Advice needed & TR's for SWCP

Quoted message said:

We're off for a third go in October, walking Barnstaple to Bude. I was
wondering if anyone had any advice/warnings (other than "don't walk the
coast path in the wettest month of the year"!). Good pubs with cheap
but hearty food in Bideford, Clovelly & Barnstaple would be especially
helpful.

My main comment is that it is quite a varied section; to the east the
going is very easy as you walk around the Taw and Torridge estuaries,
whilst the section from Hartland Point to Bude is probably the hardest
section of National Trail that I have ever done (I did it in February,
which did not help).

Cannot help much with pubs, I am afraid, but he pub at Hartland Quay
was very friendly, and would be a good place to stop ready for the hard
last day - ISTR that they do accommodation.

My pages on the SWCP are at:
http://www.britishwalks.org/walks/Named/NationalTrails/SWCP.php

HTH,
..David.
P.s: BTW, your interactive map on the countytops page does no work
under Firefox; the Javascript is not picking up the name in the table.
Try having the same string in both the id="" and name="" tags.

[email hidden] wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

We've finally got around to doing reports for our two previous jaunts
along the south west coast path. Here's the links if you're
interested:

Poole to Portland:
http://www.wheresthepath.com/SWCP/swcp_1_poole_weymouth_intro.htm

Enjoyed reading the TR. The Purbecks are not far away from home so I
walk here often.

On day 3 you are missing the web site for the Lulworth range opening
times. The link I have is:
http://www.defence-estates.mod.uk/access/walks/accopplocations/accopp_lulworth.htm

John

David / John,

Many thanks for your comments re our web site,

John - thanks for the web link I'll add this in next time i do a update
(I didn't get around to findng it before i uploaded the TR, then forgot
it was missing)

David - re firefox I'm currentally trying to make sure that our site is
cross browser compatiable but some pages (Interactive County Top Map
for example) are proving more difficult than others, so please bear
with me, but thanks for the suggestions on how to fix it.

Please feel free to e-mail us with any other comments on the website :
queriesATwheresthepathDOTcom

Many Thanks

James

Jim - Hi,how goes it? Wish I'd got a photo of you trying out your new
waterproofs in the shower! Any chance of getting a SWCP links page on
our site & adding David's website?

John - I'm jealous; Purbeck is gorgeous, I wish I lived closer...

David - Your experiences of Hartland Quay to Bude tie up with the
general opinion that it's the hardest section of the SWCP. I shall
look forward to it with trepidation - I'm dreading something harder
than Swanage to Kimmeridge which nearly killed me! We're already
booked into Hartland Quay on the simple grounds that with the nearby
YHA closed for the winter there's no other realistic option!

I've actually already got your website in my favourites and enjoy your
reports. One question though - you used to have a separate list of the
county tops, but with your new style website this seems to have been
assimilated into the rest of your walks - is there any easy way to
track down county top reports in your website now? And out of interest,
which have been your favourite/least favourite county tops so far?

Thanks for your replies.

Cheers

Anth

Hello Anth,

The county tops page is at
http://www.britishwalks.org/walks/Counties/CountyTops.php. It is a page
that I hope to redesign soon, but links to the individual walks are
available in the 'Visited' column.

I have not actually done any new ones this year (only repeat ones),
although I hope to alter that situation soon. The two of you are making
great strides on reaching your target, whilst I am slacking somewhat
;-)

Aas for favourites; I am unsure. In a perverse way it is probably
Kinder Scout, but only because it is a place that I love and I have
done much walking on it over the years. However I am unsure if I found
the actual top, which is a good excuse for another trip...Bardon Hill
is also a surprisingly spectacular place - it should not be, with the
quarry so near the top, but the views over the Leicestershire plains
were spectacular, and the place was earilly quiet.

My least favourite is probably The Cambridgeshire and Essex ones; I
live very near to them (and they were some of the first that I have
done), so I can see myself redoing them this year to get photos and to
see if they were as bad as I remember them.

What are yours?

Cheers,
..David.

Our favourite so far is probably Foel Cwmcerwyn in Pembrokeshire - a
reasonably pointy one, no-one else around & spectacular views.
Worcester Beacon (Worcestershire) & Bardon Hill (Leicestershire) were
also well up there. I'd love to revisit Worcester Beacon when it was
quieter & less misty though! Of the urban unitary authorities, Halton
Castle (Halton UA) was so good we did it twice! Many of the Birmingham
UA's are surprisingly good too.

We loved Milk Hill (Wiltshire) and Moel Famau (Flintshire) too, but I
think our enjoyment was boosted by snow. Having said that, the North
Wessex Downs are probably my favourite bit of walking country, so Milk
Hill would always come high up in any ranking!

As to least favourites, here the UA's fall down badly - Slough &
Southend were both topped by dog poo bins, for instance, whilst
Bournemouth was at a garage by a busy roundabout. The worst of all
though was probably Kent, simply because we had to walk half a mile
down a busy A-road with no pavements to reach it. I don't envy you
revisiting Cambridgeshire either...

Unfortunately I think our "great strides" will slow up to a tired
hobble soon - we've almost run out of tops in daytrip distance. We
might start on the Ridgeway or the Capital Ring instead to fill in
time...

Good luck with your list!

Anth

[email hidden] wrote in news:1127427712.972102.80150
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Quoted message said:

John - I'm jealous; Purbeck is gorgeous, I wish I lived closer...

Last Wednesday, I did the first bit (Poole end) of the SWCP. I parked on
the ferry road (opposite the NT bird hide), walked towards the ferry a bit
along side the little sea until I could cut across to the beach. There were
several naturists about (not a pretty sight) so I kept close to the sea. I
usually take a packed lunch, but not today so I needed to find somewhere to
eat. I didn't fancy the two NT cafes which were full of grockles so quickly
passed these. I had to detour up the cliff at Redend cliff due to the tide
and found Fort Henry at the top
(http://www.thedorsetpage.com/locations/Place/S340.htm). I realised that I
had never been there before, despite living in the area all my life.

Further on I came to a wooden shed just above the beach describing itself
as Joe's Cafe. I had heard of this, but never tried it, so now was my
chance. They serve mostly Organic Fairtrade products, and I had a large
bowl of homemade vegetable soup with crusty bread, followed by icecream.
Recommended.

I then went up Ballard down, West to the Obelisk, North to the Agglestone
and back to the car.

John