Sunday, 31 July 2016

Retrospective - Torquay to Shaldon

I wondered if I had been exaggerating about the severity of the last part of my SWCP walk from Torquay harbour to the ferry at Shaldon.

I plotted the route on Memory Map on OS 1:25

10.9 miles
4481ft. of ascent

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For comparison I selected another piece of coast with steep cliff contours from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Eyemouth with the same distance, and from the statistics for that one it wouldn't be taken lightly, but note the contrast - half as much ascent in the same distance.

Distance 11 miles
2249ft. of ascent

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3 comments:

  1. gimmer31 July 2016 at 23:35

    An amazing graph - looks more like the Cullin traverse or the GR10 than seaside ramble (which of course it is not) :

    have you calculated the total height gain / loss for the whole of your journey this time - it must make sobering reading.
    Quite an achievement: well done indeed.

    Your thoughts about the relative effort in doing such a height gain in one pull e.g. Ben Nevis , compared with these many shorter 'pitches' ?
    I suspect the single rise would be the 'easier' if only for the immediately perceptible sense of progress and achievement.

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  2. Roderick Robinson1 August 2016 at 07:17

    So one's a roller coaster and the other's more or less a plateau. I really must gradientise the walk I did for my recent post Not Quite LEJOG. At a guess I'd say it's in the high twenties. I've just realised I omitted to mention the refuelling station I passed, but then I didn't stop and sample its wares. It has a familiar name: Subway.

    Got an electrician to do the shelving unit you looked at and turned away from. He came up with an entirely novel way of removing the unwanted shelves. It looked barbaric but it worked. Some superficial damage but it's easily disguised

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  3. Sir Hugh1 August 2016 at 09:02

    gimmer - You are right. If one climbs a mountain one finds the least arduous route (unless pioneering new routes for the sake of it). That introduces an ethos of logic which provides a kindly settled feeling in the mind. The trouble with this particular section of the SWCP is being able to see the least arduous route going round the rim of a sea cliff, then finding the path descends the side of one cliff down to sea level then climbs the side of the next one, thereby destroying any kindly settlement in the mind, rather creating disillusionment, especially when that is all frequently repeated. Give me Ben Nevis any day.

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    RR - I have replied with a new post.

    There is something about Subway that makes me feel physically sick.

    I would be interested to hear how your multi-gifted electrician tackled the dismantling.

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