Beer to Lyme Regis. 23/4/11 - 11 miles

The French Lieutenants woman chose a great area to wander enigmatically - we just love the undercliffe.

Its an amazingly hot April day. By the time of our mid afternoon departure from Beer the beach is packed. Nobody venturing into the sea though, climate change has not gone that far. And this time we have brought a camera. The blog gets illustrated! Sensational.

After the mile or so of cliff path we enter Seaton along the beach from the Seaton Hole end. There are those who feel the whole town could be thus named. Today at least it provides a welcome ice cream. We speculate on what the new building in the low lying end of town by the Axe might turn into. So its with some relief that we head up through the golf course and apporach the undercliffe walk.

We manage to get past the fields of rape seed in full on yellow overkill without sneezing and the nature reserve boudary heralds a transformation into a unique, wild and slendid six miles of woods, ridges and wildflowers with the occaisional sea view. On days like this remote parts of the south coast can feel very mediterreanean.

We are impressed at how nature has reclaimed these landslips from turnip crops in the nineteenth century. The information boards are helpful , and also carry warnings about there being no exit from this path, and how straying from it risks going down a ravine. Sometimes in this country warning signs can appear a bit over the top, but not here. It really is a challenging few miles, with lots of ascents and descents, wooden steps, and very few other punters.

We pause for rest quite regularly, and have lunch on a conveneintly shaped tree (see the intro page to this blog). There is a fabulous natural avenue of wild garlik, and lots of beetles and varied ferns and woodland plants, many of which we fail to identify. As the afternoon gets later, the birdsong takes of. At one of our rests the  wilderness atmosphere is particularly strong. A comments that she can image a T- rex showing up at some point. J has his camera, but the battery gives up in the middle of this great photogenic highlight. A's is charged up however so if a dino appears, we will be ready.
However we see no extinct creatures despite slight dehydration and after 3 hours we arrive into Lyme and take malted refreshment at the Harbourside pub and allow our endorphines to settle after a stretch we were looking forward to, but exceeded expectations.