The road out of Dartmouth was quite busy with walkers and runners , most of whom didn’t climb up to the castle as I did.
From there the path rose and fell sharply but then left the coast as I wandered down very narrow country lanes to Stoke Fleming, some lunch at the Green Dragon fortified me before I walked along Blackpool beach. This is very similar to the more well known Blackpool except it has no town, tower or illuminations . There were more steep climbs after that before finally descending to Slapton Sands.
This area was sequestered by the Americans in WW2 as a training area for D-Day with the surrounding villages being evacuated. During one of these exercises in April 1944, operation Tiger, a pair of German E-boats arrived and sank many landing craft resulting in at least 749 American casualties. The whole thing was kept secret till long after the war , with just a few local rumours. There is now a well deserved memorial.
I ended the day wild camping near a very windy beach but at least I kept warm and dry.