Day 13 - Beer to Lyme Regis 

Time Departed: 9.40am

Time Arrived: 10.30am

Distance: 13 kms 

Cumulative Distance: 207kms 

Percentage Complete: 58% 

Number of Steps: 0 (254,000)

Walking Grade: N/A

Weather: Sunny. Min 8c, max 17c. 

Accommodation: Lyme Townhouse

Feelings: Henk - sore and tired, Di - good

Today we moved from Dover to Dorset and the day was unplanned again. During the last few days Henk has been struggling with a heel blister. This is the first blister he has encountered during all his walking so he has been lucky to this point. He had a terrible night’s sleep due to the blister so it was an easy decision not to walk the 13kms today and catch buses to Lyme Regis, a place we were looking forward to seeing. 

We walked from our hotel through the beautiful, small village of Beer with flowers grown in every nook. There is a fast-flowing spring-fed brook running through the town alongside the main road down to the sea.

The bus stop was at the top of the town at Beer and we needed to catch two local buses - a bus to Seaton then another to Lyme Regis. Both buses were double decker and we sat up the top front with good views over the countryside. We also had good views of the narrow road and the oncoming traffic which was quite scary at times. Often the hedgerows scraped alongside the side of the bus and it hit many overhanging branches.

When we arrived at the top of Lyme Regis we immediately liked the town with its small specialty shops and bunting strung high across the street. 

Our first job was to go to an outdoor shop and buy walking sandals for Henk. We were hoping that wearing an open sandal would relieve the pressure on the blister. Time will tell. I then had to find a shop to replace my watch battery which had stopped overnight. We found a person to do the job in a shop that dealt with ironmongery, kitchenware and homewares at the bottom of the steep High Street. It had a gadget for everything. Our morning tea included a delicious Dorset Apple Cake to celebrate a new county. 

We then called into our accommodation to drop off our backpacks (and also Henk’s boots!) so we could walk freely through the town.

Our destination was to the promenade to visit the Lyme Regis Museum where we spent the remainder of the morning. Mary Anning, the famous fossilist, was born in the house on the site of the museum. The museum gave us a good overview of the town’s history and the life of Mary Anning and her major fossil finds.

From the top floor of the museum we had an excellent view over the Lyme Regis promenade and the Cobb. 

There were many quaint cafes to have a late lunch and we chose one which served crab sandwiches. We walked back to our townhouse and Henk rested his heel whilst I spent more time walking around the town. Behind our townhouse and down the hill is the Cobb, a famous stone-built breakwater and jetty dating back to the 14th century. The Cobb attracts visitors as it is the place where Louisa Musgrove fell from steps in Jane Austen’s novel, “Persuasion” and the opening scene for the movie, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” written by John Fowles who lived nearby and was inspired by the Cobb.

I walked along Lyme Regis Front Beach and as it was a glorious sunny afternoon there were many using their beach huts. As I walked past I could see inside the little structures. They are quite tiny and all are different. Some only have beach chairs, others little tables and high shelves. There were also a few sunning themselves on the stony beach in brightly coloured folding beach chairs. 

My walk continued to the far eastern side of the town, past the statue of Mary Anning and her poor dog Tray who was killed by a landslide from which Mary escaped and onto the long seawall to the Spittles. This is where Mary Anning found many of her famous fossils. 

It was low tide and there were many walking on the stony beach below the cliffs looking for fossils. This area is reported to be one of the largest coastal landslides in Europe and sits very close to the eastern side of Lyme Regis. 

Henk and I found a very old, traditional pub on the Main Street and enjoyed slow cooked pork belly with apples. The evening was cool and pleasant and we decided to walk down the long Main Street to the promenade where I had walked during the afternoon. 

We came across a beach hut still open and a local woman was on the beach sitting in the dark with a raised fire pit. She allowed us to take a photo of the inside of her hut which she rents from the council for the season. Unlike some of the sparse ones I saw this afternoon this one was home-away-from-home. Apparently the huts are highly sought-after and are leased each year from the council.

Tomorrow is a rest day again in Lyme Regis. We need to go to the laundromat before doing anything else.