South Coast, Sea Sand & Attractions with Derek & Jeanette

 

We had a fantastic journey down to beautiful Devon and enjoyed lunch in a pub on the beach!  What a way to start off the holiday!

 

We did so many things during our two week stay in Devon.  We visited Babbacombe where we had an exciting ride on the cliff railway down to the beach. We drove across the river Teign and enjoyed stunning scenic views over the river. 

We drove to a beautiful little place called Otterton, which is one of East Devon’s loveliest coastal valleys, to see the working mill.  We saw the workings of the mill and learnt some interesting facts.  We wandered around the craft shop and had an amazing cream tea!  We dropped in at the Donkey Sanctuary, too  It was lovely to see how well they were being looked after.

 

We took a visit to Paignton Zoo!  It was a wonderful zoo and beautifully kept.  We ambled around leisurely, taking in the large variety of animals.  Some of us bought some souvenirs in the lovely little gift shop.  One morning we drove into Teignmouth and had a walk around the old town. We had a particularly exciting day as it was Holly's 21st birthday and we celebrated in style!  We had a party in our favourite country pub! 

 

We took an amazing trip out to Kent’s Caverns which are incredible prehistoric caves!  It was breath taking to witness the caves and learn how they change over millions of years.  That evening we found a brilliant pub for dinner which was playing live music!  We chatted and danced the night away!

 We decided to visit the very pretty Totnes for a walk along the river and into the town.  We walked up a big hill into a buzzing market, where some of us couldn’t resist buying a few things!   We devoured a scrumptious lunch and an ice cream on the river. 

 

We all loved the aquarium!  It was wonderful to see so many varieties of sea creatures.  We saw many different fish, sting rays, sharks, turtles, crocodiles, lobsters, crabs and much more.

One morning we set off to Widecombe in the Moor which is set in the heart of Dartmouth National Park.  For such a small village it has a splendid church, known as 'The Cathedral of the Moor', and we learnt that it has recently undergone some urgent restoration!

 

On another day we drove out to Kingswear and got the car ferry over to Dartmouth.  We all fell in love with Dartmouth and were all amazed at the amount of boats there were on the river.  We enjoyed lunch in Dartmouth and then drove to Kingsbridge where we had a brilliant game of bowling! Everyone loved it and got quite competitive! 

 

We all enjoyed our trip to the Model Village in Babbacombe. It was very lush and green and there were a lot of funny little scenes to look at! We all agreed it felt strange to see everything so small!  We spent the rest of the afternoon on Teignmouth and had a walk along the gorgeous beach.  We then headed back to the site and got our glad rags on for dinner in a lovely local pub.  We had a few drinks in the clubhouse and enjoyed some dancing before bed.

 

On one sunny morning, we headed out to Salcombe in the stunning South Devon.  It was very picturesque and offered amazing views all around. 

 

Perhaps our favourite day was the Round Robin trip!  We started out in Paignton and took a wonderful steam train ride to Kingswear and then got the foot ferry over to Dartmouth. We then had a filling lunch and got on the river cruise boat which took us all along the river Dart.  We passed many picturesque villages and even saw Jane Austin’s summer home!  The last leg of our Round Robin was a fabulous open top bus ride back to Paignton!  The whole day was so exciting and everybody had a lot of fun.  We had another lovely pub meal and watched a show of the musicals!

 

We managed to squeeze in an excellent game of ten pin bowling before heading home!  We all chatted about the holiday and what our favourite parts were. We had all made good friends and everyone agreed they would like to come back again!