We
were staying in the beautiful Dawlish Warren, and on quite a few occasions we
ambled down to the beach front and enjoyed ice creams and the world’s best
milkshake! We walked along leisurely,
taking in the stunning sea views. We saw
a man on the jagged rocks performing some very clever tricks on his bike – we
clapped and cheered him on!
Some
of us enjoyed a lovely swim in the on-site pool, splashing and spending time in
the Jacuzzi. We visited a lovely little
village called Chudleigh and found a great little art exhibition where we all
voted what our favourite painting was!
We had a wonderful visit to Kent’s Caverns one afternoon, exploring the
prehistoric caves. We learnt how
stalagmites and stalactites are formed and saw some incredible old
artefacts. 
One
morning we went to the Donkey Sanctuary and saw lots of rescued Donkeys. It was lovely to see how well they were
looked after and how healthy they are.
On another day we spent the entire day at the wonderful Paignton
Zoo. It was like a giant nature trail
and so beautifully looked after. We saw orangutangs, gorillas, giraffes,
elephants and many more animals.
We
spent a delightful morning in Torquay, dipping into a few souvenir shops. We had a very relaxing lunch overlooking the
beautiful harbour. On the middle Sunday
afternoon, we went to Newton Abbot Racecourse and put our bets on the
horses! A couple of us won and were very
excited!
We
took a very exciting ride down the cliff on the cliff railway in
Babbacombe! We all climbed aboard and it
took as down a steep Cliffside and dropped us at the bottom where we got out
and had a lovely stroll. We saw some awesome red cliffs! We then visited the Babbacombe Model
Village. It was brilliant, and we saw
lots of models of things and places we all recognized.
We
went to a local market one morning and strolled around looking at the variety
of things on offer – we even saw a man holding a snake! Some of us were brave enough to touch it! We then went on to Powderham Castle. What a
treasure of a place! The castle itself
was breath taking and the grounds that surrounded it were idyllic. We took a tractor ride through the deer park
which was so beautiful. We saw lots of
families of deer grazing and running around having fun. It was really quite special to see them in
such great numbers and in such close proximity.
We then took a guided tour of the castle which was extremely interesting
and we learnt a fair few facts about its history! All of this was rounded off with a castle
garden cream tea, of course! 
One
of the most memorable days was doing the ‘Round Robin’ trip. For the first part of the journey we had an
exciting ride on an open top bus and took in the magnificent countryside around
us! We then hopped off the bus and onto
the Cardiff Castle river cruise boat. We
had the most serene journey along the river dart. The scenery either side of us was incredible
and so lush and green. We cruised past a
salmon farm, Greenway House (Agatha Christie’s summer home) and lots of little
villages tucked away in little coves. We
then arrived in glorious Dartmouth and enjoyed a fish and chip lunch
overlooking the port. It was then time
to catch the foot ferry over to Kingswear and have a scenic steam train ride
back to Paignton where we started. What
a wonderful day!
We
devoured many a fine meal during our stay.
One of our favourites was The Boathouse, which was right on the sea
front in Dawlish Warren, and we could walk there within no time. We went to a beautiful little pub called the
Anchor Inn one evening which overlooked Dawlish Warren’s harbour. It was very atmospheric inside and we all
fell in love with it! We also had a
couple of BBQ’s outside our chalets in the beautiful evening sun. We sipped on refreshing drinks and chatted
away!
What a wonderful week away and thank you to everyone for making it so special.
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