Log No 292. Tue 22nd Apr 2014 - Beer to Eype, Bridport, 18 miles (4466 miles walked)

There was light rain in the air when I started walking at 07.45 and I had my waterproofs on.

The pebble beach at Beer is obviously going to be very busy as all the deckchairs are already laid out.

It was a short climb out of Beer to start with and an equally short descent to the road coming into Seaton.

It didn't look like the rain was going to come to anything and it was too warm to keep the waterproofs on so off they came before I went to look at the Low Tide Route into Seaton.

The tide wasn't really low enough but as the normal route was for some reason diverted I decided to walk over the rocks.

Coming out of Seaton the route went inland and across the golf course onto a bridleway. The turn off for the footpath to the coast had a closure notice as there was a cliff fall at Culverhole Point and the advice was to take the bus to Lyme Regis.

I continued on the bridleway and minor roads for 3 miles to get onto the main road.

The minor road had no traffic on it and was good to walk along. The naturalists among you can tell me what this butterfly is, the underside of the wings were speckled green and white providing perfect camouflage on the flowers when the wings were closed. It is a bit smaller than a Tortoiseshell butterfly.

I met another backpacker on the main road, Scott was walking for Cancer Research and had set off from London on Thursday. I don't know where his final destination was meant to be but he said his shins were too painful to carry on so he'd be calling it a day today. He hadn't been prepared for carrying a heavy rucsac.

After a half hour on the main road I was able to get back on the Coast Path just a mile before Lyme Regis.

It was 11.15 and apart from some shopping in Tescos at Seaton I hadn't stopped yet, I didn't have any sandwiches made up for today so I stopped for a Full English Breakfast. There is hardly any slack left on my rucsac belt, before much longer I'll not be able to tighten it enough for my hips to take the weight.

It was an odd beach at Lyme Regis, it was all sand on the west side of a small wall while the other side was nearly all pebbles.

Another diversion coming out of Lyme Regis went through a small wood then a golf course, I had to stop here to don waterproofs as it started to rain heavily, and onto the roads into Charmouth.

These diversions must have been in place for a while as the signs looked old.

I got to the sea front in Charmouth only to be redirected back inland again, this was becoming a bit annoying.

I went up a steep minor road to a NT car park and while I was contemplating how to get back on the Coast Path got talking to an old couple out with their dog. She new all the paths in the area and told me the easiest way to get to Seatown, she said there is no point going up and down the hills of the coast as you can't see anything in this mist anyway.

I followed her advice and just had to climb up one big hill a mile from Seatown.

There were three hang gliders up which I thought was a bit risky with the low cloud and there didn't seem that much wind either, the one guy didn't seem to be able that much height. The weather did seem to be improving a bit with the rain stopping.

From Seatown I had 2 miles to go and one last big hill and I got to the campsite at Eype, near Bridport, for 16.15.

With all the diversions I walked further than expected and did 18 miles.