Let’s start at the very beginning

I remember I was nervously excited to begin walking the South West Coast Path from its very beginning, with the full 630 miles ahead of us. It had been a long time in the planning and, while I had all sorts of feelings of trepidation about my fitness levels, not to mention the logistics, it felt like quite a moment to be setting out at long last. Day one was a relatively easy introduction, graded as moderate, and only 8.9 miles of walking: small fry compared with our practice walks in Dorset.

Earlier that morning, we’d left our car in a quiet side street in Combe Martin, our destination in three days’ time, and with precision timing, Taxi Ash appeared, just as he’d said he would, to deliver us back to Minehead. As we headed back up coast, he gently pulled our leg about the difficulty of the walk that was facing us over the next three days and reminded us that he would be happy to pick us up at any time if it all became too much … 

After waving goodbye to Taxi Ash, our first mission was to stop for a fortifying breakfast; it was still quite early and we’d left home before dawn. And then we were on our way, after taking the obligatory selfie at the monument that marks the start of the trail. It was a level walk out of Minehead but soon the path started to zig-zag up through the woods, giving an early warning of what was to come over the next 600 miles. My memory of the next section is a little hazy (it’s 15 months since we walked it) but I recall a combination of beautiful coastal moorland (this is the edge of Exmoor), combes and bluebells, all set against the greyest, drizzliest backdrop imaginable. We could barely see the Bristol Channel, let alone the promised views of Wales in the distance; I realise I hardly took any photos, so murky were the conditions. But still, it was good to be walking, not to mention an excellent test of our waterproofs. Does anyone else get excited about beading?

Eventually, the path descended into Bossington, a chocolate-box hamlet of thatched cottages and tea rooms where I could have quite happily stayed for a while, and then on across Porlock Marsh, a strange, atmospheric landscape of saltmarsh and skeletal trees, the result of a storm in 1996, when the shingle ridge was breached. It was decided to let nature take its course, rather than rebuilding the ridge; now the seawater washes through into the marshes and mixes with the freshwater from the hills above, creating a saltmarsh. It’s a fascinating landscape with a wild, bleak beauty all of its own and a special habitat for all kinds of plants, birds and marine life. Eminently Instagrammable, of course. 

Soon after, we arrived at the grey-pink boulders of Porlock Beach and then on to Porlock Weir, a timeless beaut of a coastal hamlet unlike anywhere else and one of the few places that could turn my head from Dorset. It has a tiny harbour, fishing boats, and thatched cottages almost directly on the beach, all set against the lush green backdrop of Exmoor. It’s completely magical, although on this day it was also completely wet; luckily the bar staff at the Ship Inn (the Bottom Ship to be precise, so as to distinguish between this and the other Ship Inn up the road in Porlock) didn’t seem to mind too much as we dripped in and ordered a pint of pale ale and a packet of salt and vinegar, our standard post-walk treat.

There are rooms at the Bottom Ship but we treated ourselves to a night at Locanda on the Weir, a place we’d stayed at a few months before when doing a recce visit to the area. This is a really lovely, newish boutique inn run by the hospitable Cindy and Pio. The restaurant serves classic Italian dishes influenced by Exmoor’s produce as well as top-quality pizzas and some wholesome vegan options. In fact, the cooked vegan breakfast the next morning was dazzlingly good, preceded by a (genuinely) delicious green detox juice and coconut and berry chia pot. Bodies duly transformed into temples, we laced up our walking boots and headed off for Lynton.

Need to know

OS Map: OL9 Explorer map of Exmoor

Refreshments: Lots of choice in Minehead and at least one tea room in Bossington. We’ve only eaten at Locanda on the Weir in Porlock Weir but the Bottom Ship serves food too, and there’s a café within a gallery plus Ziangs, an oriental streetfood takeaway with its own YouTube channel that’s highly rated on TripAdvisor. 

Accommodation: We stayed at Locanda on the Weir but you have a few other options, including the newly refurbished Porlock Weir Hotel.

Distance: 9 miles

Duration: 4.5 hours

Rating: Moderate