Dartmouth

Today's Route - Beesands to Dartmouth
Distance - 22.3km
Beers Earned - 6.2
Weather - leaky clouds

It's our last day on the coast path and we were disappointed that there wasn't a ferry crossing this morning. It just didn't feel right ... it was like starting a day without coffee ... or having scones without clotted cream.

Instead we were presented with a steep up and a sharp down across the headland to reach Torcross, on the edge of Slapton Ley. The Ley is the largest freshwater lake in the south-west and is separated from the sea by a narrow strip of beach and a road. Our walk covered 2.5 totally flat kilometres of the nearly 6km long beach.

The beach, known as Slapton Sands, is very apparently similar to Utah Beach in Normandy and was used as a practice ground for U.S. troops prior to the WWII Normandy landings. One particular 'rehearsal' exercise (Operation Tiger) resulted in huge loss of life (servicemen, not civilians), partly due to the order to use live ammunition to harden the troops against the sights and sounds of battle.

There's a recovered DD Sherman 'swimming tank' in Torcross as a tribute to the lost lives. During Operation Tiger the tank disembarked from the landing craft without it's aquatic features properly installed and promptly sank in 65 feet of water. It was found and recovered 40 years later.

After the flatness of Slapton Sands came a rudely steep zig-zag climb followed by, according to the trail guide, 'several fields which may or may not be filled with cows before traversing a vertiginous dip in the earth's surface'. The fields were not cow-filled when we crossed them but wow, vertiginous was an understatement. It was a traverse that any self respecting mountain goat would avoid ... and it stood between us and lunch. In the absence of a winch there was no option but to clench everything for the descent and flex everything for the reciprocal ascent.

With our tired bodies sustained by a sandwich from the beach cafe at Blackpool Sands our tired feet took us on some gentle clifftop walking towards the Dart River and our destination, Dartmouth. Unfortunately our good luck with the weather didn't hold and we got caught in a heavy rain shower ... twice.

Arriving wet and bedraggled, our mission in Dartmouth was to find a pub with an open fire for dinner, a pint and boot drying. With lovely medieval streets and a rich history, Dartmouth is a town worth exploring but not in the rain. We'll take some photos tomorrow.Read more