Beer Head run

A Great day for a run

The forecast was for a good weather day, and as I was driving down the Axe valley to Axminster this morning there was a  really good cloud inversion, made more spectacular with the sun just rising over Lamberts Castle, one of the Dorset hill forts. It was ‘rush hour’ in Axminster so took some time to get through. There was signs of frost on the fields but the roads were just wet.

I drove along the Axe estuary, the tide was out, so it was covered in seabirds, taking their fill of food. As I drove into the Beer Head carpark, there were no other cars in the park, and annoyingly the carpark fees hadn’t been suspended for the winter!!!

The weather was clear blue skies and sunshine, I set off to run up to the coastguard station, a little slippery under foot with mud, but not wet. I set a slow pace feeling the need to just enjoy the run and also there are some steep hills around here. I descended to Branscombe Mouth, having seen no one since setting off, I took my time on the steep coast path, to avoid slipping even though I had my Fell Raiser shoes on, which have a great grip. I was soon climbing up the other side of the valley walking at the steepest point before reaching the steps. The National Trust had repaired the steps making me pick up my feet!!! I was soon on the ridge, enjoying the low sunshine, shining through the trees. I continued on before dropping down through the woods on a lovely path to the Fountains Inn.

The road said closed but I managed to creep past, as the workers were in their cabin enjoying breakfast, I was offered a mug of tea ;-) but declined. The road was really quiet as no traffic was coming through, I met a bloke on a bike and waved him down to let him know about the road ahead. He was cycling from Southampton to Penzance, and had spent the night at beer, he was heading for Totnes for the night so still had 50 or 60 miles to go. I turned off past the mill, along the valley and back to the coast, the only people I had seen were the workers!! And the cyclist.

The climb up to the caravan park was hard, I took a breather at the top, this is the entry to the low level coast path, a nice single track the meanders along the cliff face, slippery in places, but lovely running. It wasn’t long before I came to the ‘stair way to heaven’ a walk at this stage, 6 miles run so far. At the top I still felt good, and the run back to the car park was fantastic in the sunshine, views across Lyme Bay. This is the quietest I have ever seen it, I didn’t see any dog walkers at all!!.

7.24 miles covered, back to the van, change and then a mug of coffee and a left over custard donut!!!

It had been a great morning out, I took my time and felt good when I got back to the van. I called at the sports centre on the way home and booked my spinning lesson for this Thursday morning and next Tuesday before Christmas.

My calf muscle felt ok,I did strap it up in case and I will put some muscle rub on it tonight.