Have you ascended Jacob’s Ladder yet? As we’re talking about holidays and not horror, we happily don’t mean the creepy Vietnam war film, but finding the wooden steps of Jacob’s Ladder from a Sidmouth campsite, which climb their way from the red cliffs of Jacob’s Ladder beach to the award-wining and very viewsome Connaught Gardens. (Be sure and tum, tiddly um tum tum along with the also award-winning brass band at the gardens’ bandstand every summer Sunday evening.)
While you’re in climbing mode, scramble up Salcombe Hill from the coast path to reach bird-laden clifftops and then scramble downwards again to Weston Mouth, one of Devon’s three nudist beaches (best not to go climbing/walking without being properly attired). For those in scenic/fossil spotting mode while Sidmouth camping, result: the town is surrounded by the hundred miles of the East Devon Coast AONB and leads onto the Jurassic Coast to fossil forage. Dip into the ancient history of the area at the Jurassic Coast Interpretation Centre on Sidmouth’s promenade for details and have a stroll along the South West Coast Path to Branscombe and Beer via the addictively scenic Hooken cliffs for more ancient scapes.
