from Kent (or originally the US and France) again that I had met twice before, and walked with them until the Old Harry Rocks.

The very last stretch of the path before South Haven Point (Poole) was a 4km-walk along a beach which was surprisingly crowded. I met another man who was finishing the path pretty much at exactly the same moment as me, who was raising money for a spinal injury foundation after he had gotten a spinal injury himself when he was about halfway through with the path (although not on the path).

Well that was it then! I knew that this moment wouldn't feel very special, as in my opinion the 'unterwegs sein' (the being-on-the-way? Sorry there's no good way to say it in English) is what's the most fun and rewarding. It still felt good to know that I had walked 600miles/ 1000km. And apparently climbed four times the Mount Everest as they say;)

I took the bus back from Poole to Swanage where I am now relaxing in the Youth Hostel. I am still not 100% sure what I will do tomorrow haha. But I will stay a while longer in the UK, that's for sure.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Sleeping with deer (day 54)

Yesterday was a beautiful but strenuous day!

Roger and I woke up to mist and when I peered out of the tent I saw a pony grazing on the hill where we had pitched the tent. We walked to the beach of Lulworth Cove together, took a last selfie and said goodbye. The week with Roger had sadly gone very quickly.

The walk over the pebble beach of the cove was beautiful, almost magical, as the mist was now disappearing in patches.

I entered the danger zone that was around 12km long, and came past the 'fossil forest', some old tree trunks from the Jurassic period that have turned to stone (see bumps on the first picture). Pretty cool! After a few km, the first challenge awaited me when I had to climb up a steep hill (see second picture). It was the first out of five equally steep hills😬.

Behind the hill, the danger zone started to look more like what Roger had apparently envisioned: There were about 20 old rusty tanks and metal pieces scattered all over heb grass fields. Naturally, it was forbidden to leave the trail.

To the right, I was enjoying the view of the white cliffs, perfectly round coves, and a big sailing boat (laying still).

At Man O'War Beach it got quite busy, which surprised me at first, but then I realized it was Saturday again. I took an instant-coffee-break at one of the picnic tables, and when I started out again, I was walking right behind a big group of 25 or so day hikers, all with the same orange label on their backpacks. They were all quite young and I remembered Rosa saying that she was member of the student 'outdoor pursuit club' during her Erasmus in Ireland, so I was thinking it could be something like that. They were quite fast even though they were a big group, and stayed around 1km ahead of me all day.

Some people, like on most days but especially in the weekends, commented on my hiking gear and started talking to me. I had a nice chat with a trail runner who I met twice, once when he came towards me on his way to the start of the danger zone or even Lulworth Cove (?), and once when he overtook me hours later near Chapman's Pool. Quite impressive to do do the whole stretch twice. I also talked to an old, weathered pensionado with deep creases and a friendly smile, who gave me some wild camping tips, and even said that it would be okay to light fires (which I didn't do).

Me competing with my apple who is redder:

In the evening, I surpressed my urge to go for the perfectly flat camping spot with an even more perfect view that I had spotted at Seacombe cliff because there were still some people hanging out at this rather popular (climbing) spot. Instead, I looked for a spot between the goarse bushed a few hundred meters further down the path. I found a hidden spot, that was not 100% flat but as I would be alone in the tent I could pick the flattest area to put my sleeping pad. While waiting to pitch my tent, I had a little appreciation moment while looking out on the sea, realizing that this would be my last night wild camping on the SWCP.

In the evening there were three deer looking at me from around 100m up the hill (They looked closer in reality than on the picture;)).

That day I had walked around 27km, leaving some 18,5 for the next, final day.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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A famous arch and a good camping spot (day 53)

We left Weymouth with full bellies after another delicious Full English Breakfast around 9pm and continued the path along the long beach of Weymouth Bay.

Because of our rather late start, we were eager to get as many kilometers of the total 23,5 under the belt as possible before lunch. After a while, however, it turned out that my calculations had been incorrect and that it was only around 17km in total to our destination Lulworth cove! Pretty good news for us as we had already done more than half of that and the sunny weather and beautiful scenery invited us to have a slow day with lots of breaks.

During a water break I taught Roger how to tie his hair into a bun/ ponytail as it kept being blown into his face. Apparently it's not that easy:D. But he got the hang of it eventually.

We took a nice and long lunch break (cup-a-soup and thins) and another longer break on the beach next to a stone arch sticking out into the water, which was, according to an information sign, Britain's only world heritage site. I felt like a dip, and it was a nice refreshment after all the ups and downs of today.

On our way down to the beach and up again, I lend my hiking poles to a lady who was struggling with the stairs because they had no arm balance. She was very glad and amazed how much stability they gave her! Her children are now considering them as a Christmas gift.

All in all, I was happy Roger joined me on this highlight-day, after slightly disappointing Portland!

Wild camping would turn out to be a bit difficult in the evening, as Lulworth cove lay exactly between a big holiday park with lots of people (private property all the way until the car park next to the village), and another danger zone that we couldn't pass on the same day, or at least didn't plan to. We first saw a pretty good spot on the holiday park property and went and sat in an Inn to wait until most people would have gone home or to their holiday houses. We were still a bit nervous though, so I went to check out the only small National Trust site on the map, a hill that lay perched between Lulworth Cove and the danger zone, without my backpack. And yes indeed! Even though it was pretty steep terrain, I spotted two okay-ish and one perfectly flat patch ideal for wild camping! I went to get Roger and together we enjoyed some noodles with tofu in the setting sun:).

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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A well-timed rest day (day 51)

We continued the walk around the isle of Portland and while approaching a big ugly factory site around 7am, we spotted another tent that was pitched next to the path! I am almost convinced that this was the other SWCP-hiking couple we had seen walking over the bridge with us, and back yesterday.

It was quite windy and by the time we reached the tip of the island, Portland Bill, we wanted to have breakfast so we sheltered behind a toilet building. It wasn't the worst breakfast spot though, and we observed some bunnies hobbling between the rocks, one of which Roger tried to befriend with the help of our snack carrots.

We were a bit short on water so I filled some water from the handwash unit in the toilet building in my water bottle as spare water, but I didn't really trust it. We also used it to make coffee and porridge but at least it was boiled then.

We walked to the tip of the island where some people with big cameras where probably doing some wildlife photography, and looked out on the agitated sea which was still mesmerizing, even after seven weeks of waking next to it.

Quite energized we set out to complete the loop back to Castletown. We took some wrong turns, stopped a lot to put on layers and take them off again (the wind and the sun made the temperature fluctuate quite a lot), but quite enjoyed the walk along beach huts, rocks and two well-protected prisons (high fences, razor blade wire and stone walls built in the 19th century). Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of this stretch as both our phones and my powerbank were dead.

From Castletown we took the bus over the bridge to Weymouth as even I, who doesn't like skipping parts, didn't see the point of walking all the way back along the busy road.

In Weymouth I got off at the first stop and walked the 4 km to the Bed and Breakfast we had booked. It was quite a pickle finding it without Google maps but by asking people I got there of course :). Roger awaited me smelling like a normal human being again after having washed himself twice under the shower. I quickly did the same and snuggled up under the fresh, cool linnens to have a nap.

Eating curry at and Indian restaurant is of course an essential thing to do when visiting Britain, so in the evening we set out to 'Shalim's Indian' and ordered every starter on the menu along with two main dishes. We couldn't stop telling each other how DELICIOUS the food was. The excellent service personnel got a generous tip from Roger.

With full bellies we went back to the B'nB, wondering how on earth we should make space for the full English Breakfast we had ordered for the next morning. Well, let me tell you, we made it fit.

Houses in Weymouth:

Today it is raining all day so we are glad we planned to stay two nights in Weymouth and don't have to be walking today.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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⚠️BLOG HIJACK⚠️ (day 50)

Everybody, please stay calm, raise your hands in the air and one-by-one leave a like in the comment section in an orderly fashion. Roger is taking over! 🚨

Yesterday (25 april) began with another trip to the Spar in Abbotsbury. As I, Roger, had forgotten to buy bread as Ella requested and opted for cider instead, we were among the first customers of the lovely neighbourhood supermarket in this pittoresque town at 7 am.

The town looked like something straight out of a BBC murder detective. Luckily, no bodies were found, but spending the night on the chapel hill was rather creepy, especially since we were sleeping next to a forest full of crows. For your information, a group of crows is called a "conspiracy" 👀.

We set off well-motivated to reach Portland around 2 pm. The day before we pushed ourselves to our limits, or atleast mine, to ensure we could. A few passerby told us Portland was beautiful, and since the peninsula looked densily populated on the map and there were many holiday parks nearby, we thought it would be a tourist heaven — perfect for our well-deserved afternoon off.

As we were walking to Portland, a pretty yet not as spectular scenary as compared to the landscapes we had seen in the days before, we were dreaming of an AirBnB with a bathtub. We walked through fields, saw a pheasant (a bird I had never seen in real life before) and even spotted a herd of fully-wooled sheep.

The path became increasingly muddy the further we got. I was particularly excited to walk trough a "danger zone", a military practice area. Ella mentioned she had seen quite a few of them already, but since it was my first time, I didn't know what to expect. Except for a few danger signs and an abandoned military post there was nothing to see. No shells or unexploded bombs on the ground :(.

We pushed ourselves to walk as far as possible before our break around 12 pm. After all, the further we would walk, the earlier we could drink piña coladas in the sun on the white sandy beaches of Portland!

We contacted an AirBnB in the historical center of Portland, and with 12 km behind us and our bellies full after lunch, we set out to the peninsula. However, the more we approached Portland, the more industrial it looked. The bridge connecting Portland with the mainland was full of traffic, and instead of the palm trees we conjured in our head by that time, we saw a Lidl and an industrial port on the other end of it...

When we arrived in Portland, we were a bit, how to put this nicely, dissapointed. There was no city center, let alone a historical one, no attractive beaches, no palm trees and no sun-tanned girls dancing the hula.

What we did find was a nice, yet avarage, English working-class town decorated with the occasional St. George flag. Disillusioned, we entered a pub called The Britania which was already inhabited by a few locals having their Tuesday 2 pm Guinness. The AirBnB host canceled the reservation, and my leg started to hurt quite badly from the strain of the last few days. Quite the situation we had to deal with, as we still didn't know where to sleep.

After going through some options, we decided to camp out in the wild again, no matter how tired and unshowered we were. We bought some food in the supermarket and got back on the trail.

At least we thought so. Portland doesn't have any architectural eye candy, but does have some bueatiful cliffs. Beautiful, if you are on the right side of them. Sadly, we had walked the wrong way, along the beach and not on top of the cliffs, and my left leg was hurting more and more.

Ella lent me her walking poles and we made our way up to the top of the cliffs. As we strolled through a statue park, I hobbled alongside her, my leg aching more and more. After a while, we finally stumbled upon an even patch of ground where we could pitch our tent. I must admit, as soon as we saw the location, we fell in love; It was only 10 metres from the cliffs edge and boasted a breathtaking view of the sea, the cliffs and the stretch we hiked that day.

In the end, it was a challenging day that ended on a high note. Though we didn't get the afternoon of we had anticipated, we managed to cope with the situation together. All's well that ends well.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Pebbles and perserverance (day 49)

In the morning we walked up a steep hill and again I was surprised by how easy this seemed to come to Roger. He actually seemed to like it! On the hill we had breakfast and an amazing view. As we looked east, we saw the cliffs that we would be walking over today and the further we looked, the shallower they became. The cliff side consiated of soft yellow limestone and stood in a 90 degree angle to the sea. As we read on a sign further on the path, the most recent landslip only occurred in 2020 and it was not hard to imagine this happening.

While I stuck to the good old porridge for breakfast, Roger is less convinced of 'pap' (Brei), and decided that cold baked beans would be a good way to start the day.

The walk was quite strenuous and Roger treated himself to some Fish and Chips in West Bay.

We expected the remaining stretch to Abbotsbury to be an easy one since it was flat and next to the sea, despite still being around 14 km. However, we did not take the mud and the pebbles into account. The mud, which I was already quite familiar with, was okay. But the walk over the pebble beach near West Bexinton just seemed endless. With each step we only gained a third of a normal step's distance, and while we could see the end of the beach all the time, it just didn't seem to come nearer. "A man on a mission" commented a construction worker when we arrived at a paved road (lasting for like 10 meters) in West Bexinton. The path got better around East Brexington, and we found a nice camping spot — there were plenty of meadows with no animals on them — just before Abbotsbury. Roger was so nice to go to the Spar in the little town while I stayed with the backpacks. He came back with not only the mars bar that I had asked for but also two bottles of cider which we enjoyed in the tent over a round of cards. It was drizzling but we had expected far more rain for the day so we were happy. In total we had walked around 24,5km.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Speedy Roger (day 48)

The next day would be a walking day and we set our alarm to 6am. The stretch would be quite a special one according to some ladies at the YHA hostel: since a landslip in 1863, the coastal region had been inaccessible and abondoned, which is why a lush rain forest had grown there. The landslip also meant however, that there would be no way from or to the coast path for 12km until the town Lyme Regis. I was a bit nervous about that as it was Rogers first walking day, his backpack had no hip belt, and he had brought no water bottle at all, so in case we had to camp before Lyme Regis it would be a bit tight with the water. My worries were all for nothing, as it turned out, because the walk through the forest was a rather easy one, and if there were any hills at all Roger was up on top of them before I had even gotten halfway. Speedy Gonzales, must be the long Dutch legs or those scouting hikes he has done. We reached Lyme Regis at lunchtime and had an ice cream instead of lunch.

Also, on the way from Beer back to Seaton via the beach we had to climb some rocks because of high tide:

Behind Lyme Regis we kept walking for another 8-9km, had some breaks, and started looking for a wild camping spot in a National Trust area we had spotted on the map. We found one rather quickly, and sat down in the afternoon sun, upon which Roger immediately fell asleep. After his nap he joined the Yoga cooldown and we set up the tent after that. The night was quite cold but when we were awake and looked out the tent we saw a beautiful night sky!:)

In a pub we saw this replica of a Ichthyosaurus paddle that was found in the region:

Roger demonstrating that my spoon can also be used as a peg (after which I could clean it again):

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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The Jurassic Coast (Day 46-47)

Friday I walked from just before Sidmouth to Beer, a not too long stretch (I think around 12km?) but it was quite a hilly one. Anyways, my efforts were rewarded with beautiful views over stone pebble beaches and the light-colored limestone cliffs of the Jurassic Coast, which had now replaced the red ones. Nearing the end, I also rewarded myself with a vanilla-clotted cream ice cream on Brancome Beach.

I got to Beer in time to catch the 14:00 bus to Axmister, where Roger would arrive on the train from London in the evening. I had a nice afternoon for myself to relax, shower, wash, charge the powerbank.. the usual stuff. Rogers train was a bit delayed so he only got there at 23:00, but it was okay - I had already gone to bed at 9 anyways because my rythm is a bit messed up so I had to set an alarm to let him in. In the morning we enjoyed a great English breakfast, yummy!

When being with Roger, it turns out I am the planner and Roger is even more 'laissez faire' than I thought I was. So in the morning we still hadn't decided if we would walk that day or not, and where we would sleep. However, we made a plan just before leaving the hotel. We took the bus to Seaton but there was not much to see or to do there except for going to the seaside. Therefore, after eating chips with vinegar and going to the supermarket, we walked on the coast path back to Beer, where I had left the path, and it turned out that Beer was a much prettier and cozy town! We had a beer in a nice pub called the Barrel of Beer, which of course had a pun relating to the villages name in their slogan. Roger tried a 'Bitter' and it was quite nice.

After that I still wanted to show Roger a nice viewpoint that I had passed on the day before, but at that moment it started raining and we were a bit lazy from doing nothing all day. So we decided to go to the Youth Hostel (again, one of the few on the path), where we would camp for a cheap price, while being allowed to use all the facilities like kitchen, lounge and bathrooms. The hostel was a beautiful old very English-looking house with grey stone walls and half round windows. We had a nice and early night on our perfectly flat patch, and Roger was glad to be reunited with his tent Bea. It was cozy to stay in it as we had already spent two holidays before in it :).

Here's Roger eating canned Custard. A lady in the kitchen told us you are supposed to eat it with Apple Pie or something else. Oh well, it was tasty!

In the supermarket and the village Beer, the mood was all set for the upcoming coronation op King Charles:

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Farms and free fruit (Day 44-45)

On day 44 I hiked from Babbacombe to Dawlish with a light backpack. The day was not so special as it was grey and the path went through small, busy towns, a construction site, and partly along railways and roads. But there were also some meadows and woods. I still had to get used to walking alone a little bit even though I had done it before. At the end of the day I took the bus back to my campsite in Sheldon.

Day 45 looked more promising as it already started out with sunshine. Then it got even better when just after I left Longmeadow Farm, a man sitting in his campervan gave me an apple and two mandarins mumbling something like "you look like you might need it"! I didn't 100% understand what he said but I was very grateful!

Behind Dawlish, where I arrived by bus, there was a long concrete footpath between the railway and the sea. It may sound a bit boring, and towards the end it was, but in the beginning there were high waves causing a lot of spray so you had to sometimes run from them which was kind of funny.

I came 10 minutes late to catch the ferry at 10:10 from Starcross to Exmouth, so I had to wait 50 minutes for the next one during which time I made coffee and ate biscuits. Here's my view sitting on some stairs:

In Exmouth I had to walk along a big and busy beach with lots of cars parked next to it. I was eager to leave it behind me, because, whereas on the map in the guide booklet the past few days have looked like just one big city, it seemed like after Exmouth this would change and it would be all nature again (or mostly). Just behind Exmouth I had lunch next to the Geoneedle, which marks the start of the Jurassic Coast, while I was looking forward to a nice afternoon of hiking.

I had to have some patience with the going-back-into-nature thing though. First I had to pass the biggest holiday park I have ever seen, with what I guess were more than 200 bungalows in total and another shooting range of the military, only that this time it was actually in use. Very relaxing to walk to the sound of gunfire :D.

But then, finally, I walked through the gate below and could enjoy the view of the Jurassic Coast, which looks quite different than what we've seen before, in the beautiful afternoon light.

Just before taking those pictures I met another coast path hiker, doing the whole path and also camping! He was going it the other direction than me. For me it quite cool to meet him but he didn't seem too impressed. He asked if I was called Laura, so apparently there is someone called Laura on the path with us.

Behind Ladram Bay it was time to look for a camping spot. I had already tried around 4pm at a farm, just a little extra walk from the path, but it was no success as the farmer wasn't home. When I now saw a perfect grass patch on a meadow next to the path, I thought I'd give it another try and I went the farm to which the meadow seemed to belong. Some dogs were baking at me and I didn't see a main entrance to the building that looked like the farm house, only something like a terrace door. I walked further and rang at a random house where a lady told me that the farmer did indeed live on the farm. So I gathered all my courage and went back and knocked on the terrace door. A lady opened and she said it was fine if I camped on the spot that I had seen! Okayy great!

I also came through Burleigh Salterton today which is a cute little town and I went to the church, initially to look for a phone number to call in case I wanted to sleep there. Emilja from the hostel told us that you can sleep in churches and that she had done it before. It was actually on Rosas and my bucket list to do it some day. At the church I didn't find the telephone number but it turned out they had the cutest little community café there so I ordered a cappuccino, took it outside to drink, and afterwards got a free banana from the free food corner (it was big pile of bananas so really enough for everyone).

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Day 42 (should actually be day 43?)

We had breakfast on a bench and a goodbye cream tea in Brixham in a cute little café where a lot of locals came and the owner (or lady behind the bar) knew everyone by name.

We walked together until Paignton, where we had a last little adventure: a rude seagull trying to stal our lunch. It made several attempts to come from above and snatch our sandwich from our hands, but our defences held it off.

It was really strange to say goodbye after six full weeks of hiking together. We hugged and went off into different directions.

I walked over paved roads into the busy area of Torquay. There was a rather busy promenade along the water, like you would imagine in any touristic beach-town. When I got out of Torquay and went towards Thatcher Rock, there were still some houses and hotels, but also quite a beautiful forest.

After I turned the corner, I had to hurry a bit to catch my bus in Babbacombe but I made it. It took me to a farm campsite in Sheldon. In the evening I had the whole tent to myself, but it was not so 'gezellig' without Rosa :(. Today, I will take the bus back and walk to the same campsite in Sheldon.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Rosas last day (day 41)

Today was a good day to be Rosa's last day! It was a beautiful 19km walk through woods and along beaches and cliffs. It was Monday, so it was not busy at all. Actually, because it was also mostly windstill, it was often really quiet which was nice.

We did meet some other hikers though, one SWCP hiker (doing a four-day stretch) who was faster than everyone but also stopped and talked with everyone he would meet, and one older man who asked us if we were the two girls doing the whole path, who was member of the South West Coast Path association. He had also completed the whole path.

We also filtered some water again:

We found a wild camp spot pretty much where we predicted (6km before Brixham) and went for a swim at the beach that was five minutes away. After that we relaxed in the sun by a bench, had tea and biscuits and then dinner, before we moved to our camping spot and set up our tent. It is nice that it stays light for so long because now there is no rush with setting up the tent anymore. It was again warm and we stayed outside for quite a bit. Oh and we performed a small operation on my ring finger to get out a splinter from two weeks ago when I fell into a a goarse bush. It went successfully 👍.

Rosa will walk with me until lunch before she goes to Leeds where she will meet her boyfriend. Together they will do another trail, the coast-to-coast path.

My plan was to start with the Pennine Way soon but I've decided I rather want to finish the South West Coast Path first and then maybe still do a part of the Pennine Way, but not all of it. I will walk alone until Friday, and from then on I will be joined by Roger:))

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Walking Christmas trees (day 40)

The campsite in East Prawle was a bit disappointing because it didn't have warm water to wash our socks or showers, two reasons to go to campsite at all, but then again we didn't pay for it because because nobody responded to my phone calls and the owner also didn't come by to collect the money. We washed our socks in the morning using boiled water. Why do we have to wash our socks hot? Because we have athletes foot, a type of fungus, yummy. We're also treating it with a special spray from Boots. The rest of the day we walked around with our backpacks decorated like Christmas trees and spontaneously started singing 'Oh dennenboom, oh dennenboom, wat zijn je sokken wonderschoon, ik had je laatst in't bos zien staan, toen hingen er geen slipjes aan'.

On our way to Stoke Flemming we saw a bunch of seals lying on a rock, we passed a waymarker saying how far we've come and how far still to go, and we went for a swim at a long beach near Strete. We camped on a Camping and Caravanning Club campsite and it was nice! It was also the first evening that we sat outside our tent after dinner because it was still warm outside! The night however was also very warm and I was starting to sweat in Peters warm down sleeping bag. Well, it is great during the colder night anyways!

Spot the seals:

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Summer? (Day 39)

Today was probably the warmest day yet. We took two layers off even before our first coffee break! It was also one of those days where everything goes a bit slowly. We had a long coffee break on a beach, the supermarket where we went was kind of far away, and we had to take yet another ferry. In the evening we made the spontaneous decision to go to a campsite in a village close to the path (East Prawle) instead of the campsite further away where we had planned to go.

Breakfast, still at the great camping spot:

Porridge with banana, raisins and peanut butter:

A warm and sunny day:

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Rivers and happy pears (day 38)

Quite a lot happened in the first half of day 38. We got up and it was raining when we we walked to the river Erme that we had to cross wading through the knee-deep water. It was not as cool as it sounds because the stones hurt our feet, it was cold, and because everything is less fun when it rains. Also, we had lost some time because of me trying to take a shortcut, so we were a bit in a hurry because you only have 1,5h to cross the river. It kept raining, so we skipped breakfast and only had a muesli bar. When the rain finally stopped after two hours or so, we enjoyed our belated breakfast porridge, a cup of instant coffee, and the great feeling of not getting wet.

Next stop was the ferry over the river Avon. We had called it in advance, and apparently it was going on demand between 10 and 12 o'clock. A sign on the beach said we had to wave to the house on the other side to get the ferry drivers attention.

When we did so, no ferry came, but someone on a little red boat waved back and made its way to the beach. "Are you the ferry?" we asked when two men got off and a young woman stayed at the steering wheel. It turned out it wasn't the ferry but some people on holidays who were looking for their dog that ran away.. who stopped only to give us a lift to the other side! :) So we hopped in, Rosa piggyback on one of the guys and me taking my shoes off againg and wading through the water. Just in that moment the dog reappeared on the beach, how lucky! He also hopped in and with the six of us and two backpacks we only just fit. We had a nice chat with the two dudes and the girl that was one of theirs daughter and they offered us a cup of tea at their rental appartement. They were apparently on a trip with different families/ people. We had tea, bananas and almond spread in the big kitchen and talked mostly about our walk, because they were very impressed with us and told us about ten times that we were amazing strong women (a nice ego boost). Soon it turned out that David was the co-founder (one of the twin brothers) of "The Happy Pear", a sort of food and lifestyle company that is quite famous and that Rosa once baught a cookbook from as a present. She was still a bit starstruck when we left the house and got back on the path.

In the evening we found a nice and flat camping spot near a beach and enjoyed a calm dinner with a view.

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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🌟Rating the bars🌟

1. Cliff bars

The star of the muesli bars that have it all (filling - nutritional - yummy), but that almost didn't make the first place because of their rather high price compared to other bars! Well, I had to give the first place anyways.

266 calories - 68g - 9g protein - 2€/bar

+quite a lot of fiber I suppose

2. Trek Flapjacks

Bringing a twist to the traditional toothachingly sweet british flapjack, this chocolate-covered version actually tastes better (less sweet), is high in protein, and has a nice crunch to it due to some soya puffies.

227 calories - 50g - 9g protein - 1,22€/bar

3. Nature Valley bars

These bars bring you the best of everything (nuts, grains, and chocolate) at a low price. But, they are not so filling and taste mostly like peanut butter, which we can also just snack from the jar;).

198 calories - 40g - 10g protein - 0,92€/bar

4. Aldi protein bars

These ones were a surprise! You can get them in some crazy flavors (mint, yaffa cake, birthday cake, salted caramel), they are cheap and there is actually not much bad you can say about them! Except that you don't know what the filling is actually made of... but it tasted like ground cashew nuts. Definitely a good option!

261 calories - 60g - 21g protein - 0,80€/bar

5. Mountain Warehouse Flapjacks

Well, here we've got the super-sweet classic flapjack, that can rescue you from an energy low and make you eat a whole bar even though you just wanted to eat it half. You've got them in different flavors but yogurt and chocolate are the best! Can't have too much of them though, Emilja from the hostel waned is that she couldn't eat Flapjacks anymore after her bike trip though England.

456 calories - 100g - 4,6 g protein - 1,90€/bar

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wanderella-w · 1 year

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Taking it easy...

...was what we were planning to do since our restday in the shepherd's hut. Well, that didn't really work out today (day 37). First, it was just the nice weather, having the wind in our backs, and having rested legs, that made us want to walk further than our anticipated end point Wembury beach and even take the ferry across the river Yealm. The ferry only went between 3 and 4 pm and we were there at 2, so we had a nice half an hour to relax (half an hour because the ferry came early). Just before going on the ferry though, we realized that for the river crossing the next day, which can only be done at low tide, we had picked the most inconvenient day: On Thursday, low tide would be at either 6:40 in the morning or 20:00 in the evening. Another option was to walk 12km around it. Then suddenly we thought - why not try and reach the estuary today, if we walked fast we would still be able to make it!

Well, we tried, but when there was only half an hour of walking left, after having walked around 30km, we came past an okay camp spot with a beautiful view and my legs were getting so tired that I just wanted to stay. Rosa was okay with it too, so we took off our backpacks. Now we were close enough anyways to reach the river Erme early on the next day. We did a Yoga-cooldown, had dinner, set up camp, and had biscuits in the tent.. just the usual:)

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