South Devon Day 4 - Salcombe to Strete

No washing of our fish here then. Better not rinse our dirty socks either!

Guess what! First thing is another ferry crossing - This is costing more than the B&B's.

After the ferry, we headed alongside 'The Bar' as Salcombe slowly disappeared behind us.

Around 'The Bull' as our legs warmed up for the day ahead.

The narrow path meandered it's way along the coast - We could see plenty of ups and downs ahead of us, so this may be a reasonably tough one too.

Bolt Head can still be seen in the distance.

The strangely named Shag Rock.

Heading towards the jagged Gammon Head.

Now looking ahead to Prawle Point. At this point we met a group of four walkers, after chatting to them for a while it was revealed that one of them possessed mystical powers. We asked the 'witch' to rustle up some seals for us, as we hadn't seen any for a couple of days. She dutifully obliged and within the hour we were taking photo's of loads of them! Spooky eh!

Yet another secluded beach just past Gammon Head - Not sure you can get down to this one, but we enjoyed watching the Shags fishing in the sea and returning to their cliff side nests to feed their young (we assume these were shags from pictures). Bird wildlife is certainly not our area of expertise. We certainly spotted loads of Kestrels hunting right on the coastline - they were very easy to identify.

The first of many Lookout Stations - This one at Prawle Point had a small visitor centre, and we soon found out that all the rest along the coast seemed to have them too. It was really interesting looking at real time radar of the ships going through that part of the channel plus a map of all the wrecks along the visible coastline. We had actually passed a big tanker wreck a few miles up the coast and didn't spot it ! Must have been bird watching at the time!

Lannacombe Beach.

The path works its way towards Sleadon Rocks

Sleaden Rocks just before Start Point - And there we have our basking seals. That witch can certainly do her stuff ! Good job we were nice to that bunch.

Following us along the coastline towards Start Point.

Start Point. It's not really the 'start point' as such, as we've already walked 462 miles from Minehead to get here - finish point would probably be more accurate on that basis, but there's still 168 miles to go to Poole. Maybe two thirds point??? Whatever - it's an impressive headland with its own lighthouse all the same.

Heading round Start Point - The huge 'Start Bay' can be seen, it goes all the way round to just about Dartmouth. Looks like a lot of easier walking for the rest of the day.

Told you it was 168 miles to Poole - How did I know that ? We did initially consider doing this 4th stretch in one go, but decided it was just a tad too much coastal walking in one hit, why spoil a good thing - So we left a simple 85 miles for another day by finishing in Lyme Regis. This means we can have one last visit to the place we love and enjoy so much.

The devastated and lost village of Old Hallsands. Reading the excellent information boards - On a stormy night a hundred years ago, the fishing village collapsed into the sea. The entire village was destroyed together with the livelihoods of its people. For decades the fishing village of Hallsands and its stunning coastline had been at the mercy of the forces of nature. But it wasn't nature that led to the dozens of homes being washed into the sea on a fateful night in January 1917. It was the foolishness of man that obliterated this small Devon village forever. Dredging of shingle between Hallsands and Beesands for the expansion of the Naval dockyard at Keyham 30 miles away was the cause. The village was doomed after that and some years later during terrible storms the village was lost to the sea - miraculously, no lives were lost - but no homes, just the chapel remained.

Lunch on the shingle beach at Hallsands.

Heading away from Beesands.

An ice cream and cold drink stop at Torcross was followed soon after by a visit to a very significant war memorial. The Slapton Sands Disaster is one of the greatest cover ups of American military history. With many deaths, few survivors, and a cover up by the American government, the Slapton Sands Disaster was a pivotal event during WWII. On the morning of April 28, 1944, on this very beach, the Americans were practicing for the D-Day landings. Unfortunately, German torpedo boats had been detected, but due to a communication error warnings did not reach the US landing craft. Out of 8 ships, 5 survived the attack. Two were sunk and one was badly damaged. 749 Allied soldiers died in this attack while around 100 were wounded. There are also reports of friendly fire incidents which compounded the severity of this day, but these remain unproven. The fact that I find most ironical, is that, more US soldiers died at Slapton Sands, than during the actual invasion on Utah Beach.

After all that reading, we gathered our thoughts and discussed the events all along the Slapton Sands path.

To cater for all the US soldiers stationed there - Many villages in South Hams were temporarily evacuated in 1944, including Slapton and Strete, where we are staying tonight.

Two pubs - one fire damaged and the other closed on Mondays! Are we going to have the first drink-less night in 10 years of long distance walking?

As if to lighten our conversation from the tragedy a couple of miles back , we passed a very interesting place! Took us a while to get past this beach, must be the tired legs!!

Arrival in Strete and the Roxburgh B&B. Ingrid the owner informed us that the village pub was closed on Mondays - Damm ! So was the Queens at Slapton and my fall back plan of having a night out in Dartmouth using taxis, was also a non starter as the road was closed at Stoke Fleming. But Ingrid came to our rescue by dropping us off at the Start Inn at Torcross and then coming to pick us back up a couple of hours later - What a star!