Jurassic Coast: Sidmouth to Budleigh Salterton

 I had the chance to walk around Sidmouth. It is what I would call a genteel place, where you are more likely to have a round of putting or bowls than enjoy going to a nightclub. 

Eventually I set off and was surprised by the level of activity on the water, with many swimmers and people rowing.

I  am especially wary of the swimmers and the potential danager of hitting one with an oar.  One swimmer was being tracked by a canoeist.

Sidmouth beach seemed to fill with people as it receded into the distance.

The cliffs became more dramatic and monumental.

Rounding a final headland, they gave way to an inlet and a shingle beach, where people were picnicking. I had arrived.

As in the previous voyage, someone volunteered to help pull PicoMicroYacht up the beach and I soon had it derigged and covered up, ready to leave for the night.

Being closer to Exeter, Budleigh Salterton has more of an edge to it, with younger people looking for a good time in the evening, also on the beach in the high summer.

I have always associated Budleigh Salterton with my school history lessons in which the Elizabethians were mainly characterised as swashbuckling adventurers. This included Sir Walter Raleigh, a court favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, born nearby. 

His childhood is depicted by the pre-raphaelite painter, John Millais.  Looking closely, I see that Millias got the colour of the cliff correct, and I found out that he travelled to the town to paint on location, his two sons modelling for him. It would have been a bit too windy on that day to venture out in PicoMicroYacht.

 The boyhood of Raleigh by John Everett Millais, 1870, The Tate Gallery, London.