About Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi, my name is Doug,

I am 64 years old at the time of writing this blog, (65now), semi-retired, working just 3 full days a week (I don't fully retire until my UK state pension kicks in, which is at 66 in my case).

I live with my partner Lou, my 14-year-old daughter Molly and Maggie our Border Collie. I also have three grown up children, who have long since fled the nest, and five grandchildren.

I have worked all my life in Farming, Gardening and Estate management, jobs that have always been very physical and kept me fit and healthy, a belief to be disproved somewhat when I start my Coast Path walking.  My hobbies, when time allows, include Walking, Photography, Videography and Camping (or campervanning). However, I think I am deluding myself a little with my little list of hobbies. Walking seems to be mainly limited to taking the dog out to do her ablutions (which I always pick up) and flinging a tennis ball across a field with one of those chucker things for her to bring back to me, cursing when she decides she’s had enough, and I have to go and fetch the bloody thing myself. Campervanning is out of the question now as we have sold our van due to lack of time and money to use it, and we haven’t bought a tent yet, so I guess camping is more of an intention than a reality. I used to do a lot of camping 40 odd years ago so I guess that kind of counts. As for Photography, that was more a case of taking pictures of the kids as they were growing up then sending the roll of film off to ‘Truprint’ and wait for the photos to come back in the post, usually with a sticker on some of them explaining why they couldn’t be processed properly, basically correctly blaming me for any errors. To be fair though, I have embraced the digital era, and I am the proud owner of two high end mirrorless digital cameras and various lenses and some fancy software on my PC that promises to make my pictures look amazing. But, okay, the reality is that 100% of the photographs I take are on the phone in my pocket and there they stay. However, in my defence, they do say that the best camera you can use is the one you have on you, and this is correct in my case, (except when I forget my phone).

Videography was again mainly filming my children growing up, to have a record for them to look back on and show to their kids in the future.  I can remember the days of taking them for days out with one young child in a pushchair, one on my shoulders and one holding my hand. I would have a rucksack on my back with a picnic in it, a big VHS-C camera in a bag over my shoulder and an old Olympus OM-10 film camera around my neck (usually with a heavy zoom lens on it).  How I managed to film anything God only knows. 

I was a member of a local video club at the time (Morecambe Bay Movie Makers) where I’d hoped to learn how to edit my growing collection of tapes into masterpieces but all I could do was look longingly at the very expensive analogue kit that others had to edit with. It was very expensive to set up to edit back then and there was no way I could ever afford it with a young family.  I have recently begun to digitise these tapes (which have been gathering dust in a box on top of a wardrobe for years) as it is so simple and inexpensive to do nowadays.

I was born and brought up in the Northwest of England (mainly around North Manchester (Simister Village) & Morecambe Bay), but I have lived and worked in the Southwest of England for 26 years at the time of writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why this walk and why now

 

This brings me onto the whole point of this blog. Most people I know, of my age, have a bucket list of all the things they want to achieve or do in life before they get too old, travel the world, go on a cruise, sky dive etc. Skydiving is out for me as you would never even get me on a plane, let alone jump out of the bloody thing while its up there!  Ain't gonna happen. The only thing that is really on my bucket list, other than to see that all my family are happy and healthy, is to walk the whole of the South West Coast Path.  It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and was always going to do but never quite got round to doing. There has always been a reason not to do things in my life, time, family commitments, work, etc. 

I have noticed that tasks at work and home are taking a little longer to complete these days, a fact that I have refused to acknowledge as the years progress…..until now. Yes, things are taking longer to do. Yes, there are more aches and pains when said tasks are completed. Yes, I do nod off in my chair whilst trying desperately to watch a TV programme through to its conclusion, and yes I am ready for bed by about 9.30pm (if not already asleep). All signs that yes, the years are advancing and if I do intend to do this one thing on my bucket list, the time is now, not at some point in the future as has been the case for so long. Let’s face it, the time may also come where I may not even remember what a bucket list is, let alone what’s in it!

Any decision to walk the whole of the Southwest Coast path is not to be taken lightly, its 630 miles long for god’s sake, with very little of it being level. There is also the added issue in that at my age it’s not just the steep inclines that are a worry. Having spent many of my working years on my knees in the wet and cold, downhill walking can be just as problematic.  Hmmm, maybe I have left it too late, oops, is that me trying to talk myself out of doing it again. 

Now, let’s be honest about this, I’m not deluding myself into believing I can do this all-in-one go. Anyone who has any interest in walking the SWCP (much easier to type that way), will have read ‘500 Mile Walkies’ by Mark Wallington and the very inspirational ‘The Salt Path’ by Raynor Winn. These guys did their SWCP walks all in one go with all their gear on their backs. Raynor’s book is particularly inspirational in that her husband, who did the walk with her, had a debilitating illness to deal with. It is not, and never was my intention to walk the path all in one go. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do it that way, though I suppose that would be more of a challenge. My intention is to achieve my goal eventually, not to ‘challenge’ myself to achieve within a deadline, big difference. My idea is to do the whole path over several years, one day or maybe two days at a time. This way I can travel lighter and do the walk in a more leisurely manner, the idea being that I will be in no rush to reach goals and destinations each day, I can stop as many times as I like to admire the views or enjoy being on a little secluded beach. It's going to be all about the journey, not the destination.

There is also another slightly devious aspect to my thinking, nobody can say “oh, you seem to be going slow, are you ok?” or “you’re taking your time, are you struggling?” my answer to all, through my grimace would be “no, just taking my time and enjoying the journey”. So, no matter how much I may not be okay and no matter how much I may be struggling, people will never know, clever eh.

Another bit of clever thinking on my part is that if I finished the walk too quickly, I would have to then find something else for my bucket list.

Hey, just getting back to my hobbies list from the 'about me' section, I will be walking (obviously), I can take lots of photos for this blog (albeit on my phone), and if I’m doing a couple of consecutive days walking, I can camp overnight. All my ‘hobbies’ ticked.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner, (except I’m a veggie).

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Why the blog

 

I decided to do a blog to record my thoughts, plans and walks as I progress, as a kind of personal record really, but also for my family (and maybe others) to see what I have achieved and what I plan to achieve and how I felt in doing it……. Ok,ok, another reason is so I don’t forget what I’ve done and what I still have to do, I’d hate it if I ended up walking the same stretch of path twice!  Should I eventually learn how to build a website (my god its complicated), I intend to publish my blog on there, with lots of piccies (taken on my phone). I also intend to make videos of my walks, again this will be more of a personal thing for myself and my family but i will upload to my YouTube channel where others  can watch.

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Planning

 

Not being the most organised of people I suppose planning is quite important in my case.  At this point I must stress that if anybody who reads this blog is aiming to use it as a guide, don’t bother.  It is going to be a total mish mash of stuff put together which will probably make no sense or be of any use to anyone. One point I need to make clear straight away in my planning is that I hate hot weather and the thought of walking miles in any kind of heat just isn’t going to happen. So, most, if not all my walking the SWCP will be in Autumn, Winter and Spring. Oh, and another reason for that is I bloody hate crowds. Don’t get me wrong, I love to stop and chat to anybody, usually instigating any conversations myself, but crowds, nah. 

Maybe this making plans thing isn’t so bad as I was expecting as I’ve already planned that it ain’t happening in Summer. Also, another point to add is that after many, many years of working in all weathers I am more than happy to walk in the wind and rain (providing it is safe to do so). 

Now, I suppose most people would start at Minehead or Poole (the start and/or finish) and do the walk in an orderly manner, not me, oh no, my idea is to do which ever bits I fancy or can get to and then fill in the gaps gradually over several years, so anybody expecting a start to finish guide may as well stop reading now.  Living where I do in South Somerset, I consider the Poole to Exmouth stretch of the path to be local to me as it is all within very easy reach for day walking, so that is the stretch where my first few walks will probably be. I’m also thinking that if I bugger myself up in any way whilst getting fit, a member of my family could easily come and pick me up. How’s that for forward thinking and confidence in my ability, lol. I just hope I don’t sustain any kind of injury on an isolated part of the Dorset stretch as my eldest son is a member of the Dorset Search and Rescue Team, OMG, imagine having to call them out and being rescued by my own son, embarrassing or what. Note to self, be extra careful on the Dorset stretch of the path.

Now, this is where logistics come into play in my planning.  As I will be driving to my start points and will be travelling and walking solo (hence the title of my blog, clever again, eh), I have decided that my plan is to walk the whole of the SWCP both ways, oh yes folks, you read it right, both ways. The obvious reason for this is that logistically I can’t have a car at each end of my walk and buses are not always available. Circular walks don’t appeal to me either. So, I will park my car at a given point and only walk as far as I can along the path to a point where I know I can easily get back to my starting point in the same day. Then the next time I walk I will park further along the coast and walk to the point I reached previously. I shall do this along the whole of the route and therefore walk the whole path both ways, 1260 miles!

I am very aware that there are psychological issues in doing this, such as when walking down a long steep gradient there will be the thought in my mind that I’ve got to walk back up this bloody hill later. Hmm, could be a bit demoralising but we shall see. On the plus side though, I won’t have to keep looking over my shoulder or turning round to look at the view behind me as I know I shall see it later walking back.  Walking from Poole to West Bay near Bridport is a stretch of the walk that I intend to do over quite a number of days and, under normal circumstances, I would feel quite proud of myself in achieving this. However, my eldest son Daniel is super fit and does a number of tough challenges each year, one of which is called ‘The Jurassic Coast Challenge’. This entails walking nonstop from Poole to Bridport along the coast, which is a distance of 100Km, setting off early on a Saturday morning, walking through the night and arriving sometime on Sunday at the Bridport finish line. This year, 2023, he did the whole walk in a little over 18 hours, quite an achievement, particularly walking overnight with just a head torch, and will make my efforts on this stretch seem futile in comparison. This however, is where the plan in my earlier introduction kicks in, where I am doing this walk at a very deliberately slow leisurely pace and, I am doing it in both directions, hah, that stops the comparison right there, always thinking, see.  This planning thingy really is working.

I really can’t say much more about planning other than I will do more deliberate planning as and when I do each small section. All will be recorded in this blog.

I have joined ‘The South West Coast Path Association’ whose website is full of very detailed and useful information. 

I have also purchased various guidebooks on the SWCP some of which will travel with me. My partner had suggested that I have an app on my phone called ‘Life 360’ which allows her to monitor my progress (or lack of).  It works really well and we have used it on one of my training walks. 

I also watch YouTube videos on the SWCP which can be helpful, though I try not to watch too many of these as I don’t want to be going through the walk saying “oh yeh, I’ve seen this bit on YouTube”.  I do intend to make my own videos of my progress,  these will just mainly be for myself and my family as a personal record but will also appear on my You Tube Channel for others to watch.  Photos I will put in this blog and on instagram.

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Training

 

Now apart from walking the dog a couple of miles or so every day, I haven’t really done a great deal of training.  My work is very physical which helps to a certain degree and I do consider myself to be fairly fit for my age.  I am aware however, that I do need to lose about a stone and a half in weight as that is a lot of extra weight to be carrying with all the ascents and descents involved. Hopefully the walk itself will help in shedding some of this.

Rather than training in different areas around my home, it seems logical to do my training on short, easier stretches of the actual coast path in my local area, that way I can tick off those areas as part of my main walk whilst training for tougher stretches, more clever thinking eh. Recently (November 2023) we had a short family holiday to Polperro, Killigarth to be precise, which gave me an ideal opportunity to instigate my training. I was going to walk from Killigarth into East Looe and back, around 9 miles in total. I have walked this stretch before, so I was well aware of what to expect and this folks is where my blog finally begins. You can follow my blogs by clicking in the menu at the top of the page.  You can also click on the icons below to be directed to my Coast Path walks YouTube Channel or my instagram account.