Five days on the Tarrow Coast with a bus pass and no car

The usual way to walk a long stretch of coast is to carry everything and move every night. The usual way to avoid that is a car and a lot of shuttling. This trip did neither. I stayed in just two places, used a weekly bus pass to get to and from each day’s walk, and carried a daypack the whole way.

It’s a slower, cheaper and much more relaxed way to see a coastline, and the Tarrow Coast, with a bus route that runs along its whole length within a mile or two of the path, is close to perfect for it.

How it works

The coast road carries a single bus route, the 41, which runs hourly in summer between Saltpan Bay in the south and Skerrow Point in the north. The coast path is never more than about 3 km from it, and most villages have a stop.

So the plan was simple: sleep in one place for two nights, then another for two. Each morning, take the bus to wherever I’d finished the day before, walk onward to another village on the route, then take the bus back.

• Nights 1 and 2: Saltpan Bay.
• Nights 3 and 4: Kettle Cove, roughly halfway.
• Day 5: walk to Skerrow Point and take the bus back to the railway station at Saltpan.

The walking, day by day

Day 1: Saltpan Bay to Wester Head, 13 km. A gentle start along dunes and a long beach, then a sharp climb onto the first of the headlands. The view back along the bay from the top is the one on every postcard in town, and it deserves to be.

Day 2: Wester Head to Gull Rock, 16 km. The roughest day. A series of steep valleys cut into the cliff line, each with a stream at the bottom and a set of steps on the far side. It’s only 16 km, but it took me six hours. Take more water than you think.

Day 3: Gull Rock to Kettle Cove, 14 km. Cliff-top walking on close-cropped turf, with seabirds nesting on the ledges below. If you only walk one day of this coast, make it this one.

Day 4: Kettle Cove to Brindle Sands, 17 km. Flatter, with long sections of beach walking. Check the tide times: two of the beaches are cut off for about two hours either side of high water.

Day 5: Brindle Sands to Skerrow Point, 14 km. A gradual climb to the tallest cliffs on the coast and a finish at the lighthouse. The bus stop is a hundred metres from the gate.

Where I stayed

Both places were small guesthouses on the bus route, chosen because they’d do an early breakfast and didn’t mind muddy boots in the hall. Staying put for two nights each made a bigger difference than I expected. Unpacking properly, having somewhere to dry kit, and knowing where the shop was took a surprising amount of friction out of each day.

What it cost

For five days of walking and four nights away, my costs were:

Item	Cost
7-day regional bus pass	32
Four nights’ guesthouse with breakfast	340
Lunches, snacks and dinners	145
Train to and from Saltpan	48
Total	565

That’s in my local currency, and prices will have changed, but the proportions hold: the bus pass was the cheapest thing on the list, and it replaced what would have been fuel, parking and a lot of shuttling.

Making the buses work

A few things I learned the useful way:

• Download the timetable, and screenshot it too. Signal comes and goes along the coast.
• Know the last bus, and plan the day backwards from it. In early summer, the last 41 north left Kettle Cove at 18:50. Missing it would have meant a 10 km road walk.
• Wave. Several of the village stops are request stops, and drivers won’t stop unless you flag them.
• Sit on the sea side. On the way to the start of each day, you get to see the bit of coast you’re about to walk.

Would I recommend it?

Wholeheartedly, especially if you’ve never done a multi-day walk and aren’t sure you want to carry a big pack. It’s also the most relaxed way I know to do a long coast walk with a friend who walks at a different pace: you can each take the bus back when you’re done.

The only real downside is that you can’t start at dawn, because the first bus doesn’t leave until 8:15. That’s a small price for not carrying a tent.