Our Managing Director Mark Howard loves a challenge! In 2019 he drove the Silk Road from China to Cornwall, over 14,000 miles for charity! During the pandemic Mark was looking for a new challenge to keep him busy. With travel out of the question he looked closer to home and decided to walk the coast path around his home county of Cornwall. As he got further into his challenge he decided to extend his adventure and continue walking the beautiful coastal path around the rest of the Southwest.
The Southwest Coast Path is the UK's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for 630 miles, 1,013 kilometres, running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Ascending and descending with every cove and river mouth, the route is rated one of the UK’s most challenging trails.
Starting on the 29th of May 2021, Mark began his walking journey.
Beginning in the small hamlet of Mead in the wild and remote Hartland Heritage trail, just over the border in North Devon, with the sea always to the right, the coast path is, for the most part, is straightforward to navigate. It weaves up and down an almost endless series of cliffs, separated by small coves and pebble beaches, amongst some of the most dramatic landscapes and seascapes in the UK.
Mark walked west to Bude and then followed the path along the rugged north coast to Tintagel, Newquay, and St Ives. From there he continued to Lands’ End, through Cornwall’s Mining heritage with remains of engine houses and mining works dotting the landscape.
Rounding the far west of the county and passing Cape Cornwall to the Lizard Peninsular, the granite of the North coast was replaced with the slate of the south. Taking in the sights of the estuaries at Falmouth and Fowey, the path becomes more wooded and interspersed with sandy beaches such as Looe and Whitsand Bay, then onwards past Rame Head to the last few miles before crossing to Plymouth via the Cremyll ferry, the end of the Cornish section.
Mark walked at the weekends and on the odd day off from work, completing the Cornish section in 22 days, covering 348-mile, 560 km. By the time he arrived at Plymouth Hoe on 10th October 2021 he had already decided that having finished the path around Cornwall, he wanted to walk the rest of the Southwest Coast Path.
In the spring of 2022 Mark began walking from Plymouth Hoe to Poole Harbour, along the spectacular Jurassic Coast and the glorious English Riviera. Once the south section of the route was complete he went back to complete the remaining part of the North Coast, walking from Minehead, along the rugged cliffs and coves to the Castle in Bude, completing the total distance on the 14th of August 2022 in some of the hottest weather that we have had for years!
In total the 630 miles took 44 days, and included over 35,000 meters of climbing, that’s equivalent to climbing Mount Everest four times!
Next on the list of challenges, Mark has started to walk the Welsh Coast Path, 870 miles from Chester in the north all the way around Wales to Chepstow, in the south. But he isn’t planning to stop there, as he wants to link his walks by carrying on from Chepstow to Minehead, adding another 70-80ish miles to the distance.
Good luck Mark!
