Walking the South West Coast Path – the start
Getting there: Train to Taunton, bus to Minehead (route 28).
Overnight: Premier Inn, Minehead.
NB: For the whole of this trip I used Luggage Transfers to move a suitcase from one overnight stop to the next. The system worked perfectly – a 100% success rate of my case being delivered by the time I reached my night’s stop. Recommended.
Day 1: Minehead to Porlock
18 April 2023
Distance on Coast Path: 15.0km
Total distance: 18.5km; ascent: 447m
Walking time: 4h 23′
Total time: 5h 37′
Overnight: The Cottage B&B, Porlock
Without really knowing what to expect from hiking a National Trail, I walked from my hotel to the official start via Morrisons to buy a sandwich for lunch. On the sea front in Minehead you can’t miss the start, or the direction to take.
Things got off to a slightly worrying start; the moment the Path left the road to enter a rough grassy area there was a notice warning the path ahead was closed because of a fallen tree; walkers should choose an alternative (unspecified) route. I decided to ignore it. The first uphill of the day – and the week – came after only about a kilometre. Sure enough there was a fallen tree, but it had already been sawn and the path cleared.
I won’t mention it again, but for the record I’m rather slow going uphill these days – much more so than only a few years ago – so I was a little surprised to catch up with another walker who was taking a breather at a gate near the top of the first ascent. The walker was a woman of mature years carrying a large pack with a sleeping mat strapped to the outside. More of her later, but for now she told me she was walking alone for two weeks before her husband joined her for a third week, that she was planning mostly to camp along the way, and her pack weighed 10 kilos. I also found out she was Norwegian. We walked on together for a while until we reached the decision point for this stretch of the Path – to go “rugged” or not. The “rugged” option stays nearer the coast, has more ups and downs and is about a mile longer than the standard route, but is said to offer better views. We both opted for “rugged”, but at this point I took a break for a mid-morning snack and she carried on. We leapfrogged each other a couple of times in the hours that followed.
The “rugged” option didn’t disappoint. The day had started cold and cloudy but soon after midday it cleared to a warm sunny afternoon. There were great views of the coast and the sea 1000 feet below. I stopped to eat my Morrison’s sandwich at the top of the steep descent into Bossington, which was the last time that day I saw my companion from earlier.
From Bossington the last few kilometres were flat, across the area known as Porlock Marsh. I got close to the village of Porlock Weir, then turned and walked back up the road to Porlock itself and my B&B.
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