The South West Coast Path

Several people have chastised me for doing the South West Coast Path after the camino. Despite being rated as world class the South West Coast  does not have the energy, community, food or variation to warrant enough enjoyment after a camino experience. In fact in three weeks we did not meet a soul doing more than a week at a time.  Don’t get me wrong. The cliffs and the towns enroute are stellar and worth seeing but not if one has to walk a thousand kilometers to do it. 

After 100 km of hiking we cheated and took a bus past a 40 km section of flat asphalt cycling paths. Another 70 km more of walking we cheated again. When we walked we would navigate public paths that short cut across farms full of sheep. Anything to avoid the rollercoaster up and down cliffs. Taking the bus was like a drug, it was addictive and easy. Many of the buses were double deckers some even open top. The local characters on the bus were bizaarre and fun to watch as the driver drove roads too narrow and overgrown for even two cars to pass. 

We only walked the highlights. The rare long stretches of beaches or the parts under the cliffs only accessible at low tide. We detested the endless wheat fields perched over the sea. We saw towns as they were decades ago with sleds dragged by men down cobble stone streets too narrow and steep for cars. We saw funiculars powered only by the weight of water. We marveled at entire fishing fleets sitting on the bottom of harbours the water missing as if a tsunami had sucked it all out. We endured forests infected with ticks and kilometers of thick stinging nettle. We walked along cliff tops in wind strong enough to blow you off to see the remains of Cornish mine engines which pumped water from shafts that jutted out below the sea. We saw Newquay where low class tourists would smoke a cigarette in each hand and we saw St Ives with its trendy shops. We watched cliff top theater as a storm rolled in soaking us and the actors as the wind stole their words and their props. 

For two weeks we rode the bus visiting these highlights always guiltily aware that the bus is not proper for people on a hiking trip. In Exmouth as the coast flattened out and the sea was a mill pond we came to our senses and left the South West Coast Path. With a week to go we needed a fresh start in the form of the Thames Path.