Best bits: lovely weather, meeting lots of people
Worst bits: steep hills, long drive
Distance: 20 miles
It was another lovely day, albeit with a cold start as I left Paignton. The beach was full of people walking dogs.
After the initial beach walking it was onto the main road into Torquay. Then into woodland with lots of up and down. Unfortunately, this meant that there weren’t many spectacular views today.
I stopped for a cup of tea and some lunch in the Angels café at Babbacombe. It seemed quite appropriate as Angela would’ve loved all the cafés and cakes.
Then back into the woodland where I met these lovely ladies, Lizzy, Sue and Chris. They were also making their way to Dawlish today. We chatted for a while before I headed off in front.
There were many times today when the path up the hills were almost vertical. This was in contrast yesterday where the paths were meandering around creating hairpin bends. I felt like I was going up the steep steps like a carthorse and coming down like a prancing pony!
Keeping the horse theme going, I saw this in someone’s garden. I think it’s made from driftwood and appeared to be almost life-size.
Finally, Shaldon appeared in the distance. I looked up the ferry this morning and the website said that it was Englands oldest passenger ferry and ‘operates a continuous daily service between Teignmouth and Shaldon’. So you can imagine my disappointment when I found a sign that said it wasn’t running on Mondays and Tuesdays. Today was Tuesday. I wondered if Lizzy, Sue and Chris would be as disappointed as me when they arrived at this point or whether they already knew the ferry wouldn’t be running. 
So I had to detour over the bridge, which fortunately for me only added a couple of miles into Teignmouth.
However, having been spoilt by so much coastal walking the contrast to a busy place with the traffic rushing past at great speed and the pavements suddenly disappearing leaving cars to have priority over pedestrians came as a bit of a shock.
I was glad to stop for a cup of tea and a scone in the Home Bake cafe and to rest my tired legs before the final 3 miles left of the journey.
The cloud formations were fantastic and looked like big balls of cotton wool.
The OS map showed two routes. I should’ve realised at the time that these were the high water and low water options. I selected the path by the waters edge and was lucky to get through the tunnel under the railway just before high tide. Phew! As I walked alongside the railway embankment the sun was out and was casting shadows on the beach below which I played with for a while.
I finally arrived at the railway station in Dawlish and took the train back to Paignton. I chatted with Colin and Lynn and heard Colin’s story of doing LEJOG, cycling Land’s End to John o’Groats or in his case John o’Groats to Land’s End.
Then I had to drive to Exmouth and park up for the night. I found a great spot on the beachfront just as the sun was beginning to set. I parked next to another Tracey. 
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