Enjoy a cooked breakfast in our Seaton holiday home before packing sandwiches and heading back to Lyme Regis, thankfully by the time we leave the car the drizzle has stopped and I’m wondering why I brought a cardigan? Wander down to the Cobb where we left off yesterday. Heather and Mark have joined us for these few days walking.

The coast path takes us round the Cobb, into a car park, passed the bowling green and up some steps into a little woodland area. We meander through the paths, coming out eventually on a little road, turning west towards Seaton.

We soon come across a sign saying “Coast Path – please note that it takes approximately 3 1/2 – 4 hours to walk to Seaton. The terrain can be difficult and walking arduous. There is no permitted access to the sea or inland along this stretch of the path“… there’s no turning back or turning off we are heading in single file for the next seven miles!

For the vast majority of this walk we are 50 metres or so from the beach, in deep woodland, barely hearing the sound of the sea, with cliffs to the other side. The narrow pathway has plentiful exposed tree roots and flint to trip us up, along with wet wood edged steps to slip us up – therefore we are deep in concentration most of the way. I’m very glad to have brought my new Nordic walking poles with me for the first time on my coast walk.

We pop out occasionally into clearings, admire the view and take the opportunity for a snack. It’s so lovely to see the glistening blue sky reflected in the blue sea and hear the sea crashing onto the rocks, but we know we must keep going.

Very occasionally the path widens for us to all walk along together, and at one point we pass a tiny little dwelling in the woods – the residents pottering in their garden. A brick chimney at Rousden Cliffs and a sheep wash just beyond tell us the long ago story of a world of sheep farming with open pasture and a pumping station for the Peek Estate, with cottages dotted around the cliff tops. This all changed in 1839 when there was a significant landslide, the now lower pasture was inaccessible hence left for woodland to take over.

The lower storey within the woodland is predominantly extremely lush Hart’s Tongue Fern, but as it opens up a bit, especially at Goat Island, wild flowers are starting to peep through. Bees and butterflies and bugs are everywhere – our last snack stop in a wild flower meadow has us enjoying watching a kestrel hovering over the scrubland cliff edge and diving down for prey.

The path then heads inland a little over fields of wheat then sweep down across the golf course, passed the clubhouse to the wide expanse of the river Axe. We turn left along the road for a short stretch before crossing Britain’s oldest standing concrete bridge, now replaced for road traffic but still open for pedestrians – on the other side a cute little dwelling turns out to be the toll booth.

Along Seaton seafront we resist the temptation to buy refreshments as we are keen for a shower and to return to Lyme Regis to collect the car and sample another flavour from our new favourite ice cream kiosk.