To a Long Steep Hill

  We pack up the house smoothly and trundle our bags down to the ferry.   We think we are early for the 92 bus to Totnes and get coffee. But oh dear – we see the bus leaving.   There is no alternative to a £50 taxi.   All to save £36 on the steam train.   Worse, potentially was to follow.   When the ticket inspector comes round on the Paddington train we see that our tickets are dated 29 th July.   How could we not have noticed?   She says she will come back to make us buy new tickets.   We contemplated doing a runner at Reading, but she is back before Reading.   However, I find an email confirming seat reservations for the correct day. She relents. It's been a good trip. Another 24 miles added. 

Final day of walking.  We slip down the hill for the 09.00 bus, forgetting to check Sunday bus times and the bus doesn’t appear until 09.26 – still twerly for our freedom passes. The only place to find something for lunch is a pasty shop.  Sausage roll for Chris and a traditional pasty for me. We then get number 12 bus to Torquay and walk to Babbacombe.  We are basically circling round the edge of the town. There are plenty of ups and downs.  We get espressos at one of the coves. We get a bit lost on final approach and come down from the village. I grab a cup of tea on the beach then we walk across to the cliff railway, which has connections to the Lynton/Lynemouth one. We find a 22 bus back to Torquay harbour and then 12 bus then 18 bus. Connections all good in spite of it being Sunday. We have a nice supper at The Ship. I had sausage and mash Chris had fish and chips. It’s been another day of fine weather.              ...

Down the hill again for 0900 bus to Brixham.  We set off for Torquay.  Another lovely day. We stop on a bridge and I get a video of the Dartmouth steam train. [video will follow!]  This is the first video to be put into the blog.  Later, we get a glimpse of an excursion train pulled by an engine called Mayflower.                                                                            The Mayflower  The excursion started in Crewe, I discover on line, Mayflower was attached at Taunton.  It spends three hours at Kingswear before doing the journey in reverse. After a standard ‘up and down’ walk, we emerge into Paignton.  It has a lovely sandy beach, but nothing else to recommend it.  The crowds, the fat wobbly people, the am...

                                                               Ups and downs from Brixham to Kingswear We are up bright and early and saunter down the hill for the 09 .00 bus 18  to Brixham from the oddly named Banjo bus stop.   It is a beautiful day – as forecast.  We are in Brixham in no time and get sandwiches from Tesco.  Then, knowing it’s a long walk back to Kingswear, we take a short cut through the town helped by my phone’s satnav to avoid going all the way round Berry Head. We are on the path by 10.15. It’s a tough walk with many steep hills, but we make it back to the house by  17.30.  We find the Upper contour Road, which has a more gentle slope.  We take the ferry across to Dartmouth where we have booked supper at Rockfish. We push the boat out to t...

We are doing a very quick pass to SWCP  in response to a spell of fine weather.  We will only get three days of walking, so let’s see how far we get.  Because of the short notice, we haven’t contacted Graham Spittle in Totnes.  We are going by train and have booked the only available cottage in Kingswear. Ww go by us and underground to Paddington for the 09 37 to Paignton. A pleasant surprise we are in First Class! Don't remember booking it.  Unfortunately, I didn’t click for return because we have decided to take the bus to Totnes and get the train back from there. This doesn’t turn out well.  The idea was to save the cost of going back on the steam train to Paignton.  Woe!  See entry for 5 th August. It's a pleasant and restful journey to Paignton, and the steam train is fun.  The Paddington train ran a bit late, but we had plenty of time to transfer to the Dartmouth line and get tickets for the 13.05 steam train to Kingswear. ...