South West Coast Path

There is one other adventure lined up before the big one next year, which is for me and my eldest daughter to walk a section of the South West Coast Path (SWCP) – from Penzance to Falmouth. The walking starts on Sunday, covering 60 miles over a week, which I have tried to judge to make sure that my daughter doesn’t decide to go on strike halfway through.

It is absolutely teeming down with rain today. Luckily we’re just at home, making final preparations before we set off for Penzance on the train tomorrow.

At least there is no sign of the tropical heat wave that was forecast for the end of July, so we should be walking in more normal “English” conditions, i.e. drizzle interspersed with medium rain, with occasional heavy showers timed for whenever you hope to stop for a picnic.

I have tried to instigate a new approach to packing, in preparation for our big trip next year, but this has only been partially successful. I blame the fact that for next week we are going to have the luxury of luggage transfers between each overnight stop, so the pressure isn’t really on to minimize our stuff.

Looking forward to the train journey tomorrow, as a few weeks ago I somehow managed to book seats in the first class carriage for less than the price of the standard seats. This seems to be possible every so often, although I don’t understand why. To be honest the only real difference in first class is that you get slightly wider seats, which I presume is related to the availability of free snacks, thus requiring that little extra wiggle room for your first class regulars.

The train journey is also very scenic, with the line built practically on the beach between Exmouth and Dawlish Warren, and so it ought to be a pleasant 4 hour journey down from Bristol, before the walking starts in earnest on Sunday.