(And a Sunny Sunday in Salcombe)

A happy memory from 2010 made me want to revisit the Quay at Exeter and possibly also the cathedral, which we (Carol & I) didn’t see on that occasion. A highlight was feeding some very tame pigeons, who were not only willing to come to take food from your hand, but to pose for photos as well!

So I decided to visit Exeter on Saturday 20th July, and to make time during the visit to try to get on ‘Any Answers’ in response to an issue raised on ‘Any Questions’ the previous evening. The weather had changed from the heat of the previous days; in fact it deteriorated into some serious rain.

I came across a Beefeater pub, and thought I could spend some time there with the crossword and puzzles from the day’s paper, and also have an early lunch. I chose beef and ale pie – nothing special.

Then I let Garmin try to guide me to the cathedral, and she (it) took me into a park area amongst buildings which might have been close to the cathedral. Roadside parking was by RingGo, so I paid for a few hours but it was now time to call the radio programme. They were interested, apparently, in what I had to say about the House of Lords (it represents me more than the other place does, quite often, and that other place, elected or not, doesn’t represent ‘the People’ at all). They called me back and asked me to stand by to go on air. HOWEVER, on this occasion, and I can’t remember a similar one, the entire system for connecting callers to the presenter broke down completely and the programme was abandoned! I fell asleep.

The rain was too heavy for me, on waking, to contemplate finding my way on foot from where I was to the cathedral, so I gave up. Visiting the quay was no more tempting. I’d seen posters for a concert by a local male voice choir in Exmouth that evening, so I thought I’d drive down there and give it a go. I parked up for a short time on the Esplanade – long enough to have my picnic in the car, but when it came to deciding, I didn’t really fancy sitting in a church for a couple of hours listening to music which may or may not have appealed to me, so I headed for ‘home’.

For old times’ sake I wanted to visit Salcombe and Dartmouth. The weather had improved again on Sunday so I set off down there. It was very busy in Salcombe but I got a space in a small car park beside the harbour. Time was limited, so I decided not to wait for Moules Marinières at a waterside café just by the car park, but instead I indulged in an expensive, but disappointing, crab sandwich from a shop round the corner. Least good meal of the trip – no contenders!

Honestly, to my mind, Salcombe has been spoilt:

I remember it from the seventies as a beauty spot, but that’s not how it appears to me now. Too commercialised, too many craft, too many dinghies.

Disappointed, I moved on to Dartmouth. A bit better, I thought:

I got lucky with parking, and wandered about a bit. I saw posters about the Dartmouth Steam Railway, and there was a booth giving info and selling tickets. Their ‘top buy’ was a Round Robin, including the train ride, a river trip, and a coach to get back to your starting point – probably Totness. I wanted to do it the next day, but the river cruise doesn’t go on a Monday! Tuesday seemed a bit risky to me because of the need to be back at Killerton for the evening.

While ‘wandering’ I found this memorial about D-Day sailings. I didn’t know that Dartmouth had been used as a departure point.

That’s not a good photo, unfortunately. I had to take it obliquely because a couple of seniors were sitting on their fold-up chairs directly in front of the memorial and didn’t take any notice of an old man try to take its picture. But anyway, the plaque spoke to me because of its message. I was irritated in June this year when some folk tried to hi-jack the D-Day 80-year commemoration by linking it to the election campaign, and accusing paper spoilers such as me of letting their fathers / grandfathers down who fought for Democracy, so that I could have the vote. No, they didn’t! Having visited some of the Normandy beaches, and spoken to French people who were there, I know the invasion was not for any notion of Democracy, but for La Liberté. (Freedom) The plaque says it all.

Dartmouth has three ferries across the river. This one:

which takes foot passengers across the river to and from Kingswear, where the railway station is, and two car ferries, known as the higher and the lower. I chose to cross on the higher. There was a bit of a wait – not unlike Bowness – but once on board we were required to stay in our vehicles, with no view of the river so nothing worth photographing!

After the car ferry, I headed north towards Exeter and a search for a picnic site proving as unsuccessful as ever, guess where I ended up? – Yes! – the Moto service area just North of M5 J30:

This time I climbed the hill which makes up most of the picnic site, having noticed that if you did that, you might find a table in the shade! Unfortunately, in spite of the fresh ice pack each day, the cold potatoes brought from home were no longer fit for consumption. I think I bought a packet of crisps to go with the (hard boiled) egg – egg n chips, eh?

Back at the Grange, I was able to watch most of the film version of ‘The Ghost Train’, with Arthur Askey. (Meaning he was in the film, not watching it with me!) To a ‘Ghost Train’ addict since teenage, it’s a bit of a travesty, but it filled the time.

What’s next? Exeter Quay and cathedral at the second attempt, a visit to Brixham, a ride on the chuffer and ‘Hamlet’ at Killerton. It might all get into one chapter, or it might not!

This is the Dartmouth higher ferry, taken from the train, two days later: