It was forecast to be a hot and sunny day, as I dropped my moped off in the car park in Dartmouth. Like most public car parks in Devon its free to park mopeds/motorbikes/scooters – as long as you use the designated parking bays. I then drove around to East Prawle where I parked on the rough car park around the village green.
Todays walk would be quite long and with the temperatures forecasted to be quite high I ensured I had enough fluids to see me through. I walked out of the village and descended down to the coastal path. I headed below The Torrs (cliffs that mark the early Pleistocene cliff-line). I walked past Woodcombe Point and into Lannacombe Bay. There were not many people out on the beach yet, as I continued on along The Narrows and out towards the Lighthouse at Start Point. I followed the minor road that leads away from the lighthouse. After a short distance the path left the road and descended down a slope along a hillside covered in yellow primroses. I arrived at the old ruined settlement of Hallsands, mostly reclaimed by the sea at the start of the last century. After reading the story of how this settlement was lost, I continued walking due north.
I descended to the beach and walked along Bee Sands. As I approached Torcross I was forced to go inland slightly as some difficult rocks blocked my way. At Torcross, the main road, the A379 runs down to the sea and follows the line of 2 – 3 mile sand bar, quite similar to Chesil Beach. This is Slapton Sands and a number of memorials are located here including a salvaged American Sherman tank. It was here in 1944, during Exercise Tiger (training for the D-Day landings) that a combination of friendly fire and enemy action resulted in the deaths of some 749 American servicemen. I continued on through the village of Strete and passed above a very busy Blackpool Sands. I pass around the village of Stoke Fleming and continued onto Blackstone point. I now headed into the Dart Estuary and could now see Kingswear on the opposite banks of the River Dart. I passed through Warfleet and into Dartmouth itself, which was very busy. I saw the steam paddle-ship Waverley just departing for a run along the coast with passengers.
Distance today = 18.5 miles
Total distance = 413 miles
