Shaldon to St Matychurch (on the outskirts of Torquay) 9 km along the coast and 11.4 inland
Most of section 56 in the SWCPA handbook
Talking to someone on the campsite he told us that he was running an “Ultra-marathon” from Kingswear back to Shaldon in the morning – this meant that he needed to catch a bus from the Ness at the other end of Shaldon at 6:30.
However, we only started from the campsite at 11am and walked back to the Ferry and so re-joined the official coastal path. Just a little further were the marshals for the end of the race, actually a 10km, a half marathon and the 30mile ultra that our friend from the campsite had entered. Only one runner had come back so far in the 10km race, and the marshals were expecting to stay till 6pm, the cut off for the Ultra.
So, the start of our walk, or the end for the runners, was a fairy steep assent, with tree roots, giving splendid views back to Dawlish and right along the coast.
After a fairly steep grassy climb we met the official photographer for the running event who managed to make most of the runner smile as they were getting towards the end. Here we also met a fellow walker who I will call Peter, as that was his name.
The SWCPA guide describes this section as strenuous, but with a quick look at the map you wonder why. The answer is quite simple, although there are no dramatic hills it is continually up and down with a mixture of slopes and steps, nothing dramatic but continuous.
As we continued, we met runners, first from the 10km, then the half marathon and then the Ultra and hopefully gave them a little encouragement.
