There and Back Again

Another day, another very promising weather forecast and another coastal walk. Parked the car in Torcross this time and walked all the way to Start Point. It's surely off-season since we could park up just in the middle of that little village, the park and display was deserted.

Looking back down to Torcross and its long beach

High tide meant we had to take the high route to Beesands, but the sun was shining again and it was less windy compared to yesterday, so we were sweating quite a bit climbing up and then down again. Looking at my watch it was now 11:30am. I really wanted to be back here for 2:30pm to watch the rugby so we had an hour and a half to get to Start Point.

Hallsands

Start Point ahead

One hump later we arrived at another beach - Hallsands. From there on we headed straight for Start Point and the light house there. Despite Rich hurting a bit from the walk the day before he tried his best to get  good pace going. Very much appreciated, hehe.
Made it easily for 12:30 and lingered a bit at the lighthouse before walking back. This way around we finally saw the abandoned/destroyed village near Hallsands and stopped for a bit to visit the viewpoint and read about the events that led to the village's demise. Apparently a number of storms and gales at the beginning of the last century had led to only one house remaining of about a dozen.

Start Point

Not far to Minehead from here

Arrived back in Beesands before 2pm even and had some of the best fish and chips ever at The Britannia @ The Beach - a small shack with a seefood menu that made our mouths water. Provided by a local fisherman everything was a fresh as you can get it. We were actually not in for a proper meal and thus chose the fish & chips, but the portion was hearty indeed and again we were fully stuffed.

Headed over to The Cricket, which I had picked from The Good Pub guide. Lovely but quiet pub at this time of the year and a huge TV screen showing some old photographs. We asked for the rugby and they turned it on for us after fiddling around with the remote controls since no one really knew how to switch to the TV channel,

Over a gorgeous pint of Heron cider from a farm near Kingsbridge we watched Scotland's landslide victory over Japan with more and more people joining us in front of the screen.

Headed back to Torcross then and again had to take the high path as the tide wasn't low enough to walk the beach. Drove back to the cottage and watched some more rugby with some of the farm cider we had bought the day before. Ahhhh, good times, eh? Dozing and chilling for quite some time, we eventually set to barbecue some chicken thighs which we had marinated in a nice searingly spicy Psycho Sauce all day.
9:30 pm is a bit late for a meal, but it was easily the best chicken we ever had. Hot and spicy to burn your lips off and with a jerk-like smokyness to it... it was simply the best!
Food coma and general exhaustion did it for me. I fell asleep in front of the TV within a minute while Rich watched a bit of QI.