COASTING ALONG

MODERN-DAY CHEESEMAKERS, DISTILLERS AND VINTNERS MAY CALL DEVON’S SOUTHEAST COAST HOME BUT THE STORY OF THESE SHORES STRETCHES BACK MILLENNIA. RAMBLE ALONG WILDLIFE-RICH BAYS TO DISCOVER TALES OF SMUGGLERS, ROMAN RUINS AND STARTLINGLY WELL-PRESERVED FOSSILS

-  BEN LERWILL 

From a remote, sandstone ledge drops a bewildered man in a wetsuit. It’s taken an eternity for him to jump, and he plummets through the air with an expression somewhere between elation and terror. The rocks zooming past behind him are tens of millions of years old; the bay he’s arrowing into has witnessed visitors ranging from plesiosaurs to pirates. And, with the sun illuminating the red cliffs and ivied, coastal woodland, there comes an almighty splash as the October-cold sea rushes up to swallow him. For the man — who happens to be me — it’s an unutterable thrill.

Tom Devey, the guide who’s just patiently coaxed me into stepping off a 26ftprecipice, gives a thumbs-up from the shore and gestures to a cove nearby. We’ve spent the past hour clambering over — and leaping from — the boulders and sea stacks of Devon’s southeastern coastline and it’s now time for a break.