In May 2024 we took a coach trip, staying in Torquay and visiting surrounding places. I was just a month after having radiotherapy and probably at the peak of a horrendous throat and cough that made me feel as though I should apologise to everyone.
Sunday 19 May 2024. We arrive at our hotel, the Livermead Hotel just down the hill from central Torquay. This is the view from our window, looking south west towards Paignton on the far coast over the bay.
These days, what with a bad back, walking with a stick, cancer and side effects from half the pharmacy's stock to take every day, I've ditched taking the camera on holiday with me and make do with just a few snaps on the phone. I still take my trusty A4 sketch pad with me and there will be a couple of sketches to come.
Monday's excursion takes us to Powderham Castle, a little way up the River Exe towards Exeter, though Ian, our coach driver, wisely stayed on the roads. As we all walked under the gatehouse to be greeted by the guide and curator of the castle, a tall (well look, I'm 5 ft 4 inches.... everybody's tall...) man came out of the castle and got into a car which immediately signalled its reluctance to start. As a group we gave a sympathetic groan of support as the chap threw a rueful glance at us before going back indoors. "That was the current Earl of Devon..." the guide told us.
The fortified manor house was built c1390, not named as a castle until the 18th century. It certainly has no moat or keep, but a portion of curtain wall today contains the Rose Garden. It was the seat of the Earls of Devon, the Courtenay family, from the mid 1500s when one branch of the family, based at Tiverton, ran out of heirs and the earldom passed to their cousins at Powderham. We had a tour of the ground floor, then were released to go find somewhere to sit with relief.
After some lunch in the Courtyard Cafe, we made an early start back towards the coach park as I didn't want to be holding anyone up. On the way we spotted some picnic tables and I was able to sit and do this sketch of the Victorian gatehouse to the castle. We also saw several deer wandering about.
Our dinner was scheduled quite late for us, but that turned out well as it meant that I could have a couple of hours sleep before going down to the dining room every day. Exhaustion being another of the side effects of the radiotherapy. It did make some of the coach travelling a lot shorter than it may have actually been... Anyway once up and waiting at a table in the hotel garden whilst Miss Franny went to the bar for a bottle of Pinot (and an orange squash for me...) a loud clattering chug-chug announced the passing of three large military helicopters, two of which are seen here.
Tuesday, 21 May 2024. We leave Ian and the coach in Paignton, clutching tickets for the steam train to Dartmouth, the pedestrian ferry from the station at Kingswear to Dartmouth and then a later river cruise from Dartmouth.
Taken from the train, this is the River Dart. Our coach is coach G, right behind the engine, which is Lydham Manor, No. 7827, built at Swindon in 1950 and in use at the Dartmouth Steam Railway since 1973.
I didn't manage to get any photos of the train itself, but here's an old sketch from 2013 which gives the general idea. It added to the fun quite a bit as we passed the grounds of a secondary school where a score or more teenage girls were doing a cross country run and charged as one towards us, waving their hands. By gum, I came over all nostalgic. "Take that stupid grin off your face - they weren't just waving at you!" came Miss Franny's sobering whisper of reality...
We reached the end of the line at Kingswear and got the ferry over to Dartmouth. Failing to find our designated meeting place "The Station Cafe", we wondered agonisingly whether we had been too quick to jump on the ferry, should we have stayed on the station? No, the cafe in question was now "The Embankment Cafe". A fellow passenger, plucked us from the returning ferry queue just in time.
The usual problems with finding a public loo. Cancers and their treatments can sometimes leave you with very little warning that a loo is required. Luckily we found one shortly before I was forced to walk bent double, but then they turned out to be showers... "Toilets around the other side" said a notice so, by now slightly cross-legged, I shuffled as fast as possible around the large building to see "Toilets closed for cleaning - use toilet in the showers"... Crisis narrowly averted.
We met up with the others at the appointed time for a river cruise up the River Dart. I'm told it was very good. I went to sleep more or less as soon as we left the landing stage and only woke up on the returning journey when the sun was going to be in my eyes if I looked out over the side at the passing scenery.
Wednesday 22 May 2024. It was a free day. There was an optional visit to the indoor and outdoor markets at Newton Abbott, but we thought that might not have the sort of appeal that it might have had say in the 1950s and we opted to stay and walk into Torquay itself. The walk was inevitably a stop and start effort from one bench to another with short or long rests depending on the roughness of terrain, or wind, (yes - yet another side effect...) or degree of gradient.
We had been warned of thunder and heavy rain throughout the afternoon and evening, though in the event the rain stayed away until evening and the thunder never made itself heard. We had a cream tea in a cafe, looking out onto a tangled mess of railings and snarled traffic as the area around the harbour was being "modernised" - which usually means that any character will be drained away and a new marina full of boats that seldom move will take over...
Thursday 23 May 2024. Today's outing was to Dawlish in the morning and then to Teignmouth for lunch and the afternoon. Dawlish is where the coastal train tracks were left hanging a few years ago during heavy seas smashing their way through the supporting wall under the lines. It is also famous for its black swans along the riverside which has a very nice park alongside.
Teignmouth had a pleasant, but rather breezy promenade to walk along. The pier looked a little as though it should be visited as soon as possible before it collapsed - there was no one on the length of it at all and we presumed it must be closed, though an arcade at the entrance was open. We sat in a little triangular square (work that one out...!) near a Greggs that supplied us with a warm sausage roll apiece, then made our way along the shopping street back to the Promeade meeting place where an ice cream stall provided us with something to lick whilst we waited for Ian to return.
Friday 24 May 2024. As we prepare to leave the Liversmead Hotel, the owner, his son and staff representatives gather to wave off our coach in a traditional and quite nostalgic way. Ian let the owner's son sit in the driver's seat and hoot the horn. He was made up for the day at that!
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