SWCP Day 19 – Home to Roost
A very gentle day for me today as I only had to walk from Prawle Point to Kingswear, about 19 miles on familiar ground. It was great to have lots of friends and supporters joining at various points for the walk into Dartmouth and then across the River Dart into Kingswear – the support we have had has been fabulous from friends we’ve invaded for accommodation to the Quartly girls, Jemima (6) and Maisie (5), shaking the collecting bucket. Well done girls – £100 today. Thankyou everyone.
The day started dark and dreach as I left Prawle, as yet unaccompanied, at about 7. A long diversion around a landslip wasn’t fun and unforecast wind and rain were not improving my mood. However, once I reached Start Point and met with David, Ross, Kit and Piers things started to look brighter. The view back toward Start Point was very atmospheric and the walk around Start Bay as beautiful as ever.
The unmistakeable outline of Start Point
At Blackpool Sands, I met with friends Mitch Tonks and Henry Bomby, among others for the walk back to Dartmouth Castle and the fantastic Castle tearooms where we were welcomed with tea and cake and yet more friends and supporters.
David, Mitch and Henry – and Rex, unimpressed with the t-shirt
Of course Rex got plenty of attention, although he didn’t seem very amused when we dressed him in an MNDA t-shirt. He’s had a couple of big walking days so today he just came out for photos whereas Poppy managed to get off her bed and walked the first bit of the journey to Torcross.
A small diversion to Above Town saw us drop in on Andy and Helen at the View from the Dartmouth Office, one of our favourite websites and great to be part of it. For those of you who know Dartmouth, you’ll know the ascent to Above Town is one usually ignored by most people – but worth it for the view if you ever do get up there. http://www.theviewfromthedartmouthoffice.com/Home/Home.html
There’s still plenty of water around although the paths are starting to dry out. Here’s a quick reminder of a small stream which became a raging torrent in North Devon, added by popular demand.
It’s lovely to be at home for a couple of nights but the walk hasn’t finished yet – everything is holding together, possibly helped by the classic combination of Ibuprofen, Deep Heat and red wine as well as the morale boosting moment of breaking through the £4000 mark on my Justgiving site –
www.justgiving.com/swcp25x25
Another 6 days,160 miles and £750 and we’ll be there.