Lyme Regis: Start of Wessex Ridgeway: Day 1

Today was spent travelling to Lyme Regis, famous for fossils and its literary associations.

I peered through heavy rain as my train to Axminster crossed my planed route on the Wessex Ridgeway twice. My impression was of low hills, green fields edged by hedges dotted or lined with trees, naked, bare of leaves, their black contorted branches exposed to the winter winds. On higher ground there was more woodland than I expected. More rain lashed the bus from Axminster to Lyme Regis, its windscreen wipers beating furiously.

Lyme Regis is famous for the Ichthyosaur found by Mary Anning among the grey rocks, but another more common fossil was outlined on lampposts and shops, the humble but curly ammonite. Unlike most of my planned walk the cliffs here are of grey Jurassic Blue Lias rather than younger white Cretaceous chalk, which I will be walking on for the next few weeks. Lyme Regis' other claim to fame is its appearance in "Persuasion" by Jane Austin, when Louisa injured herself jumping down from the steps of the Cobb, a stone breakwater which creates a calm harbour for boats to moor in. The Cobb also appears in John Fowles' book "The French Lieutenant's Woman". I viewed it in the dusk, after the rain had ceased, with clouds rolling across the horizon. A sign warned of slippery surfaces, no doubt hoping to prevent another meeting Louisa's fate. Romantically, a couple stood looking out from the top of the Cobb into the distant seas, or else at the black suited, early evening surfers hoping to catch a final wave. I walked gingerly onto the top of the wet, rough masonry blocks of the breakwater, making small steps to be sure I did not slip, a dog and its owner strode past me. Being winter dog walking hour, the time before it becomes too dark to be out even with brightly flashing dog collars, there were several owners walking their charges beside the sea, no doubt glad of a break in the rain. At the landward end of the Cobb the RNLI (the Royal National Lifeboat Institution) was keeping abreast of modern trends with a device for accepting donations from contactless Credit or Debit cards. I tapped my card just in case I ever needed help.

Couple on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, the black spots in the water are surfers.

Lifeboat with old and new methods of making donations.

The narrow streets of Lyme Regis are very attractive with a variety of small shops, many selling fossils and crystals, others offering fish and chips. I stopped at a microbrewery down an alleyway for a quiet pint as evening turned to night. Weather forecast for tomorrow, my first day of walking is not so good.....