D152: BRIDGWATER to BURNHAM-ON-SEA
Monday 10th March 2025
Today miles: 12.7 Total miles: 2488.2
I made my way back to Dunball for a fairly late 10.00am start. I couldn’t avoid the temptation to drop into McDonalds and get myself a coffee but did manage to resist buying myself a breakfast meal. It seemed strange that the coastal path now cut right through the middle of a busy industrial estate on the Northern outskirts of Bridgwater. There’s dozens of HGV’s moving around the site so I had to be especially careful and stuck rigidly to the designated yellow lined walkway. One of the businesses on the industrial estate is a wheelie bin dismantling company and I passed by a huge mountain of colourful, now wheel less bins, which was situated only a few metres from the edge of the river Parrett. Minutes later I passed through a gate and was thankfully away from the noise and smell of the industrial estate and was once again walking along a now pleasant, peaceful path. The route for the next four miles is a fairly decent flat sea defence wall, only made slightly more difficult as the route is also a bridleway and has been rutted up by years of horse hooves. As I walked along the path I could see a single bright orange patch which stood out amongst the various greens and browns. I was intrigued and pondered what this might be as I got steadily closer. I eventually bumped into a young female in a bright orange tabard who was sat close to the path. She’s conducting a wildlife study on a particular bird which she said was currently nesting in a nearby wood, as a part of her University degree. I had commented to her about how clean the River Parrott was. Unlike the vast majority of rivers I’ve encountered over the last few years this one has noticeably very little debris either in the water or on the river banks.
I pressed on for the next three miles along the sea wall. I encountered a flock of sheep, the first for many miles, who were spread out across the path but they soon crowded together (like sheep do) and then ran along the track in front of me. This continued until the next obstruction were they then split into two groups and ran down both sides of the sea wall, to continue grazing. Just off to the side of the sea wall there’s an interesting cobbled stone path for the last mile towards the mouth of the River Brue. I decided to walk along this path until I arrived at the mouth of the river and then stopped for an hour. I then walked for a mile along the edge of the river. There’s some unpleasant scenery and unnecessary mess along the route as I crossed the river towards Highbridge. Having navigated through the rubbish I made my way through Apex Leisure Park and finally arrived on the Southern edge of Burnham.
I’m booked into an air bnb tonight. I checked the confirmation e-mail and realised there’s no proper address noted anywhere, I left the coast path and walked up and down the street looking for any indication of my accommodation. I failed miserably and ended up calling the home owner. A relatively short day but another dozen miles under my belt. After a nice hot bath and some dinner I settled down and enjoyed a quiet night in my room.
Werewolfandflump UK Coast Path 