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: Soar Mill Cove to Thurlestone 7/8/1996****


 

 
 
Cliffs at Bolt Tail
 
 
 
 
Cormorant and herring gulls on sea-rocks
 
 
 
 
Sea holly
We began today’s walk from Port Light Hotel, cloud and a cold wind soon replacing sun, good for walking, but not for lazing on beaches.  Hedgerow cranesbill grew by the road among tall stands of black mustard.  On Bolberry Down people were flying kites and there were still plenty of painted ladies, the most frequent butterfly after hedge browns.  The cliff-top was variously grassland, gorse or bracken until we reached the more exposed Bolt Tail, which was a carpet of thrift in seed, which would have been a sight when in bloom.  There are good views of Bigbury Bay from here.  Descending into Inner Hope, we saw clouded yellows and a few plants of saw-wort.  On Bury Stone, off the headland, a crowd of cormorants sunned themselves sprawled against the warm rock.  Past roadside tree mallows the beach was crowded with holidaymakers.  The cliffs here are of red and yellow sandstones.  After making a contribution to the RNLI collection we walked over a short hill to Outer Hope and our RNLI stickers promptly blew straight off in the wind.  Here we reached another small beach with access across lines of rock to numerous little sandy coves, in one of which we settled for lunch, sheltered by cliffs of grey schist with veins of quartz and thin red lines.  Washed by the sea the rocks looked beautiful, the grey darkening to black and the other colours heightened.  Damp clefts in the cliffs were colourful with yellow fleabane and purple loosestrife.     
      But we had to leave Hope behind us and walk more cliffs above inaccessible coves to Thurlestone Sand, crossing the end of South Huish Marshes, a nature reserve.   We were too early for the winter waders and had to be content with human summer waders braving the cold to net the rock-pools for pea-crabs or huddling in family clumps.  There were plenty of shells and searching for them took some time.  Young terns rested on the rocks furthest from the beach while oystercatchers winged their noisy way past.  There were many different seaweeds and eel-grass stranded by the storms.  Over more cliffs we reached Leas Foot Sand backed by a very small section of the original dunes, most of it having been converted into a golf-course that stretches to the other side of Thurlestone.  On this little patch was an abundance of sea-holly, as well as sea sandwort, sea bindweed, lady’s bedstraw and sand sedge.  There were also rare insects of sandy coasts like the bee-fly Villa modesta, the darkling beetle Phylan gibbus, and a bee-wolf Philanthus triangulum, rarely seen west of Hampshire.  Sandy banks further west had pyramidal orchids. Finally we walked up to the village of Thurlestone, where the walls were covered in plants such as haresfoot clover.  Along with Dartmoor Bitter tonight at The Port Light we continued our exploration of fresh seafood with sole, crab, prawns and salmon.
 
Coast path from Bolt Head
 
 
Rock on beach at Thurlestone
 
 
Villa modesta
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