Along the East Devon Coast

Today's travel was along the East Devon coast from Exmouth, to Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth, Seaton and Lyme Regis (which pedants will remind me is in Dorset not Devon!!) 

The Route was something very close to this:

out along the coast. Back along the faster route.

Morning

For the third day in a row I awoke at 5:30am ready for the day ahead. First, I made my Weetabix, juice and tea and then I got the washing ready for the machine. Drew got up at 7am and the car finished charging at 8am. After a shower (I must write something about the shower in this house in a later post, a very good experience) I completed my ablutions and put the clothes on to wash just before we left the House.

Exmouth to Budleigh Salterton

We left the house at 10.10 and had arrived at Budleigh Salterton at 10.23. We parked on the sea front and used the RingGo app, originally downloaded in East Anglia last year, but which works in most parking locations here, to pay for the parking. Thus, avoiding paper tickets and the need to carry change, something which I've not done since before Covid.

With its pebbly beach Budleigh Salterton is more for the canoers and paddle boarders than for sun lovers.

We walked up the main street and were amazed to see that Budleigh Salterton managed to have 16 different coffee or tea shops within a half mile including many selling ice cream - that's not counting the coffee offered in the Methodist Church, which isn't primarily a coffee shop.

A large Methodist church

It was interesting to see the way the town had integrated its brook into the village, rather than in an underground culvert, as, for example, the one that runs down the street where I live, this one runs open between the road and the houses, so each house on that side of the road has a little bridge.

The Brook

Budleigh Salterton's one claim to fame is being the birthplace of the adventure and privateer of the First Elizabethan Age - Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh's naming of Virginia for his virgin queen and the failed colony at Roanoke Island along with his adventures in Venezuela were well known stories in my childhood and may be being told still. The museum in the town which celebrates Raleigh is only open between 2pm and 4pm, so we weren't able to visit.  

As it was too early in the journey for coffee or tea. We left Budleigh Salterton at 10:55am and headed through the Otter Valley to our next stop.

Sidmouth

Taking the gentle route to Sidmouth we went up and down along the coast and after the sleepy, quiet town of Budleigh, Sidmouth came as a shock. Unbekown to us this week is the Sidmouth Folk Festival this annual event, now restored post-Covid means the population of the town is quadrupled with large numbers of the incomers being aging hippies and musicians (and some both) from across the whole of the UK and beyond. 

We arrived in Sidmouth at 11.20am in the midst of a Morris Dancing display.  

Drew has strong views on Morris Dancing [Co-pilot's note: It is, dear readers, at best odd and more likely Eldrich] based on Terry Prachett's Book Lords and Ladies where Morris dancing by the men of Lancre allow the 'other dance' to break into the Discworld. Morris Dancers also features in another Pratchett book Reaper Man, where it says: 

The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse.

It is danced under blue skies to celebrate the quickening of the soil and under bare stars because it's springtime and with any luck the carbon dioxide will unfreeze again.

So, even getting Drew close enough to take photos with a long-distance lens was a bit of an effort. 

While the Promenade was full of stalls selling all sorts of items and singers/bands/groups every few yards of each other, so that the music became discordant when stood between them, the beach itself, bar for a lonely Lifeguard, was quiet.

The impressive hotels - The Victoria and The Belmont - at the end of the town show how this town benefitted from the British love of the sea in the height of the Victorian Era. Indeed, Victoria herself stayed in the town as a child for two years, her sons also loved the town with King Edward VII visiting twice and her younger son Arthur, Duke of Connaught, visiting more frequently. 

The Victoria Hotel

Gate House to the Belmont Hotel

St. Giles and St. Nicholas, Sidmouth

Having left the sea, we walked into the town of Sidmouth itself and found in the centre the large church dedicated to St. Giles and St. Nicholas.

This church has some amazing stained glass - much more than any of the other churches we have visited this summer. It includes the West Window donated by Queen Victoria and one piece of medieval stained glass in the Lady Chapel. For lovers of stained glass, the photos are all on Flickr - click here and scroll left to see them.

One of the lovely stained-glass windows - what amazing blue

Unusually, for an Anglican Church, the Church also has the Stations of the Cross around the walls. We wouldn't have spotted these, but as Drew was taking photos of the windows a friendly gentleman, stewarding the church, became yet another person wanting to converse with Drew. As Drew says: 'Can't people see I don't like being sociable' - obviously not. As with the stained glass, the full set of stations can be seen on Flickr, starting here.

The 12th Station - Jesus dies on the cross

The Church also did nice coffee and cakes, so Drew had a cup and a Walnut and coffee cake and I just had the coffee. 

Leaving Sidmouth at 12.40pm we had to go over a Ford - it has been a long time since I've driven across water, but it was all very stable.

Seaton

On the route from Sidmouth to Seaton we passed Branscombe and Beer both little villages along the coast.

Beer makes a big effort to make puns on its name and claims to be the only Devon seaside resort where you can take beer to the beach!

Seaton is, especially compared to this week in Sidmouth, a quiet coast town, typical of so many seaside resorts. It has a long Prom and is the first town on Lyme Bay. Its focus is clearly on the waves and the shore.

Offshore dark clouds began to gather, but thankfully on shore the temperature remained a comfortable 21C.

We walked along the Promenade from the Town to the Axe River Yacht Club.

The Axe River, more famous for its minster town a few miles up the river, flows into the sea at the end of Seaton beach.

One of Seaton's claims to fame is its Tram, we decided not to take the journey today, but on leaving the town we were stopped at a level crossing to let the Tram pass, so we got to see it from a different perspective.

We spent from 1:05 to 1:55pm in Seaton.

Lyme Regis

By 2.15pm we had arrived, across the Dorset border, in Lyme Regis. 

This famous resort town is more developed than that of its near neighbours and much busier on this sunny summer's day. By now the temperature 21c for most of the day has risen to 24c. 

Looking down over Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis is famous for the Cobb, the sea wall, which juts our from the town. It is famous for at least two reasons, both literary. The first the 1969 novel the French Lieutenant's women in which young Sarah is oft seen on the Cobb looking out to sea for her long-gone Frenchman with whom she had a non-consummated (but still scandalous to her town folk) relationship before he returned home. 

The second is Jane Austin's Persuasion where Louisa Musgrove coming down from the Cobb hits her head and suffers a concussion. Drew was tempted to re-enact this approach of coming down from the Cobb but managed it much more successfully than Louisa.

From the Cobb we walked along the Promenade passed the busy beach

and on to the Modern Tower at the end of the prom.

From there we walked through the town and up to the Langmoor and Lister gardens which look over the bay.

We had hoped to stop for some food at Mark Hix's Oyster and Fish House at the end of the gardens, but sadly they had no room and weren't taking bookings for later as they were full. 

We got back to the Car at 3.30pm and the temperature had reached 25C, so we used Air-con for the 55 minute drive back to the house. On arriving we emptied the washing machine and hang the washing to dry on the clothes horse in the conservatory - the heat in this room in the daytime means its drys clothes as fast as any tumble dryer! 

We had only done 57.3 miles of driving today which is only 47% of our charge. Meaning we have 53% - estimated 71 miles left. But we will top it up again over night. That being said we had also worked six miles during the day, 16,000 steps!

Dinner

After not getting into Mark Hix's place we decided we would eat back in Exmouth. We had seen a Mexican restaurant in Victoria Road Exmouth on our previous walks, so decided to give that a try.

The restaurant was much larger inside than it appeared from the front, so we were seated without any wait.  

The Mexican had been decorated to represent adobe and Aztec styles

and the service was speedy. [Co-pilot's note: By my reckoning, dear readers, our pleasantries with our order taker, ordering two starters, two mains and two sides and a bottle of water took around eight seconds - it was impressive.]

For Starters Drew had Chilli Devilled Mushrooms while I opted for the Nachos con carne.

For Mains Drew had Chicken Fajitas with the trimmings

while I had a Chicken and Chorizo Enchilada

We shared Onion Rings and Garlic Bread with cheese

This may seem like a lot of food, but it was just what we needed after a busy day. The napkins, cutlery and plates were the only remaining items at the end.

Was it the best Mexican I've tasted - no; was it the worse - most definitely not [Co-pilot's note: There was one very bad place in New York that gave me the squits]. Indeed, it was just what was needed for two hungry travellers. I suspect, given the age of clientele that the Mexican makes more of its money on cocktails and late night parties, but in that context the food was perfectly acceptable even though it had the feel of the microwave about it. 

We walked back up to the house by 9pm and put the car on to charge. With the additional walking this evening we are now up to 20,000 steps and 7.7 miles - and today wasn't supposed to be one of our walking days!! We were in bed for 10.30am, ready for tomorrow when we do have a walk planned.