Day 46 - Thursday October 14th.

At about 6.30 I had my breakfast - pasta bolognese. Never had a breakfast like this before but it was good in the circumstances! I left the hostel at 7.20am and the Coast Path is right between the Youth Hostel and the Witchcraft Museum so it took no time at all to resume the walk. By 8.28am I had reached the top of Fire Beacon Point - some climb. By 9.30am I reached the top of the aptly named High Cliff which at 723 feet is one of the highest cliffs in the south of England. By 10.30 I reached Crackington Haven and took a break to write some cards and have a pot of tea. This first part of todays walk was more demanding than I had been led to believe. At 11.30am I set off again from Crackington and pressed on over some demanding ups and downs until I got to Dizzard Point. On my way down I stopped and chatted to a couple about my walk saying that I had started from Dover on August 30th. I then continued down and then up the other side which was a bit like the ups on the Branscome to Sidmouth section in Dorset. At the top it was 1.00pm and there was a bench so I sat down to eat lunch. I had already noticed that the couple had stopped to talk to others also coming in my direction. They arrived at the top of Dizzard Point as I was getting ready to move on and they asked if it was true that I had started in Dover on August 30th. So they asked about being able to follow it on the web so if you have logged on to "Dudley's Dawdle" - welcome!

At Dizzard Point there was sign indicating 132 miles to Minehead - the end is in sight. So by now this is down to about 125 miles.

Once past Dizzard Point the walk got a bit easier with stretches of hill top plateau but with more ups and downs from time to time. At Millook I had walk down the road into the hamlet and then another long uphill slope to the plateau level. Then there was quite a long stretch on the road as the cliff path was no longer usable due to landslip and then down into Widemouth [pronounced Widmouth so I am told]. Once across Widemouth Sand the remaining stretch was parallel to the road at the top of relatively low cliffs and was an easy walk eventually leading me into Bude by the west side of the canal, from where I was collected by John my host for tonight. I arrived in Bude at 4.40pm.

Distance travelled today 17 miles - but quite physical miles although not unduly demanding. The terrain makes progress slower.