Back into Devon

The 10^th April saw us driving up to Plymouth and taking the Torpoint Ferry to get us back into Devon. 

This was my son's 'office', when his submarine was in for a refit.

We were booked into a site at Slapton Sands Well, that just isn’t a pretty name, is it? And I didn’t think I knew the place at all but it turned out, I did.

As a child we spent a few Summer holidays at The Sea Trout Inn in  Staverton. Such happy memories, of hot summers and days on the beach. We normally went to Paignton for the beach but I remember this one day we seemed to drive for ages and when we got there, what a disappointment for an 8 year old. Miles of beach, with nothing there, no Pier, no shops and it wasn’t sand, it was, well it wasn't quite shingle either, it was very coarse sand and not what my sister and I liked for making sandcastles.

When Mike and I arrived at Slapton Sands I realised that this must have been the place I’d been to, all those years ago. What a difference adult eyes make. Mike and I loved it and as we had a few good days, weatherwise, this became probably our favourite place so far on our tour. We also found some good areas of proper sand on the beach. There are public Loos and an Ice Cream van, which I think does Teas too.

The weather obviously makes a vast difference but even so, we fell in love with the place straight away. We could see the sea from our pitch and the beach was and bus stop were a ten minute walk downhill and the village just 5 minutes up the hill, behind us.

And what a village! It’s just a delight, with narrow streets, old cottages and 2 good pubs, not to mention Slapton Tower, which is all the remains of a college dating back to the 1400s, built by Sir Guy de Brain and according to a painting in the Tower Pub, his Squire at one time had been Geoffrey Chaucer.

What Mike and I hadn’t known about the area is that it was used by the American Armed Forces, in WW2, in 1942, to practice the D Day Landings. A topical subject at present, as we are just approaching the 70th Anniversary. The practice in itself wasn’t so big a story but there was a very sad twist to the tale. Whilst carrying out their manoeuvres, a German E boat had arrived in the bay, unnoticed and the result was mass carnage, with a total of 946 lives being lost. This was hushed up at the time, as it would have been so demoralising to the forthcoming Landings.

Polperro

9th April

Having visited Looe, I realised I’d been there with my son, a few years earlier, when I had gone down to collect my lovely old BMW Bauer Convertible, which I was buying off him.

I also remembered going to a quaint fishing village with him, which I presumed must have been Polperro.

As Polperro wasn’t too far away and we could get a bus from Looe, we decided to go the next day. This time we went on the shuttle bus to Widegate and from there the bus into Looe and then another to Polperro.

However,  before we went out, I had a promise to complete. One of my friends, someone I worked with for several years, had recently suffered a terrible and tragic loss. Her second child, another beautiful daughter had died in her sleep at the age of 7 weeks, her little heart just stopped. This day was to be her funeral and at midday, those who couldn't attend were asked to wear pink and blow bubbles, to mirror what would be happening at Kempsey Church. 

I had great trouble holding it together for much of the day.

When we got to Polperro, it was the place I remembered from my visit to Simon and this time Mike and I had our lunch there, in one of the old pubs. Crab Sandwiches again for me!!

Polperro is a very pretty place and as the weather was good, we decided to go on a short boat trip. I took great care on the stone steps down to the boat, Mike, on the other hand was being Mike and not concentrating on the matter in hand. He was fiddling around in his wallet getting his money out, rather than watching where he was going and took a tumble, money and cards flying everywhere. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt, other than his pride and we managed to retrieve all his possessions.

The trip was not especially exciting but on a warm sunny day, a pleasant way to pass half an hour. I do love the sea.

On the way back up to catch the bus we stopped at one of the local artist shops and bought a handmade freshwater pearl necklace, with two silver hearts, as my present for our forthcoming Pearl Wedding Anniversary, on Easter Monday.

The buses, all worked to time, which was good, until we got to Widegate, when we found that in the afternoon, the shuttle didn’t work for a couple of hours and that we had to wait an hour for the next ride. If ever there was a village with nothing to do in it, Widegates is it. Not only that I was bursting for a pee! I think that was one of the worst hours of my life!

Time off in Looe

Sorry about the old joke.

As usual the Site isn't actually in Looe but a fair walk out. We were also becoming aware of what very steep hills you get around the coast in Cornwall, which was definitely increasing our stamina but was never going to improve my liking of doggedly struggling up these near vertical climbs.

The main road down into Looe was suffering from subsidence and closed to traffic, which meant catching a minibus shuttle to Widegate and boarding a connecting bus into Looe. We decided to walk down the closed road instead into the town as it looked a pleasant stroll and with no traffic, do-able in a way not possible when it’s open to traffic. There is no footpath and the road is quite twisty, with a lovely wooded section and it was all downhill.

 Unusual Tree Surgery

Looe was very busy as it was a sunny day and a pleasant place to walk round and while we were there, we had a pint at The Jolly Sailor, reputed to be the oldest pub in the town.

We’d intended to get the bus back but across the road from the bus stop we saw a lane between old cottages, which looked to be a short cut. Well I suppose it was but the reason it was shorter was, it was so much steeper. There were times we thought we’d never make it but when we did, felt quite smug about it, even though we’d never, ever, want to repeat the experience.

Merrose – St Mawes

Following the previous site, with no Wifi and poor toilet/shower facilities, we move to the Merrose Site, near St Mawes, which had very good facilities, with a new first, for us, Radio playing in the  Toilet block and bliss, nicely heated.

Big disappointment was, no Wifi again, as theirs was also knocked out in the storms the previous November and still hadn't been fixed.

The day we arrived the weather was quite good and we took a late afternoon walk along the lane, through a farmyard, down a steep hill, which of course we had to climb on the return, to a lovely little beach, with no one else there. It was a really lovely experience, like having our own private beach and I picked up some pretty shells while we were there.

The following day we caught the bus into Truro, mainly to have a coffee and use some Wifi in a Costa. We didn’t find the town itself very interesting, so went back to the site and had another walk to the next beach along the lane, by then the weather was taking a turn for the worse.

  You see a lot of this style of stone walling, which looks attractive.

 And this plant, whatever is is, is everywhere on the roadside and when fully open, gives a lovely floral scent to the lanes.

Sunday 6^th April was miserable and wet and we decided to catch the hourly bus into St Mawes. We climbed the steep lane up to the main road, stood, where the bus stops and waited .......and waited.... 20  minutes after the bus was expected, we decided it wasn’t going to show up and we were just about as wet and cold as we wanted to get. So that was it. Our Sunday. Went nowhere. Did nothing. We couldn’t wait to leave the Site the following day!

We drove through St Mawes the next day, to see if we’d missed anything. We decided that on a wet Sunday, other than visiting a pub, there would have been little to do for the 2 hours we would have been there. So that made up for the disappointment.