Crews rescue round-Britain walker three miles into trek

A woman on a round-Britain coastal walk had to be rescued by lifeboat crews after getting cut off by the tide, just three miles into her trek.

The 28-year-old woman from Coventry set off on Tuesday and was rescued from a Somerset beach the same day.

She had strayed off the official cliff path for the South West Coast Path and was on a beach 800ft (243m) below it.

An RNLI spokesman, said: "She was carrying an enormous backpack, how she managed to get so far I have no idea."

The 630-mile (1,014km) South West Coast Path runs from Minehead in Somerset to Poole Harbour in Dorset.

The RNLI said the woman had set off from Minehead on Tuesday morning to "walk all the way around the coast of Britain".

But instead of keeping to the official route, she had attempted the first leg of her challenge on a beach at the foot of the cliffs.

The lifeboat charity said her trek came to "an unscheduled halt" near Hurlstone Point, when she became trapped by the rising tide.

Karla Thresher, from Minehead RNLI, said there was "no way back up once you reach that part of the beach she was on".

"I swam in to meet her and explained the only way off was to get a bit wet and she was happy with that," she said.

"So we put a life jacket on her and she swam out to the boat and I followed behind her with her rucksack."

She said the woman was "shaken but unhurt" and "absolutely fine".

"It's becoming more and more common," Ms Thresher said.

"Lots of people have just read books about coastal walking and think: 'Oh, I'll give that a go' but just don't realise how tricky the tides are here in Minehead.

"But I don't think it's put the woman off - I believe she was going to get right back on it this morning."