WB 05: Stairway to Devon — charles' walk

Progress

Progress has been good though difficult this week, and I have hit each scheduled daily endpoint. In fact, I am a few miles ahead of schedule. I have travelled from Bournemouth, Dorset to Exton, Devon covering 132 miles, and 24,530 feet of ascent

Hardships

Well with the weather much better this week, it was somewhat strange that this was the week that mud became a big issue. Almost every day this week I have been slowed down by the thick mud. At several times it has been a big issue making the steep ascents and descents extremely difficult. On top of this it puts more strain on ankles, knees and thus also hips and other parts.

Lulworth military range was a right annoyance. I had expected parts to be shut based on the range firing times, but it proved difficult to know which parts would be shut. And as the range did not reply to emails or calls, I just had to work it out as I went. The diversion ended up adding on around 8 miles of distance, meaning that I ended up finishing that specific day behind schedule.

Not really a hardship but a moment of stupidity whilst tired. I had to cross a little stream on a beach, and rather than being sensible and taking shoes and sock off and wade across, I decided it was shallow enough to just walk across. Unsurprisingly my boots filled with water as it was deeper than expected, and as I was camping they retained a certain amount of dampness for the next three days until the rest day.

General

south West Coast PAth

As expected the South West Coast Path has already shown me some stunning scenery. It has been as steep, and narrow in parts as I would expect and the signage has been thorough meaning I rarely need to look at my maps. Now just another 500 miles of it to go.

Munchies

For the first few weeks I was not hungry at all and I had to always force myself to eat. This definitely changed this week with me eating any food I had bought or been offered almost instantly. One particular snack binge included 2 bananas, a large dairy milk, 200g cashews and a cereal bar all finished in about 5 minutes. I do have to be a bit careful though as it is easy to eat the food as soon as I buy it rather than saving it for later when I need it more.

Visitors

It was great to have some visitors on the walk for a couple of days, Katie, Rachel, Malcolm & Eddie. If you would like to join please do get it contact. You can slum it in a tent, live luxury life in a B&B or just join for the day.

Lack of Time

I seemed to just run out of time on my rest day. This rest day I decided to leave blogs till last, and get the walk/email admin done first as I had let this slip a bit over previous couple of weeks. The issue is by the time I had done all the walk admin, there was no time left for weekly or mental health blogs. Hopefully I will get more efficient and admin will decrease as the walk goes on.

Daily Diary

Please click links below to find out more detail about each specific day:

Thank You

Specific thank yous:

Katie & Rachel – thank you for joining the walk from Bournemouth to Swanage.

The Square & Compass, Worth Matravers – thank you for letting me pitch in your beer garden.

East Fleet Farm – thank you for letting me use your caravan for the night.

Anchor Inn, Seatown – thank you for letting us pitch in your beer garden.

Malcolm & Eddie – thank you for joining the walk and camping for a couple of days.

Lizzy & Paul Glanvill – thank you for putting me up for my rest day, and spoiling me with all array of food.

Also thank you to everyone who donated last week, and all the kind messages that I received.

The walk can be followed on Facebook and Instagram and any donations are greatly appreciated.