DAY 34
Sunday June
26th 2016
Thurlestone
to Exmouth Miles 116
Today was my last day.
When I arrived back at Exmouth I had driven the whole coast of mainland
Britain (plus some islands) and covered a distance of around 5100 miles.
We allowed ourselves the luxury of a good English breakfast and
a late start and set off at 9.00am. We
firstly went down into the village of Thurlestone to look at the ocean, that we
had been assured by the name of our B&B that we should have been able to
see from our room! In the center of the
Bay is a distinctive large rock arch, though to me it looked more like one
stack of rocks had fallen over onto another one. It is called the “thirled stone” which is
what gives the village its name.
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| Thirlestone |
We
drove through the lanes to Galmpton and then into Hope Cove, which has both an
inner and an outer beach. I remember
this area from when I came here with my parents aged 7 years old for a
holiday. We stayed in a caravan just a
few miles away at Salcombe.
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| Hope Cove |
During the
flight of the Spanish Armada one of the ships was wrecked here on the
beach. The residents at that time were
mainly into smuggling, which was not at all the romantic image portrayed by
seaside towns and publicans today. They
were quite violent men and the 140 survivors were lucky not to have been killed
on the beach, although perhaps the large number of Spaniards might have stayed
the hand of the Hope Cove residents.
However, all of them were taken prisoner and later sentenced to death;
but this was stayed and eventually they were returned to Spain on payment of a
large ransom.
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| Bilberry Down |
We
then drove up onto Bolberry Down where there are large communications aerials
and lots of rabbits. The views from up
here were spectacular right along the coast and out to sea. Here you can walk in one direction to Bolt
Head and in the other direction to Bolt Tail.
We
then drove down into Soar Cove. We
firstly looked at the Soar Cove Hotel who were that afternoon going to be
holding a “Gin and Jazz” festival in the grounds. We very much wished that we could have had the
time to stay for this as we both like gin and jazz! The Cove itself is a small sandy beach, which
can only be reached by foot.
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| Salcombe |
Salcombe,
our next destination is a famous yachting town and is now said to be the most
expensive town in England in which to buy property as “out of towners” snap up
almost anything that comes onto the market.
Salcombe estuary is like Falmouth in that it is a Ria, or drowned river
valley, so it does not dry out.
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| Water Tractor Taxi |
We
drove into Salcombe via Coombe, South Sands and North Sands. It was at North Sands that I came as a child
and the beach still looks very much the same.
It was here that I discovered that my Mickey Mouse wrist watch was not
waterproof! At that time you had to walk
the mile into Salcombe town, today, if you want to, you can take a water “tractor”.
Salcombe
still has a small fishing industry based on shell fish harvesting, but no
traditional fishing boats are now based here.
Almost every vessel is a pleasure craft.
Just before the mouth of the estuary is a sand bar and it is said that
this is what inspired Alfred Lord Tennyson to write his famous poem “Crossing
the Bar”. It starts: Sunset and evening Star and one clear call
for me! And may there be no moaning of
the bar, when I put out to sea.
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| Seagull chick |
We
drove into the town, again very restricted as to where you can drive and
park. We found a small side street by
the water and stopped to buy a coffee.
There was a small jetty and I noticed something moving on it, which turned
out to be a fledgling seagull that had fallen out of its nest. I
spied the nest up on a nearby roof and his/her brother/sister still up
there. There were a number of gulls
flying around and we assumed that one was the mother of the chick. Marilyn went into the coffee shop (on whose
roof was the nest) to let them know and see if they could help. The lady came out and said that this chick
had actually fallen out almost a week ago and at that time could not even
walk. She had put it on a sack by the house,
expecting it to die, but the parents obviously had been continuing to feed it
and it was still alive and now walking.
Clearly the best thing to do was to leave it to nature.
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| Salcombe Guard Dog! |
Notable
residents of Salcombe are the singer Kate Bush and Mary Berry the star of the
great British Bake Off, who has a holiday home here.
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| Salcombe from East Portsmouth |
Across
from Salcombe is the small hamlet of East Portlemouth, linked to Salcombe by a
foot ferry. We decided to visit it as,
when I came to a boy’s camp here when I was 14 years old, I remember being
buried in the sand on East Portlemouth Beach!
The journey again was complicated in that we had to drive all the way up
to Kingsbridge at the top of the estuary, before driving down the other side, a
distance of about 15 miles. Kingsbridge
is not strictly a coastal town, but I have to mention how charming it is. It is clean and smart and the river full of
lots of moored small craft. It reminded me
somewhat of Henley-On-Thames, near where I used to live, in the way in which
the water and the boats beautified the town.
Once
on the other side of the estuary the roads were once again single track and as
we entered East Portlemouth they were not much wider than the wing mirrors on
the car. We drove down to the car park,
which was as far as the road went.
Indeed once committed to driving down the road you would have to go all
the way to the bottom as it would be virtually impossible to turn around. At the top of the road it had said parking
charge was £7.50, which probably put off
a lot of people. What it did not say was
that it was a National Trust car park and now being members (courtesy of the
Scottish National Trust) we would not have to pay. When we got there we were met by a very
friendly lady acting as the volunteer parking attendant. She allowed us to stop and take a photo and
not park and gave us good advice as to where to go to our next
destination.
We turned
around and set off back up the lane. This
time we met a vehicle coming the other way and as luck would have it, right by
the entrance to a house so I could edge mostly off the road. The vehicle was a Tesco delivery van! As the van squeezed past, I had my window
open and his was open also. I commented
to the driver that I bet that most of his deliveries were to houses that lived
in very small lanes. He laughed and said
that it was not most houses it was all of them!
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| Start Point |
I
thought that this might just about be it for narrow lanes. I was wrong.
We had to go to Start Point and the lighthouse, as this was a
distinctive coastal feature. We traveled
for one and a half miles and got almost to the car park before meeting another
vehicle. This driver opted to reverse
back, a good 400 yards to find somewhere for me to pass. When we got to the car park I was surprised
at just how many cars were there. All
had braved the road.
Having
taken the obligatory photograph we turned around and started back. This was when we met not one, not two, but 4
cars all coming towards us and wanting to get into the car park. For a moment
it was stalemate as to who should move as I had 2 cars also behind me. One of the 4 cars ahead of me reversed a
little so that I could squeeze into the soft hedge, but the cars behind me all
had to reverse back into the car park. With my mirrors folded I sat still while
the four vehicles inched past me with no more than an inch between us as
well. Once past I set off again, knowing
that it was one and a quarter miles to the next slightly wider road and praying
that I would not meet anyone else coming in.
Fortunately I didn’t. Whatever
happened with the other cars coming out that had been behind me I don’t
know.
At
the next cross roads and based on what the car park lady at East Portlemouth
had advised, we turned right. A good
decision! Straight over at the crossroads, on the road we might
have taken, we could see a stationary car towing a caravan facing another stationary
car towing a caravan that was traveling in the other direction. There was no way either could reverse. I expect that they are both still there now. Just as well they are able to sleep in the
caravans!
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| Slapton Sands |
Through
the lanes we eventually came to Beesands on the coast and this took us directly
into Torcross. Torcross is an
interesting place. It is at the end of a
two mile long beach. The road runs right beside the beach while on the other
side of the road, the inland side and separated only by the road, is a large
expanse of fresh water, known as Slapton Ley.
This area is protected and unique for its bird life.
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| Slapton Ley on Left, Ocean on Right |
Torcross
is now noted for a double tragedy that occurred during World War II. In late 1943 the whole area around Torcross
was evacuated, people being told to leave their homes by the army. Indeed they were unable to return for almost
2 years. Torcross became a training
ground for the D-Day Landings as the topography of its beach was thought to be
similar to Utah beach in Normandy. On
April 27th 1944 as part of a continuing series of exercises, known
as Operation Tiger, taking place over a 9 day period, troops were to be landed
on the beach under fire, but not to advance beyond a certain point until a
specified time. Due to the wrong
communication channels having been given to landing craft that were to storm
the beaches, shelling of the beaches by warships happened at a time when troops
had already moved into the shelling area.
At least 300 servicemen on the beach were killed by friendly fire.
On
the following day, in the evening of April 28th the second tragedy
occurred. A night exercise was planned
and a convoy of vessels, three miles long, set out to sail from Portland to
Slapton. Nine German fast attack E
boats, alerted by the heavy radio traffic, came into the convoy and sunk two
tank landing ships with the loss of 946 American servicemen.
At
the time both of these incidents were hushed up for fear that it might give
away to the enemy that a beach landing invasion was being planned. After the war though it continued to be kept
secret and it was only much later that the facts came out and an investigation
took place.
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| Operation Tiger Memorial |
Today
at Slapton, due to the persistence of one man, a tank was salvaged from one of
the sunken tank landing ships and is now on display as a memorial to all of the
men lost during the tragedy of Operation Tiger.
Even today the number of men who died in these two events is still not
accurately known. The tank monument
states that 749 men died on the ships, whereas another account says the number
is 946. Together the number of men
killed in these two events was greater than the number of men who were killed in
the landings on Utah Beach, which saw the heaviest of all of the invasion
casualties. The names of those killed in
Operation Tiger were added to the list of those killed on Utah Beach.
From
Slapton Sands we drove along the coast road driving up the hill to Strete and
then past Blackpool Sands. Last
Christmas we went as a family on Boxing Day onto the beach here and had mince
pies and champagne!
Stoke
Fleming is the village above Blackpool Sands and I also came here as a child to
a Boy’s Camp and still remember today how much fun it was. I also remember, on a walk from Stoke Fleming
to Slapton Sands, a boy with a transistor radio announcing to everyone that he
had just heard on the radio that Marilyn Monroe had died.
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| Dartmouth |
We
entered Dartmouth from the southern end via Warfleet and signs pointing to the
Castle. Now there is not much left of
the castle at Dartmouth and it sits on a strategic point where cannon could be
turned onto any enemy ships trying to get into the port. It was paired up with a castle on the
opposite bank at Kingswear. As with
other fortifications, such as at Falmouth, a heavy chain joined the castles and
was stretched up across the entrance to block the harbour at night.
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| Dartmouth Castle |
During
World War II, after the rescue of the British and French troops at Dunkirk, my
father, who was in the Royal Artillery, was posted to coastal defence in
Dartmouth and was actually based at the castle for some time. I remember him taking me there and to his
surprise found large cannons still lying on the ground outside the castle just
where he and others had had to move them to make room for anti-aircraft
weapons. They are no longer there today.
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| Bay below Castle |
Dartmouth
is a flourishing, smart and lively, boating town with a strong naval
tradition. It is still the home of the
Royal Naval College where junior officers are trained and inducted into the
service. The College was established by
Edward III in the 11th century. The town has a long history as a port
and was an embarkation point back in the time of the Crusades in the 12th
century.
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| Dartmouth |
My
parents actually met in Dartmouth, my Mother being here on a short holiday from
the factory she worked in in Cheltenham, where they manufactured aircraft
instruments. She had moved to Cheltenham
from the East End of London after the original factory was bombed in the
Blitz. They got married in 1944 as my
father knew that he would be going back to France and she would at least get a
pension if he was killed. After the war
he joined the factory where my Mother worked and thus I was born in Cheltenham.
Marilyn
and I both like Dartmouth and it is a favourite place for us to visit when we
can. You can take an excellent boat trip
down the River Dart to Dartmouth from Totnes. On the way you can stop at Greenways the
holiday home of Agatha Christie.
(Greenway was once owned by Sir Walter Raleigh and his half brother Sir
Humphrey Gilbert.) Once in Dartmouth you
link to a ferry across to Kingswear, followed by a steam train to Paignton. In Paignton you then take a bus back to Totnes
making a circular tour. A great day out.
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| Dart Valley Railway |
We
took the higher of the two chain ferries across to Kingswear. For the distance travelled this was the most
expensive ferry ride at £5.60.
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| Brixham Harbour |
From
Kingswear we headed across to the coast at Berry head just above the fishing
port of Brixham, famous particularly for its crab. It still has an active fishing fleet and fish
from here every day goes out to the top restaurants in the area. From this point our journey on country lanes
was done (hurray!). It is possible to
now drive along the sea front, o good roads, through the seaside towns of
Paignton and Torquay almost to Exeter.
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| Paignton (not my photo) |
I
recalled also another war time story from my father about when he was stationed
in Paignton. He had been on night duty
manning an anti-aircraft gun on the sea front.
In the morning they were stood down and another crew took up the
duty. Each new crew on taking over had
to fire a test round with the gun. The
new crew did this, but the shell must have been faulty and it exploded in the
gun and all the crew were killed. It
could have been him if they had used just one more shell.
A
not too dissimilar thing happened to a cousin of mine, who was killed before I
got to know him. He was flying a Sea
Fury off the deck of HMS Glory, an aircraft carrier, in the Yellow Sea, during
the Korean War, a few days before Christmas 1952. When they started patrol they had to fire a
burst from the in-wing mounted 20mm machine guns. He did so and his wing was seen to explode and
he crashed into the sea and was killed.
It was suggested that it was caused by old ammunition manufactured in
1943 jamming in the gun.
Paignton
is very much a family holiday resort that has seen better days. It is still lively but it no longer has the
glory or the attractiveness that it once had.
On leaving Paignton the houses become more elegant as you get closer
into Torquay.
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| Torquay (not my photo) |
Torquay also, like most UK
seaside resorts, experienced a big down turn when cheap overseas flights came
along. It is coming back though. The older retired and fairly wealthy folk
that populate a lot of Torquay did not
disappear (though I imagine they did turn over!) and this kept the town alive. This is still the case today. However, the
town now focuses on long weekend, more upmarket, luxury breaks and business
conferences to keep it moving forward. There
is also a very active theatre in Torquay.
Just above the sea front and to the south is the village of Cockington
that seems frozen in time with its thatched cottages.
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| Looking out to Thatcher rock from Torquay |
The
coastal road through the town (and you have to search it out) goes across
Daddyhole Plain, a favourite viewing spot for Marilyn’s grandfather. The road continues right along the cliffs,
past large houses with lovely sea views over Thatcher Rock and on into
Babbacombe. Here there is a fun funicular railway down to the beach and a wonderful
model village. From Babbacombe it is mainly
a direct drive along the coast, with expansive views over the ocean to Shaldon,
with its low bridge across the Teign Estuary to Teignmouth. Shaldon is very narrow if you decide to drive
through the village, but it is possible and takes you up to the Ness where
there is parking and a tunnel (claimed, as they all are, to have been used by
smugglers) down to the beach.
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| Teignmouth (not my photo) |
This
area again is a place of my family holidays as a child. Teignmouth still has a pier and sea front with
light entertainments. It is popular with seniors and families, but probably not
as popular as Paignton for family holidays, though I’m not sure that it really
wants to be. There are no caravan parks
in evidence in Teignmouth, whereas Paignton has quite a number, mainly on the
Totnes side of the town. The beach here is sandy, sort of. Its not good “digging” sand such as at
Goodrington Beach in Paignton, but it is a nice beach to laze on.
After
Teignmouth the road continues along the coast to Dawlish. The town fronts right onto the main Great
Western Railway line which runs between it and the beach. This all seems in harmony though and
certainly train travelers get a magnificent view of both the small town and the
ocean.
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| Dawlish in the storm (BBC Photo) |
In the winter storms of February
2014 the railway line was left hanging in the air when the sea washed away all
of the ground beneath it. This
completely cut railway links between London and Penzance and significant
efforts were made to reconstruct the sea wall and defences to enable the line
to reopen. This was done by early April;
however, there is now consideration of creating a new inland railway
route. Personally I cannot see this
happening any time soon. The impact of
taking farmland and homes would create a real outcry and the cost of new
bridges over rivers and motorways will probably fall outside of any post
European membership budget. I love
traveling on this section of railway and hope that it remains running here for
many years to come.
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| Dawlish Warren |
Just
outside of Dawlish on the north side is Dawlish Warren. For over 60 years this has been a holiday
area and it is populated with hundreds of chalets and static caravans. I remember coming here on Boxing Days in the
early 1970s, with other family members, and racing the go-carts. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they
are still operating.
The
Warren itself is an area of extensive sand dunes, covered with lovely yellow
and purple flowers and obviously a place people like to walk and run their
dogs. The footpath along the sea wall is
well maintained and provides excellent views across the Bay to Exmouth and also
my final destination of Orcombe Point.
The estuary of the Exe at Exmouth is rapidly silting up, having now
caused the lifeboat to be moved to a new station closer to the ocean. There is a large sand bar growing up that
looks as if it is getting close and closer to joining up Exmouth with
Dawlish. Obviously the flow of the river
will prevent a complete joining but it may allow a bridge to be constructed
before too long.
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| Orcombe Point from Dawlish Warren |
Dawlish
Warren is also the end of the Exe River Trail that stretches from Exmouth up one
side of the river, crossing over at Countess Weir at Exeter and then following
the river on its other bank down to Dawlish.
This is now becoming well used by walker and cyclists, though from
experience I would anticipate that some separation system will have to be put
in place, or cyclists forced to slow down in some way. Many of them ride too fast and walkers
(especially with small children) are unable to hear them coming up behind until
it is too late.
From
Dawlish Warren the road continues along the Exe to the little village of
Cockwood with its wonderful Anchor Inn pub offering excellent pub grub. The village has a small boat harbour that
dries on low tide.
At
this point you rejoin the main rode at Starcross, where you can catch a
passenger only ferry across to Exmouth.
The Pub here is called the Atmospheric Railway in remembrance of Brunel’s
attempts to have an air driven railway line.
The technology employed by Brunel was not new but he introduced many
modifications in an attempt to allow the trains to run faster and carry more
loads. The principle was that a narrow
pipe would be laid in the centre of the rail lines, with a slit in the top,
into which would fit a valve connected to a piston on the front carriage of the
train. Without the need for coal fired
locomotives significant cost savings were thought possible. Leather seals along
the pipe slit would allow the train connector to move along the central pipe
with the leather flaps opening in front and closing behind, as it moved, to
maintain the pressure. The train would
be propelled forward by the pressure created behind the valve and the lack of
pressure ahead of it.
After
significant technical issues and introduction of new designs, the first trains
began operating in September 1847 and the line was fully functional from Exeter
to Newton Abbot by March 1848. The
highest speed recorded by a train was 64mph.
The railway though continued to experience technical problems. Pipe bores were changed and during the winter
the leather froze and became hard thus causing air pressure failures. Grease used to keep the leather supple and
prevent it cracking in dry weather then, so it is said, attracted rats that
would eat the leather, again causing air leakage. In September 1848 the railway company
abandoned the atmospheric railway and returned to steam driven
locomotives. It had operated for only a
year.
Shortly
after Starcross we turned off to follow the sign for Powderham Church. This is a backroad around Powderham Castle,
home to the Earl of Devon. We were at
one time acquaintances of his Aunt, the Lady Elizabeth, who attended our church
in Wargrave. This road eventually joins
the main road again, close to Kenton and this leads on to join the A379 at
Countess Weir. After following this road
for a mile you turn back down the other bank of the Exe and head for Topsham.
In
1286 the Countess of Devon, apparently anxious over how much trade went through
the port at Topsham, decided to make the upper stretch of the River Exe
navigable so that ships could come right into the City of Exeter. A weir and canal system were constructed at
her expense and the city then became a major port in its own right.
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| Topsham |
Topsham
was the original Roman port for Exeter from the first to the fifth century
AD. It became a major trading cotton hub
with Holland and a number of Dutch merchants houses are still in evidence
today. These houses were constructed
from Dutch bricks that were used as ballast by the vessels coming from Holland
to load up with cotton. This is similar
to what occurred in the old city of Quebec where a lot of the buildings are
built from Bristol stone, used as ballast by ships coming from England to
collect furs and other goods from Canada.
Another Canadian connection with Topsham is through the Franklin
expedition, which was lost trying to find the North West Passage around
Canada. One of Franklin’s ships, HMS
Terror, was built in Topsham. HMS
Erebus, the other one of Franklin’s lost ships was discovered in 2014 in
Canadian arctic waters and the search for HMS Terror is continuing. Both Erebus and Terror had previously been on
a four year expedition to the Antarctic with Captain John Ross before they went
to the Arctic with Franklin. It is known
that they became trapped in the ice and eventually were abandoned by their
crews. The crews survived for some time
on the rations taken off the ships, however many of them experienced lead
poisoning from the lead used to seal the canned foods.
From
Topsham the road leads through Lympstone, with its Royal Marine Commandoes
training barracks, then Exton and finally into Exmouth.
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| Home At Last |
I drove the length of Exmouth’s Esplanade in
cloudy weather and finally stopped the car at the end, by Orcombe Point. I had left this same spot just 34 days ago
and after a journey of 5068 miles, it felt good to be back home. I had a real sense of achievement. I have gained many treasured memories and a
real insight into this beautiful and very varied land that is Britain. All that remains is to now try and make sense
of all of the photos and video – and perhaps turn it all into a book!
