BECKY SHEAVES

The closest I had ever got to Golden Cap before was to gaze at it from across the valley... I had never dreamed I would one day be right on the very top of it

- 

MY adventures on the South West Coast Path continue... Having waxed lyrical about how great the path is, a natural wonder on our doorstep, why do we never appreciate things when they are close to home, etc etc, my friend Mo got all fired up. She said we should walk some more of it.

“OK,” I said. But then she told me that she was so intrigued by my account of the Lyme Regis undercliff, she wanted us to tackle that particular section. “I’ve never been there, and I’d love to. You made it sound amazing,” she texted me, late one night.

Me and my big mouth. Yes, my gruelling seven-hour trek along the undercliff from Seaton to Lyme was astonishing, memorable and not-to-be-missed. But did I want to do it twice in one month? To be absolutely honest, once in a lifetime was probably quite enough, thank you very much.

It was about this time that my shoulder started to cause me absolute agony. I had done something silly with it at the gym, attempting to support my entire weight while doing something called a side plank. Foolish. I could tell it was a bad idea at the time but did it anyway. I called Mo: “I can’t walk, I am suffering, I just need to lie here and not breathe or move an inch.”

“I will just come over and we can see how you are.”