Coast challenge update week 2

Accomplished the second stage of my Coast Path mission this morning and am typing this while the mud is still wet on my abused trainers. Today I ran a point-to-point route instead of having to loop back to get the car so managed to clock up a decent number of miles which looks like a satisfying wedge on the map and has left me feeling extremely positive about the challenge, which is good because I know have my sponsorship page set up on Just Giving and have started collecting money so there is no turning back now! My sponsorship page can be found here.

Today the weather was great, which also helped me enjoy the run and made for some pretty photo opportunities. In fact, it was easy to get too carried away with taking pictures and I had to make myself stop because the view was getting better with every turn and I was spending more time getting my phone out than actually running. For the most part the Coast Path clung to the cliffs in this section, making it much easier to follow because as long as the sea was on my right hand side I was going the right way! The first part was particularly gorgeous, leading up to the Valley of Rocks and Mother Meldrum's Cave and other romantically named beauty spots, and inhabited by baby wild goats and sweet Exmoor ponies. In fact I didn't see another human from leaving Lynton until I passed a lone farmer with his dogs at Heddon's Mouth. It was blissful!

The biggest challenge this time was not losing the path or negotiating the hills, but the amount of mud when I had to cross the moors in the National Trust section of the path near the end. It was so slippery that I kept sliding and almost going head first into the black mud and had to take the hills extremely cautiously to avoid ending up on my butt. My trainers quickly became soaked through and never got the chance to dry out, and my trousers became heavy with mud. It was interesting how the colours of the scenery changed so much in this part, with the deep black earth and straw yellow bracken lining the hills instead of the reddy-brown woodland along previous parts of the route. It made the sea look less blue and more grey, threatening. There was still snow on some parts of Exmoor too, which didn't help the slipperyness but did make it more interesting. The miles pass really quickly when you are having to focus on where you are treading and maintaining your balance, so that's another good thing about doing scenic runs rather than just pounding the pavements around town. Guess I'm already looking forward to running the next part!


Route week 2:

Dropped off in Lynton- Watersway- Valley of Rocks- Lee Bay- Woody Bay- Martinhoe- Heddon's Mouth- Trentishoe- Holdstone Down (National Trust park)- Stony Corner (Combe Martin) to be picked up again. 12.5 miles in total.

Distance on Coast Path:

15 miles to date.

Map: