Today WAGs and Polio Group members, met at Exmouth Lifeboat Station, with representatives of the Southwest Coast Path Association, National Trust and East Devon District Council. The plan being to reconnoitre the short section of Coast Path, from the Lifeboat Station to the Geoneedle. This marks the start of the Jurassic Coast, in the Southeast Devon and Dorset.
We had the first of a couple showers as we started off, but luckily they did not last long. We had six on buggies, four of which were All Terrain models, one power chair and one small wheeled mobility scooter. Accompanied by ten walkers, so it was a good group. Some of the group went up to the clifftop via the road, as the footpath is very narrow and was overgrown with stinging nettles etc.
The path along the clifftop to the Geoneedle is a good crushed stone surface, so there was not any problems for any of the buggies. As a group we decided to try the next section of coast path towards Sandy Bay, to see how far we could get. From the Geoneedle the path is partly grass, but mainly bare earth because of the amount of walkers using the path. This combined with the gradient and the showers made it too slippery for the power chair.
After about 400 hundred yards the lady on the power chair, had to abandon her attempt and was happy for the rest of the group carry on. When we were about 400 yards from Sandy Bay Caravan Park, we stopped to discuss the final section. As a section of the path has a server camber, and the final 100 yards is too steep and stepped.
Three of us on All Terrain scooters, made it to the top of the steep slope, where we turned around. I struggled with the camber on my 3 wheeler, so one of the walkers came alongside to stop me tipping over.
We had a dry and uneventful return trip, enjoying the views over to Dawlish and Torbay. All the representatives with us, appreciated seeing first hand the problems the different types of scooters experience.
While the National Trust ranger, would like to improve the path. His problem is getting the funding.
After a quick lunch and a debrief on our return to the Lifeboat Station, three of us made our way along the beach front to the harbour. We were lucky with weather, as it stayed dry, making the run to harbour a pleasant end to our time in Exmouth. Gill and I have started to go back to pre-Covid habits, by going to the Twisted Oak on our way home. It was a long and tiring day, but we both had very enjoyable day.
