South Devon
We walked along the South Devon Coast on holidays on the South West Coast Path in 2012 and 2013. We'd reached Devon from Cornwall right at the end of our previous holiday, when the Cremyll Ferry had transported us from Mount Edgcumbe Country Park across the River Tamar to Admiral's Hard in Plymouth on 25th May 2011.
There were plenty more ferry crossings on our next holiday on the path, in May 2012, when we walked around Plymouth to Mount Batten Point, then from Mount Batten Point to Noss Mayo, from Noss Mayo to Bigbury-on-Sea, from Bigbury-on-Sea to Salcombe, from Salcombe to Slapton, from Slapton to Dartmough, from Dartmouth to Paignton, and from Paignton to Teignmouth. The countryside in this section was quite different from that we'd experienced further west and north in Cornwall, appearing lusher and greener. However, don't be fooled; there are still some steep ascents and descents. The section from Kingswear (across the River Dart from Dartmouth) to Brixham is recognised as one of the toughest sections of the whole South West Coast Path.
The B&B in which we stayed in Teignmouth, Thomas Luny House (sadly no longer a B&B) was absolutely superb, so we returned for a short break in December 2012, and walked on from Teignmouth to Sidmouth in three legs: Teignmouth to the River Exe at Starcross and Topsham Lock ; Lympstone (the other side of the River Exe) to Budleigh Salterton; and Budleigh Salterton to Sidmouth. This section is memorable for its distinctive red sandstone cliffs (which featured in an online quiz question, as shown, that I wrote some years ago and have since discussed in many papers and talks) and for the fact that the railway runs right by the coast, which has resulted in it being washed into the sea on several occasions, including just before our visit in December 2012.
All that remained to be walked in Devon when we returned in April 2013 were the legs from Sidmouth to Branscombe and from Branscombe to Lyme Regis. We walked the first of these in the late afternoon and early evening, after travelling from Norfolk, and at the end of each leg we stayed in accommodation a mile or so from the coast; this was lovely as it enabled us to discover more of the delights of the glorious Devon countryside. In contrast to South Devon's westerly border, which you can hardly miss because it runs down the middle of the River Tamar, the boundary between South Devon and Dorset is essentially in the middle of nowhere, following a loop around Lyme Regis, presumably so that the town is entirely in Dorset. This meant that we crossed the border into Dorset as we walked from the famous "Undercliff" section of the coast path to the centre of Lyme Regis, but by the time we'd reached our B&B in Uplyme we were back in Devon!
