Exploring Exmouth

The image at the start of today's blog links to reminders of my childhood, but more of that later.

Breakfast

Having gone to bed at 10.30pm on Friday night, I awoke Saturday at 4.30am eager and ready to blog - which, along with loading up and naming 200+ photos did take a little while.

As I do most Saturday mornings, I made breakfast at 4.30am, but didn't get around to eating it until 6am. I know from previous years blogging that I am along in liking Weetabix with hot water left go cold until it comes up with the spoon in chunks. My daily Weetabix has hot water, but then is eaten in 10 minutes, so it is still warm, but on weekends I make it as I get up and enjoy the delight of it cold some hours later. It was washed down with Orange Juice and multiple cups of tea.

Walking down to the Estuary

Having taken the car off charge at 8.30am (at 100%) we put a load of washing in the washing machine, did some other jobs around the house and left at 11am. 

The route was something like this:

Note the blocked out areas aren't important, just names of places I needed to get the map to go in the right direction, not actual places we visited, so I removed them.

First we walked down Ashleigh Road on which we are living, it is quite steep, but gives good views of the estuary.

At the bottom of Ashleigh Road, for the first time we turned right, past Phear Park and down on to Withycombe Road, which on crossing the Exeter Road is renamed as Hartopp Road which when it meets the barrier of the Main Road and Railway line turns left and becomes Halsdon Road, at the end of which is the Railway Station. 

From that point we walked past the Exmouth Rugby Club - which has a sideline out of season of renting its pitch to Mobile Home drivers who want to stop in Exmouth!

We walked onto the Imperial Recreation Ground and this is where the map and reality separate. In fact we were able to walk along the side of the estuary for the whole of the small peninsula. But as cars can't access this route Google Maps doesn't show it as a through route. Of course, hugging the coast made for a longer route than the map implies, but allowed for a much better view of the estuary, Dawlish and Dawlish Warren opposite 

and back up the estuary to Lympstone Manor.

The memories evoked by the broken-down Sea Scouts hut which is the top picture in today's post is of course my own time as a Sea Scout. Unlikely as it sounds to almost everyone who knows me I was a member of the Swansea Sea Scouts for almost two years. I looked fetching in our white uniforms and white sailors' hat, even if I have to say so myself (as I don't know anyone else who will!!) [Co-pilot's note: Yet, dear readers, he cannot tie a knot.] 

Like Exmouth the Sea Scout building in Swansea wasn't much to look at, and the leftover part of a ship that we used to board to learn some of the nautical terms was indeed a wreck in the technical use of the term. You had to walk softly on her so that the planks didn't give way - no sign of Health and Safety in those days.

Still, I know my siblings will remember back to then as my Dad, who would drop me down to the Scout hut on Swansea docks, used to play chicken with the edge of the dock and scare them and everyone else who saw him! 

Exmouth Marina

Once past the Recreation Ground and the run down buildings we continued to hug the coast rather than do what the map shows. So we continued upon it until we reached the Exmouth Harbour Master's office, which is none to salubrious.

At this point it becomes an easy walk and cycle path past the Exe Sailing Club

Once we are passed the point where the estuary becomes the sea

We came to the Exmouth Marina, a very tastefully updated area which were the former docklands. The first thing we encountered was a lifting bridge.

Once the boar had gone by it quickly lowered again and we were able to get across safley.

Walking back into the town

From the Marina we walked on to Rockfish where we had eaten the night before and form there went up St. Andrew's Road towards the town centre. Almost immediately Drew was accosted by an 89-year-old man who was mesmerised to see that he still carried a camara, given that the old man had sold his camara to a second-hand shop recently (and not for a good price). The gentleman went on to regal Drew with his military history, he being the first commissioned officer appointed by Queen Elizabeth II when she became Queen in 1952 (70 years ago, for those who failed to note we had been having a platinum jubilee this year!!). 

On hearing our accents, he told us that his daughter had graduated from Cardiff and his Grandson had recently returned home from three years at my old employer, the University of South Wales. Stories over, we continued on our route - with Drew bemoaning that strange people seem to be attracted to him for some reason!!!

Leaving St. Andrew's Road we walked on to The Strand, the centre of Exmouth and looked at its various features. It being Saturday afternoon it was quite busy. So we continued onto The Parade and up North Street and Ryall Grove on to Ashleigh Road. As we climbed up Drew, lagging behind, [Co-Pilot's Note: Maintaining, dear readers, a sensible distance.] took a photo of me making progress up the hill.

When we got back we remembered we'd not taken photos of the outside of the house, so we remedied that and share them here.

So after two hours and 3.5 miles we were back at the house ready to take the washing out and load up the latest set of photos.