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SEATOWN to BURTON BRADSTOCK Stage 73 (11th October 2011)

We caught the #31 bus from Lyme Regis to pretty Chideock and walked down the bridleway past cabins and caravans to the coast at Seatown. Another steep climb up an open, grassy path leads to the top of Doghouse Hill. Then more walking along the crumbling cliff edge where we followed a saddle point ridge up to Thorncombe Beacon. A neat round barrow stands out on the nearby ridge. The descent from Thorncombe Hill is along a part of the Monarch’s Way path to Eype Mouth with lots more caravans and camp-sites. There is a single storey isolated lookout here close to the crumbly cliff which seems certain to go over the edge quite soon. From a small bridge across the stream we climbed up again, though only 50m before the descent into West Bay. The newer buildings to the west of the harbour are not attractive but there are still some charming buildings remaining around the harbour. We stopped for coffee in a new brutalist café before one more climb up to East Cliff and then an easy descent to a beach with cabins. The coast path runs along the beach before it veers inland along the edge of River Bride stream from Burton Freshwater to a tiny bridge. The SWCP crosses the bridge and heads back to the coast but we wanted to go back early to enjoy the sea view from our Lyme Regis hotel room on this bright autumn day so we walked into Burton Bradstock and caught the bus back to Lyme at 13.40. We watched the waves for hours from the Bay Hotel.
Total distance walked 9.73km Total time including stops 3h 15m Ascent 256m

The South West Coast Path is the longest of the official UK National Trails, running from Minehead in Somerset round the English south west peninsula coast to Poole in Dorset. The total length is just over 1000 kilometres or, more precisely, 630 miles. Only very dedicated walkers could contemplate completing the whole walk in one go, although plenty of people have done just this. Received opinion is that it would take around 6 weeks, even for the most dedicated.

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