SW coast path - anyone done it? How?

[YogaLite]

Great outdoors a bit quiet so posting here.

Plenty of self-guided walks advice sites but I am struggling to find a companion. Happy to do it a week at a time, don't want to camp so would want b+b. There are some companies organising guided walks but they don't seem to be taking in the whole path.

Any inspiration?

@Eatmoremango, you and your children sound awesome, u should write a book!

How did you do it with family, did u use 2 cars or used public transport? Did you stay in one place and travelled out to walk?

@yogalite Thanks! We only used public transport. Took a train (and maybe a further bus if reqd), then walked for a week to ten days to somewhere we could get a train back home.

I used a baggage transport service when the kids were young but I still carried a pack with all sorts of emergency things in it. I didn’t want to end up on the front page of the DMail as a totally crazy negligent parent whose kids got hypothermia while being forced to march up and down hills. Kids were 10 and 7 when we started. 16 and barely 14 when we finished. They carried their own packs for the last two years. I’ve been teaching my kids how to carry packs and do extended hikes but honestly, if you’ve got the means, the baggage service makes it a whole lot easier, especially when you start out and are finding your hiking legs.

We stayed at a B&B or pub along the route each night which I thought was helpful when the kids were younger bc they had the feeling of moving forward and it avoided having to sort out transport. Only place we didn’t do that was the Lizard. I made sure that we we always had time to go to the beach each day, even if we just threw rocks into the waves.

We also ate a lot of scones! That was real motivation.

What an achievement @Eatmoremango!

Last question, did you book b+b's far in advance or just a day or two? Not sure how the locals respond to short notice bookings, I recently made some enquiries and a few said that they wouldnt accept less than 3 nights, admittedly I was asking in school holidays.

Another good book is Simon Armitage's Walking Away

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571298362?encoding=UTF8&isInIframe=0&n=266239&reff=dpproddescc0&s=books&showDetailProductDesc=1#product-descriptionfeaturee_div

Though it definitely gave me pause for thought as it seemed really hard going!

I also feel I would like to have a freedom to stop and soak up the views when I feel like rather than press on regardless, that's why I would prefer a very small group.

Thank you for the recommendation @starlingsintheslipstream

We're doing the Welsh coastal path in sections and bought a caravan to get us round.

@yogalite I did have to book in advance because I was limited to walking during school holiday times and also because I needed rooms that slept three. I’ve heard that outside of peak holidays, you can just try your luck. More places are finally having online bookings because it was a pain to ring random BnBs.

There are a handful of places along the path that have nowhere to stay or very limited spots to stay. You need to watch out for them. The guidebook highlights them. There were two places on the last leg where I had trouble but Airbnb had places nearby (before the River Yealm was one of them, that’s a tidal crossing so you need to get there at the right time).

You are stuck with whatever the weather throws at you. Incredibly, we only had two days of rain. There were several cloudy days. We finished the hike on the day before the really hot day this year so got to relax at Bournemouth.

@Anybodywantachip That looks a great walk. I’m thinking about it.

I read a blog a while ago about a family of 10(?) who started walking the Appalachian Way in the US. A week or so in, they bought a campervan and one of the adults would drive it to the next spot and meet the rest of them. It sounded like an excellent plan.

Thanks guys, it would be great to do it with support.
@Anybodywantachip, have seen a book title escapes me, by someone who walked Welsh path. Will be reading that too. Have walked a short stretch last year, cam across a rather frightening barely visible quarry which had no warning sign, but lived to tell the tale.
Oh, to do it in friendly company....such an adventure.

Starting this year but only weekends.

We park the car at one end and then use buses or trains to get to the starting point and walk back. In some areas we have to use taxis which can cost a lot.
We have talked about getting electric bikes to drop at one end of the walk but not got round to it.
We got the caravan because we were so sick of paying huge amounts for hotels or a B&B and then having to eat out. It was costing a fortune. We got a second hand caravan (12 years old) and we can normally find a site close to the stretch we want to walk.
We've done about half of it now, with another 450 miles to go. It is a breathtakingly beautiful walk.

If you want any company for Tyneham to Poole let me know

If you want some mega inspiration look into Pete mears pale blue dot.

@FiveGoMadInDorset
We will probably be going the other way, from Poole west. For some strange reason I want to walk west.
How about from Tyneham west? Will pm you mid-Sep when the plans are more certain (only thinking to start this year).

If anyone is interested doing it with 2 cars, I am definitely up for it.

@Wellandtrulyoutnumbered, thank u for the recommendation!

@AnybodyWantAChip
Would love to do Wales too... it's now or never and I fancy a big adventure :)

I've done several bits of it over various weekends/weeks - adding up to about 300 odd miles. Usually in stints of 5 - 8 miles of the kids are with us or 20-30 miles if they aren't.

I will say though that some sections of it are HARD. Properly hard, like it's only a few miles but it takes all day and there is nowhere to get off the path hard. The section called the Undercliffe that leads into Lyme Regis is supposed to be harder than the trek to base camp at Everest. Certainly we ended up crawling over, under and through fallen trees.

DH and I once booked out a whole week to walk the Penzance to St Ives section (camping so carrying all we needed).

We pushed too hard on the first day after the first section to Lamorna was really easy... we decided to head on to Porthcurno... oh my god. That section was hellish. It took us 2 hours to travel half a mile as it was all steep climbs over jagged sharp rocks.

This meant that I had threw a hissy fit on the morning of the third day when we woke up in Sennen and we decided to get a taxi to the next campsite in Levant and just stay there for the rest of the week - walking out as we fancied.

If you look on the website for the South West Cost Path you will see that they have divided the path into doable sections.

Good luck - it's a fabulous place! You'll walk past my favourite place on the world, Botallack, and past the best little holiday cottage ever, Wheal Call.

Gratuitous SWCP pics attached.

And if any of my friends recognise my photos.... hi! Please don't out me

@FiveGoMadInDorset - that bit of the Coast Path is my nemesis. The climb up from Lulworth to the top of Moop Bay and the climb on the other side up to Flowers Barrow have been renamed as "the big bastards". I don't mind going down Flowers Barrow because I tend to just sit on my arse and slide down!

@LadyFlumpalot know 😂😂

If you turn right at the bottom of Flowers Barrow you get to my house

@LadyFlumpalot, great photos!
I think the hardest walk so far I did was Pug trail on Snowdon one April with snow on the ground, especially the zig zag section. Hope the path is no worse than that?

I am not planning to race it so hopefully do-able..

I read a great book many decades ago called 500 mile walkies. By a bloke who did it with his dog.

DH and I walked the section from Exmouth to Lyme Regis last summer. We took it slowly, stayed at B&Bs and guest houses, which we booked in advance. We used a company called Luggage Transfers who collected our bags every morning and they were waiting at our next stop when we arrived - very civilised and good value! Going to walk the rest over time hopefully, will do the same.

I have printed this thread for the future reference, I think initially I am thinking 10 miles per day or so, but need to allow for hills of course.

@swimlyn, @SleepyKat
Thank you for recommending 500 miles walkies, found it in the library and reading it now, it's brilliant

The copy I have also has Thames path in it.