Lady
fern
Rock
at Start Point
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We started from the Tower Inn in Slapton, where
we later stayed the night. It is named
after the neighbouring ruins of the old priory. We made a visit to Slapton Ley NR, where we
saw a variety of plants, including lady and soft shield ferns, hemlock
water-dropwort, butcher’s broom, skullcap, shoreweed, wormwood, dragonflies,
and the uncommon hoverfly Chrysogaster solstitialis. The speciality here is strapwort struggling
to survive at its only site, but we could not locate it and members of staff
at the centre could provide no help.
After
walking the final two miles of the shingle bank we arrived at Torcross, where
there was a hide from which we could see pochard, great crested grebe, and a
flock of mute swans. Holidaymakers
were concentrated on the steep shingle beach and at the Start Bay Inn, where
we had a seafood snack and beer. We
then had to climb inland around a cliff and old quarry before dropping into
Beesands, which also has a small mere behind a shingle ridge.
The
next place where the shore can be reached after a line of low cliffs and
narrow beaches is Hall Sands. The old
village was destroyed by a storm in the 19th century after shingle
extraction for
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Beesands
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Day by day account of our walk around the coast of England, and the Welsh and Scottish borders, with notes on natural history.
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: Slapton to Start Point
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