Bantham – Salcombe

15 July 2026

Distance on Coast Path: 17.8km; ascent: 362m

Total distance: 17.8km; ascent: 362m

Walking time: 4h 41′

Total time: 7h 12′

Overnight: The Fo’c’sle B&B, Salcombe

Yesterday – Day 43 – had started well and ended badly. Today – Day 44 – started well and ended worse!

The earliest time The Sloop does breakfast is 9.00 so it was just after 10.00 that I set off. The knee that had troubled me yesterday was feeling much better this morning with the residual pain held at bay by overnight and breakfast-time paracetamol. An easy short climb took me to the low cliff path alongside Thurlestone Golf Course, then down to Thurlestone beach and South Milton Sands where an unnamed stream runs through a nature reserve before curving into the sea.

South Milton Sands

A short distance further, still on an easy path, I reached Hope Cove – first Inner Hope then Outer Hope – where I stopped for a coffee and found the Post Office and general store where I bought two fresh pains au chocolat to eat later and some Ibuprofen (better than paracetamol for joint and muscle pain, I find). From there it was only another few minutes’ walk to the headland of Bolt Tail.

Hope Cove and the headland of Bolt Tail

From Bolt Tail the coast runs south-east for 8km to its companion headland Bolt Head. The Path here is generally good with easy gradients as it undulates along Bolberry Down and Cathole Cliff before reaching the only significant descent/ascent into Soar Mill Cove where, out of care for my knee, I opted for a slightly longer but less steep permissive footpath reaching the Cove by a grassy inland path. The steep climb out of the Cove was unavoidable, but quite short.

Fancy bench on Bolberry Down.

It was a warm sunny day with the temperature in the mid-twenties, and it was around here that I realised I was longing for some shade: there had been none since leaving a little wood just outside Hope Cove. With no prospect of any to come I stopped for a rest on a bench.

Once back on my feet, whether it was the constant sun, the temperature, or maybe I hadn’t been drinking enough water, it was around this point that I got the first warning sign of a problem I have had only three times in the past twenty-five years. Each time it’s been when I’ve been tired and exhausted, so perhaps I hadn’t realised how much fitness I’d lost through inactivity over the past few months. The first signs are a tightening of my pelvic muscles and a slight tendency to stumble or trip as I walk. At its extreme I am hardly able to walk – my balance goes completely and I can hardly shuffle one foot in front of the other. The problem goes away without treatment but it takes a few hours’ rest.

I carried on cautiously, taking frequent short stops and managing to prevent the problem getting worse, and so reached Bolt Head. Between here and Salcombe there is one more down-and-up, Starehole Bay. I considered taking an inland route to avoid it, but one of the leaders of a group of teenagers from a nearby outdoor centre assured me the gradients weren’t very steep, so I stayed on the Coast Path.

Sparing the details I made it down to the bay, had a rest, then dragged myself up the other side thankful for the handrail at the section of exposed rocks at the foot of the spike of Sharp Tor. Slower now and with frequent short stops I at last reached shade and then a tarmac road leading into South Sands at the edge of Salcombe. I’d already decided I’d phone for a taxi at the first opportunity; a good thing because I could hardly stay upright on the last steep bend down to sea level.

The receptionist at the South Sands Hotel was helpful: she gave me a list of local taxi firms and said I could sit in the lobby to make calls using their wifi. After the problems I’d had the previous day trying to get a taxi the first call I made was to my B&B to warn them I might be late, and the lovely Christine immediately said she would send her husband to pick me up!

16 July 2026

It didn’t take much soul-searching overnight to realise that it would be foolish to attempt the walk I’d planned for today. It was longer than yesterday, the forecast was similar with little or no prospect of shade, and crucially there is only one place along the whole route (East Prawle) where a public road comes anywhere near the coast. There are no bus services. And my overnight stop was in a tent on a campsite with no facilities apart from the usual shower and toilet block. If anything were to go wrong I would be in serious trouble!

So I had a bus day instead. First from Salcombe to Kingsbridge, where I had a sandwich for lunch sitting by the tidal creek in the town, then to Torcross and finally a short walk over the hill to Beesands. Here I had an early evening beer at The Cricket Inn and a crab sandwich at the  Britannia By The Beach beach café before walking up the hill to the campsite and reaching my (expensive) furnished bell tent just before 7pm.

Despite the rather unfamiliar experience I had a fair night’s sleep until I was woken at 5.30 by pigeons in the nearby hedge. I was on my way by 7.30.

Beesands Bell Tent