Introduction


When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.

We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.

You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.

We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.

Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.

In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.

In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!

A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing





Friday 10 January 2014

Devon: Dartmouth to Slapton Memorial***


 

Castle & St Petrox Church, Dartmouth
 
Cormorant
 
Jersey tiger moth
 
Scaeva selenitica
 
 
Dartmouth is a well-preserved historic port with decorative buildings around the Inner Harbour and rising up the hillside.  There is a castle at the southern end of town, although it is rather small and partly obscured by a church.  After this we walked along wooded cliffs (hydrangeas naturalised and spreading near the castle) with small rocky coves to the mouth of the Dart.  Then the cliffs became more open and scenic around Combe and Warren Points.  Cormorants flew across the bays.
     The Redlap House estate, a caravan site, and a housing development at Stoke Fleming prevented further coastal access until we arrived at the long cove known as Blackpool Sands (actually fine shingle).  This was packed with holidaymakers, shouting children, multi-coloured plastic blow-up paraphernalia, and fat food outlets.  The only shells were fragments of Spisula solida.  On leaving we were delighted to see a fine fresh specimen of a Jersey tiger moth.
     More inaccessible coast followed, forcing us to tramp narrow lanes with the typical high Devonian hedge-banks restricting views.  At Strete Gate the road finally descends to the coast, the start of three miles of fine shingle called Slapton Sands.  The northern end was occupied by nudists.  The road follows the coast along a shingle bank which encloses the extensive reed-beds and open water of Slapton Ley Nature Reserve.  The shingle and a sheltered path between the road and the reeds were popular with butterflies, among which were many immigrant clouded yellows and painted ladies.  Other prominent immigrants at this time were silver Y moths and the marmalade hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus, which persistently pitched on our hands to ingest salts or moisture from the skin and even alighted on our ice-creams.  Rarer insects here were the hoverfly Scaeva selenitica and the beetle Silpha tristis.  The shingle had a decent range of plants, including sea bindweed, viper’s bugloss, a little sea kale, sea spurge, common broomrape (on clover and yarrow), and yellow-horned poppy.  We finished for the day at the end of the road down from Slapton, at a memorial to the practice exercise for the D-Day landings in WWII that occurred here.  In the course of this exercise local people in Torcross, Slapton and Strete were all evacuated and some of their houses blown up with live ammunition!
 
Combe Point from Warren Point
 
Blackpool Sands
 
Slapton Sands
 
 
Yellow horned-poppy

Slapton Ley
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