PEOPLE
Chris SchmidtReid, Winslow In July 2017, my wife and I were on top of the Golden Cap and met someone walking the SWCP carrying a fully loaded rucksack, tent, sleeping mat - the works! We chatted about it together and both agreed that we didn’t need to do that as we had done our fair share of hiking in New Zealand and Australia, when we met in the late 1980’s. Having later learnt about different luggage transfer companies, we both agreed that day packs were more the way to go! Sadly in March 2018, whilst undergoing intense treatment for cancer, my wife passed away very suddenly. Later that year as I continued to try to get my head around it all, I realised I needed to take some time away from everything, go on a journey and take some time for my heart and mind.
So, on New Year’s Eve, I decided that I was going to have a go at walking the Coast Path - and yes with my rucksack and entire camping kit! So, it was on 15th July 15th last year, that I found myself at the start of the Path in Minehead on a beautiful sunny day with my daughter, setting off on a journey - with no idea if I could walk the whole thing or what it was going to be like. I certainly had far too much kit, including a travelling acoustic guitar which I sent home after two weeks! After 64 days I arrived at South Haven Point, accompanied by my son for the last day of the walk, once again in the sunshine! I had numerous friends come to meet me and walk parts of the Path with me, as well as meeting great new people along the way too. What a wonderful path to walk dramatic cliffs, rolling hills, coves, beaches and wonderful wildlife. I made it through, and it was really the best thing I could have done. Arriving home, I now feel so much lighter and ready to move on with my life - buoyed by successfully completing this amazing walk.
Richard Lingard, Guildford
Barbara & Nigel Ellison, Tonbridge
I finally finished the Path on 17th October 2019, having walked my very first section (Pentire Point to Polzeath) as long ago as 1978. I didn't initially intend to walk the whole Path, I just did sections here and there, according to where we were holidaying, always anti-clockwise, with the sea on my right but not in any logical order, although I did start to compile a log. The last section I had to complete was from Strete Gate to Dartmouth, the Kingswear ferry was my finishing point rather than the traditional stretch of beach leading to South Haven Point, which I walked some years ago.
On 4th September we finally reached South Haven Point. We started the walk some years ago in Minehead, as the sculpture marking the start had not yet been erected! Whilst staying with Nigel’s mother in Minehead we had day trips out walking to Porlock and then onto Lynmouth. This gave us the bug and we just had to complete the whole 630 miles. Living in Kent and family commitments meant progress was slow in the early years, but we soon clocked up the mileage more recently.
I walked most of the Path on my own, but was joined for some sections (and on the last stretch) by family and friends with whom we had a lovely celebratory meal in the Seahorse Restaurant in Dartmouth at which we drank a toast to my wife who had uncomplainingly provided an exemplary chauffeur service between pick up and drop off points throughout. They were quite impressed that I'd walked 630 miles, but were less impressed when I explained that over the 41 years since I started, I had averaged about 70 yards per day. It was a fantastic experience the scenery is, with very few (urban) exceptions consistently beautiful and although thousands of people walk the Path every year, for the majority of the walk, it felt almost like my own private playground. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
The highlights? Meeting like-minded people on the walk. Finally completing the Path, but this was also tinged with sadness. (No, we are not going to do it in reverse, it just wouldn’t be the same!) Woods near Clovelly, bluebells that stretched as far as the eye could see interspersed with primroses, celandine, purple orchids and white-bells all in dappled sunlight, just magical. The lowlights: Barbara walking a painful 25 miles with a leg stress fracture and not realising it at the time, ouch!! And scrambling over soaking wet rocks at the cliffs edge between Hartland Point and Crackington Haven in a howling gale. Thank you to the Association for all your hard work in establishing the Path and keeping it open, despite the best efforts of the weather to put a spanner in the works during the winter months.
SOUTHWESTCOASTPATH.ORG.UK
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