To a Long Steep Hill

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. ...

  Looking back, I see that I don’t usually write about the journey home.   But this one starts with a ferry, and so is worth recording, I think. So, we pack up The Secret Garden, which has really suited us.   Rather than risk getting stuck in the narrow street while we load up. We take our stuff down to the Mayor’s Avenue car park.   We have checked that no one is scheduled to come into the flat today, so we do not rush.   We do remember to return our parking voucher before setting off to the Dartmouth lower ferry.   The cost is £6.00.   It isn’t a chain ferry.   A tugboat pushes it across.   From the ferry, a glimpse of Dartmouth's historic paddle steamer - The Kingswear Castle The route takes us on the ring road around Torbay.   We are soon on the M5 at Exeter.   We stop at Exeter Services to eat sandwiches in the picnic area.   We are home in good time.

  Last walking day. We get the 93 bus from the harbour at 10.30, having bought smoked salmon bagels at the deli.   We get off at Torcross and we set off along the flat stretch parallel to the Slapton Sands beaches.   There is a monument erected by the Americans to commemorate the civilian population who were all forced to leave their homes so the entire area could be used for D Day training from the autumn of 1943 right up to June 44.    Then it’s up to Strete, lunch in a meadow and a sharp climb up to the main road before descending to Blackpool Sands.                                                                              I love this tree.   We have brought our swimming togs.   However, it clouds over and the ...

                                                   The beach at Torcross looking back where we just walked   We met our feisty taxi woman Suzie at Torcross.   She regaled us with how she built up her business from nothing.   While waiting for her to arrive I looked at the memorial and read about the disaster there during a D Day rehearsal when 946 US troops were killed. Suzie drove us to Start Point, where we walked back to Torcross.   It’s quite easy.   We stop at Beesands and have a very convivial drink sitting outside The Cricket.   We get talking to an Australian guy and his wife.   We ask if they are on holiday.   It turns out that they live in Beesands.   He is very interested in our SWCP adventure and wants to know all about it. There is a big hill to get over before we are back ...