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





Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Devon: Peppercombe to Appledore 23/7/2000***


 

 
Mouth of River Taw
 
 
Sea stock
 
We again walked from the hotel down to Peppercombe, but this time by a path on the east side of the valley.  The cliffs from here were lower than of late but stiff enough.  The shore was still pebbly and difficult to walk.  Two men were sea-fishing.  The cliffs were generally of softer red sandstone.  “Beware of possible landslides” said one notice.  At Babbacombe Mouth the top level of shingle was covered by a large amount of flotsam and jetsam with shells of Onoba aculeus.  A pair of herons flew over the sea, one of them joining two cormorants on a small sea-rock, the other landing on the shore where it was mobbed by a herring gull.  Although this morning we were tackling the last cliffs for some time, they persisted as challenges to the end.  After tacking up one steep sheep-grazed slope we were only rewarded with the view of another hill-slope ahead.  Eventually we ascended through gorse and bracken to the final top with a view of Westward Ho! beyond a line of much lower cliffs with a rocky foreshore.  The soils so far had been acid with a limited flora, which included common centaury, thyme and trailing St. John’s-wort.  The path was often overgrown by tall grass until we reached the manicured approaches to the town.  We passed a line of chalets and caravans above a tarmac esplanade and a pebble-and-rock beach with a swimming pool.  A useful concrete walkway across the rocks turned out to be covering a sewage main!  Eventually the pebbles and rocks gave way to a huge beach of fine sand with crowds of holidaymakers playing all sorts of games – the weather was overcast but it was the first weekend of the school holidays.  The wide sands front a pebble ridge topped by wide dunes, most converted into a golf course.  There was a sparse mix of estuarine, sandy and rocky shore shells.  The dunes (Northam Burrows) had a great deal of sea holly and sea spurge, hound’s-tongue, rough clover, knotted pearlwort, biting stonecrop, and the subspecies ferronii of soft brome with spreading awns, while there was a small patch of native sea stock on the foreshore.  There were also slender, musk and dwarf thistles (the latter growing very large) among spear and creeping thistles.    Both horses and sheep were grazing the dunes.  On the other side of the dunes was a large saltmarsh and Skern Bay, with glasswort, seablite, common cord-grass, and greater sea-spurrey, above which a narrow line of beach sand had saltwort and henbane.  Here we saw 11-spot ladybirds.  At the road bordering this bay we bought local ice-creams from Hockings of Appledore.  We crossed Appledore Bridge and followed the head of the saltmarsh all the way to Appledore itself, entering by a street of small pastel-coloured terraced cottages just asking to be called “quaint”.  From the quay and ferry crossing we took a taxi back to the hotel.
 
 
Onoba aculeus
 
 
 
Grey heron
 
 
 
11-spot ladybird
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