The last full day in Exmouth

They say time goes by quickly when you are enjoying yourself, and this holiday is evidence enough of that.

Thirteen days ago, we had only just arrived in Exmouth town, now it seems we have visited its nooks and crannys and can find short cuts and easy routes around and beyond the town - a perfect outcome to the holiday.

Morning

Being Thursday, as I explained in the blog post last week, I spent the morning dealing with Parish Admin duties including drafting the newsletter for this weekend. Drew read his novel while I was typing away, so things were quiet.

Walk

At Midday, tasks complete, it was time to take a walk. I have mentioned before that Phear Park runs behind the accommodation - we can hear the sounds of the park when sitting on the balcony. Strange then that we had not gone to explore it before today.

The park has a grand entrance and lots of green areas, both manicured and wilder forms of parkland.

From the park, the walk continued to one of Exmouth's many churches. The Church of St. John the Evangelist in the Anglican parish of Withycombe Raleigh with Exmouth, an oddly named parish given Exmouth's size compared to Withycome's!

This is a large church, but unfortunately was locked, so the photos are only of the outside, but that in itself is quite impressive.

From St. John's we continued to a sister church closer to the town centre called All Saints. There was a parish meeting happening in the vestry, so, though the church is normally locked we were able to get in to take photos of its attractive stained glass - more photos can, as always, be viewed on Flickr.

This church clearly stands in the High Anglican or Anglo-Catholic tradition with the presence of Stations of the Cross, something not seen often in Anglican churches in my experience, but the third set I've seen in Devon's Anglican Churches in the last fortnight. Perhaps the strength of Methodism in this region made the established church more likely to steer in the High Church direction? 

Returning to Phear Park, Drew photographed the memorial to the wars and to the World Trade Centre bombing (9/11). The memorial includes some materials from the South Tower which fell that day.  

We got back to the house at 2pm having walked 4.5 miles.

Afternoon

The afternoon was time to start packing and beginning to plan our departure from the house tomorrow morning. We sorted everything that wasn't needed in the morning, ready to do the last elements of packing then.

At 6.45pm we left to walk down to Rockfish, where we had our first dinner in Exmouth, and where we now have our last.

Dinner

As I explained, when we came to Rockfish at the end of July, this place is all about the fish, and much of it about fish which arrives in Brixham from the fishing boats that have been out to sea in the last 24 hours.

The menu has some regular options, but the major part of it is a list of fish, which the server marks to indicate which ones have come in fresh today. Tonight, Ben, our server, highlighted the Brill, the Devon Lobster, the Plaice and the Ray Fin.

While we decided we enjoyed the Sourdough with spicy Anchovy Mayonnaise. It was delicious, fluffy, well raised bread with a sharp tangy mayonnaise with generous amounts of anchovy mixed through.

For starters Drew had crisp fried cuttlefish served with Singapore chilli sauce. Drew really enjoyed this, having had cuttlefish (Jibia) in Spain when he refers to it as 'Budgie Food'. In Spain it is often hard and chewy and used to bulk out a stew, here it had a soft texture tempered by the light batter in which it was fried.

I choose the large red prawns, fried in a tempura batter also served with Singapore chilli sauce. The prawns were huge, as you can see below, the tempura was light and crispy. The overall impact was of well-cooked prawns being hugged be a gentle friend in the batter, the chilli sauce was slightly fruitier than Sirchia, and combined well with the tempura.

Drew was taken by the motto, only visible after he had eaten his starter, which indicates that Rockfish food is recommended by the locals, with pictures of seagulls, the real natives of this area!

For mains Drew chose the fresh plaice, this came filleted and was cooked to perfection. There was a gentle salting to the fish with no hint of bone. The skin was crisp and char-grilled for added flavour, the fish was soft and mellow as only Plaice can be.

I had the freshly caught Brill, not a fish I eat a lot of something that I really need to change, as it was delicious. The top of the fish (there is a whole question of whether fish have a top or bottom side, but as it was cooked this way, I'm going to call the side facing me in the picture the top!!) was scoured, to allow for cooking all the way to the bone, and this made the flaky flesh ease away from the bone. The underside was crisp, but still easy to extract the flesh from (once I'd finished the top and turned the fish over). I think brill reminds me of sole with its lightness, but with a more robust taste bringing it closer to Turbot. 

The side dishes we choose were [Co-Pilot's Note: Unlimited, dear readers, Unlimited 🍟] chips,

Green Salad

and wild samphire. The samphire provided a salty note and the greens had a sharp vinegarette which made them very appealing

Drew decided as it was our last night in town, he would have a dessert. It was a simple Lemon Posset with Raspberries. He says it was lovely, with a nice amount of Lemon to add freshness without being either to sharp or two sweet. It was perfectly set and folded on to the spoon. The raspberries were juicy and fresh and blended well with the posset.

We finished out meal with an espresso each.

Then went for our last walk around the town and up towards out accommodation. Even though it was 8.40pm by this time, the beach and sea were still full with people enjoying the light sea breeze.

The sun went down, bringing the day, and our time in Exmouth to a delightful end.

We got back to the accommodation at 9.30pm and uploaded the photos to Flickr and beginning this post. We were in bed by 10.30pm