There are multiple ways to walk the SWCP. Mary and Dave are walking sections and have planned them out in advance. This time they are on their way from Falmouth to Exmouth, staying in B&B's and using a bag service to ferry their bags between destinations. The benefits to this are obvious, namely; no weight to carry, a daily goal to achieve and no stress finding accommodation at the end of the day. But despite this, it lacks the ability to be spontaneous and I would not have wanted to miss out on today's improvisation.
Blue skies prevailed from the window of our pent house suite and calm waters filled Plymouth harbour this morning.

The path took us over the swing bridge at the barbican, over to the other side of the harbour and into the industrial neighbourhoods and docklands of Plymouth. Felt a little out of place rambling through this area with big packs, boots and walking sticks.
This did not seem like our SWCP but Plymouth had compensated with these large missile signs (below) replacing the rather more surreptitious wooden way marker sign with the familiar acorn. Not sure you can see in this picture but those vertical letters read South West Coast Path. It was so big we nearly missed it.

Got Curt to take a picture of my sunglasses today so I could see how ridiculous they look. Think I lost my very expensive Serengeti sunglasses in the pub in Polruan but replaced them with this pair found on a bench a couple of days later (ask and yee shall receive). Not really my style. A bit bug like/ Paris Hilton-esk but useful non the less.

And these are my new shoes. These crocs make fantastic pack shoes, an alternative to boots once at camp. They are incredibly light and very purple:

I am really stylin' on this trip"..........
On the subject of shoes.....Curt has been having issues with his boots. He brought his old leather pair (circa 1985 from Alpine Sports) which he feels are way too heavy for this path and slows him down (that's his excuse anyway). Since this revelation he has been wearing his trainers which are not appropriate either. Pete told us about this new camping shop in town which just happened to be on our path, so we stopped in. Two hours later we emerged with a new pair of boots and shirt for Curt, a smart wool teeshirt, shorts and socks for me.
Finally headed out the other side of Plymouth, which has ended up costing us a small fortune; what with the pent house suite and now our shopping spree (here's looking back to the metropolis)......

....we were back on our familiar cliffs and just after "Jenny Cliffs" we discovered this sign telling us we were over half way there to our destination Poole (only 175 1/2 miles to go!!)

After a relatively easy walk we arrived at the mouth of the beautiful river Yealm - the first of many tidal estuaries to cross.

Pete had arranged for a mutual friend of ours (not seen for 26 years) to take us across in his boat. But before then Curt had some work to take care of. For some bizarre reason he had arranged a phone interview at 5:40 pm with the Park City Fire Department for a job as an Inspector. As he counted down the minutes to 5:40 pm, he paced around the cliff staring at the cell phone, providing a non stop commentary on the state of it's signal "one bar now, no bars, two bars, three bars, no bars". As long as he stood on his head at the top of the cliff with his finger in his nose, he miraculously got a phone signal. In this position, with the wind whistling around and the sounds of the English countryside in the background he tried to pursuade his future employers of his resolute desire to be a fire inspector. Only Curt could pull this off!
With amazing promptness we were down at the ferry dock at exactly 6:30 pm and Ken was there to greet us. He not only took us to the other side of the river but took us on a tour up stream, let us drive the boat and then invited us back to stay.


We spent a wonderful impromptu evening with Ken and Wendy in Newton Ferrers (ironically iPad likes to change this word to ferret), finding that we have tons in common (namely two teenage sons and a rat). Pete came over and we sat around chatting and laughing. I found myself laughing so much more than usual - I guess it's that British humour that I know and love. I felt a real bond with them - yet another reason for me to come home to England.

So glad that I never plan anything, otherwise this evening may never have happened.
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