The weather forecast wasn’t too bad today, just the odd raindrop here and there, so it was decided that we should plan a decent walk. As I have explained previously walking options are not too great around here but the walk along Slapton Sands looked dull and so we opted to head north along the coast, after we reached Torcross.

WWII Bunker at Torcross build into the rocky promontory

Once we had walked to Torcross it became apparent that the initial part of the coastal path north of the village, had been damaged by storms last winter and was no longer passable, but a local helpfully showed us an alternative route over a ridge and we were soon down on a new beach which is not visible from Torcross because it is obscured by a rocky promontory.

Beesands

Inland from the stony beach were low lying cliffs, but I had checked the tide times and knew we had plenty of time to reach the village of Beesands a mile or so along the coast. The dogs enjoyed the freedom of the beach, as always, but for the first time this trip Sarah got to indulge in one of her favourite pastimes, a bit of rockpooling. This is not jumping in rockpools, but rather having a prod around to see if she could find any interesting sea life.

Sarah rockpooling

As we neared Beesands the beach finally turned to coarse sand, another first for this trip, along what had seemed to be a ubiquitously pebbly English south coast.

We had half toyed with the idea of lunching at Beesands only pub, but it looked far too expensive for us pensioners, but we instead found a small hut serving fish based food. I had a really good crab sandwich, but Sarah treated herself to a bag of fresh fried chips lathered in salt and vinegar.

The idea of tramping back along the same route didn’t really appeal and so we chose an inland route. Surprisingly it took us through some interesting, steeply hilly, countryside, where from time to time we could catch glimpses of the sea in the distance. There was as pleasant section through some very old deciduous woodland but we most enjoyed our time walking along secluded Devonshire lanes.

View of the sea from the inland hills

The lanes in this part of England often have steep earth banks on either side with native shrubs forming a hedge at the top. The earth banks had us stopping often to look at various plants, many of which were unknown to us. There were cowslips in full bloom, winka showing its purple flowers and foxglove leaves ready to flourish later in the year. We even found a camelia which had somehow established itself in the hedge and displaying bright crimson petals.

“wild” camelia

Although we had spent less time than usual in the mud to dogs could not escape their trip to the cold shower, like a pair of Victorian public schoolboys, but after the dousing they always receive a cuddle in Sarah’s special towelling bags to get them warm and dry.

Spot the dog in a bag

We both agreed that the walk had been much more enjoyable than we had anticipated and there had been barely a drop of rain. In fact as I write this I can see some blue sky and sunshine, but the dreaded forecast shows heavy rain for tomorrow. Time will tell.