Where have you Brean?
Published October 2, 2020
Our progress on the South West Coast Path this year has been slow, or more precisely, non-existant, given everything that has been going on in the world. And because I am the kind of person who doesn’t focus on finishing one thing but quite quickly flits off to another project, I’ve found another path! This time, the England Coast Path! Why do 630 miles when you can do 2,795?
In all seriousness, I was just browsing on the progress of the England Coast Path and realised the section that joins up with where the SWCP starts has been done and finished and open for a while now. We’ve completed a very small amount of the SWCP path at Minehead, where it begins (or ends), because that’s where this whole obsession started. But we have to go back there to do it properly, and so why not move the goalposts and start a little further back?
The new bit of path covers Minehead to Brean Down - a hill near Western-Super-Mare that only has a blinkin’ fort at the end of it. Talk about combining passions - forts and long-distance walking paths, hello! It’s quite an odd area to walk, because you go up a gazillion steps and cross the windy hill to see the fort, then once you’ve descended it’s flat, flat, flat beach for miles.
I’m not saying it was the most beautiful of views but there’s always something calming about walking by the water, no matter where it is.
I love what they’re doing with the England Coast Path - what a feat to have a long distance trail around the entire country. From everything I’ve read, progress has slowed a little due to legal issues and presumably other priorities, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it to see what other areas open up. And in the meantime, getting back to that original 630 miles, I suppose!