Paddle from the beach of Goodrington Sands, Paignton, along the South Devon coast towards the elegant inlet of Elberry Cove and its pebble beach.
Distance: 6km
Time: 2.5 hours
Sat Nav: TQ4 6LN
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Paignton is a location for the SUP World Cup and SUPER Festival, in June, and so makes sense as a coastal trail to try out.
We left the car at Goodrington Sands Car Park (TQ4 6LN).
There are public toilets close by, plus a coffee shop, pub and restaurant. There’s also a hotel on the seafront.
We decided to go on the sea with Ash from Reach Outdoors, a Paddle UK delivery partner who organise paddling sessions from the beach.
The area is situated in the heart of The English Riviera UNESCO Global Geopark and is popular with all paddlers, particularly in the summer months when the weather is settled and the sea is calm.
Our team went out in early spring when the weather was changeable and the sea choppy!
Following a safety briefing from Ash on the beach, we got in our boats and paddled out.
Once we were past the breaking waves, the sea was still quite bouncy, but it was fascinating to paddle along and experience the coastline from a different perspective.
We passed Oyster Cove where a special geological feature can be found.
Geologists call it an ‘unconformity’ as there’s a huge chunk of time missing between the Permian rocks and Devonian rocks.
How Elberry Cove looks when the sun is shining (c) English Riviera BID Company
Elberry Cove is popular with tourists, and is part of the South West Coast Path.
When we got to the Cove, we surfed in to the beach to have a look around.
We saw the ruins of Lord Churston’s bathhouse where he made his staff heat seawater to warm swimmers after their dip.
An early version of the hot tub!
Elberry Cove was also one of Agatha Christie’s favourite bathing spots and it even features in one of her novels – The ABC Murders.
We were glad we’d made the decision to use a Paddle UK delivery partner to take us out on this trail as they kept us safe and knew where they were going.
It was great fun using the waves to surf back into the beach where we started.
