2013 Euro Vacation: UK - Devon - The English Riviera

Devon - The English Riviera – Torquay, Dartmouth

During our trip to France earlier in the year, while staying in La Cimentelle, we had met some nice English folks (Katie and Phil) who mentioned that they had a rural property just out of Torquay with some B&B type accommodation attached, so we arranged to stay for a week there. This is another beautiful part of England – spectacular coastline, lots of historical towns and great rural scenery, including some of the narrowest lanes we have had the stress of driving upon! The locals all take these easily in their stride, whereas I approach each blind, single lane corner with trepidation, never too sure of the etiquette of who should back up when one inevitably meets a car (van, tractor, horse) going the other way. Anyway, we have managed to survive so far. Katie and Phil’s place is near the small village of Maidencombe, just outside Torquay, where they raise ducks, geese and chooks, as well as looking after some 9 cats! Torquay is of course, on the English Riviera. I had always thought this appellation to be a Basil Fawlty invention but it is actually what the district is called. Torquay itself is nice and has a long history with a very old Abbey and Tithe Barn. After an excursion to see Agatha Christie’s holiday house, Greenway, later lived in by her daughter and now owned by the National Trust, we took an excellent day trip down to Dartmouth (at the mouth of the Dart river, just down from Dartmoor), going down from Torquay by boat and back by steam train. Greenway is a substantial house in about 30 acres of beautiful gardens running down from the hill where the house sits, to the Dart River.

Dartmouth is most well known as the home of the Royal Naval College, but it is much more scenic than we'd expected - a beautiful harbour at the mouth of the Dart River, hosting a huge number of pleasure boats, and navigable right up to the edge of Dartmoor.

With our hosts’ guidance we also saw some excellent jazz at a local pub, and met a few colourful locals, many of whom have relatives in Australia. We also snapped a photo of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, which was apparently the inspiration for Fawlty Towers, now a Best Western boasting a Basil’s Bar!

Our final day's excursion was to Burgh Island at Bigbury on Sea. This has a hotel which featured in a couple of Agatha Christie murders, including Evil Under the Sun, an Hercule Poirot story which you can see on TV next time it comes around. It has a sandbar which you can walk across at low tide, but at high tide, there is an ingenious tractor/ferry that wades across - pics below of the machine, but sadly it was low tide when we were there, so we didn't see it in the water. On our way back we stopped at Slapton Sands, a beach used by US Forces in 1944 to practise the D-Day invasion. A large number of US Servicemen were killed when their landing craft were torpedoed during an exercise. A Sherman Tank which "drowned" in 1944 and was rescued in the 80's, sits on the beach at Torcross as a memorial.