When I left you last we were in Falmouth, Cornwall, not
enjoying our AirBNB. We were pleased to leave on Sunday morning & drive to
Dartmouth, Devon. Our first stop was Penzance, where the Saundrys lived for
many years & some still do. However, the newsagent that they ran has been
taken over by W H Smith, much to my disappointment.
This
plaque is in Market Jew Street, Penzance, and there are three Warren’s bakeries
all with .5km of each other.
We stopped also at a tiny town called Cripplesease, where our Daylesford
friends, Bill & Sue Longley, lived & sold their pottery for some years
before coming to Australia. The town is at the top of a hill, which might
explain its politically incorrect name!
We stopped for a hot drink & iced
gingerbread cake at Kernow Mill in Saltash, then caught the ferry at Torpoint,
which took us to Plymouth and saved us an hour’s driving for under $3.
Eventually we arrived at Dartmouth to the
best accommodation of our trip. Not through AirBNB, but Trip Advisor. We have 4
rooms, 2 skylights, a brilliant shower & plenty of power points, storage
space & lighting. Our hostess, Angela, lived in Australia for 20 years, and
it shows in the bathroom. Bliss!
View
from our lounge overlooking Dartmouth.
Of course we were too late in the season to
take the ferry to Greenway, Agatha
Christie’s house & it appeared the steam train/boat combination was also on
holidays.
We walked in the rain to find somewhere to
eat on our first night & ended up at The
Windjammer Inn, a rather quaint little spot with an excellent hostess, some
crab cakes & seafood chowder. I was taken with the vases of fresh flowers.
Wes wasn’t feeling too well yesterday, so
we opted for a quiet day in comfortable surroundings. We had witnessed the
aftermath of an awful accident on our way to Dartmouth, where one car had
jack-knifed & ended up on its side in the middle of the road. This added 45
minutes to our journey, which meant too much driving I suspect. The English
drivers are very responsible, once they realised what had happened, one lane
moved to the extreme left & the other to the extreme right, thus allowing
police, ambulance, fire brigade etc a clear, safe path through.
Our alarm woke us at 3am today, to get
ready to watch the Melbourne Cup. Sadly we couldn’t connect our laptop to the
TV, but had a perfect view via racing.com.
It was an amazing win by Cross Counter flying past Marmelo & A Prince of
Arran just before the line. We had picked horses 2 & 3 in our quinella
& put $5 E/W on A Prince of Arran, so weren’t out of pocket. Facebook was
immediately full of all those who had picked the winner happily skiting about
their success. In a field of 24, it is always tough to get it right & Cross
Counter was a good bet at $12 win.
We went back to bed after 4.15am &
tried to get some more sleep or at least rest! We went for a walk into
Dartmouth city centre & harbour. Our accommodation is in a 6ft wide road,
but fortunately has a garage with room for our car. We then climbed 8 steps to
the gate & a further 24 steps to our unit, which is attached to the main
home, hence our lovely views.
Wild
mushroom omelette at the French bakery & café
I managed to get my nails done at the end
of our street at lunchtime and afterwards we headed off to visit a few places
that were on our agenda. First stop was Greenway,
Agatha Christie’s home, and to get there we had to catch the Higher Ferry, rather than the Lower Ferry. This was a very expensive 5
minutes, costing about $10, but fun. We drove through some beautiful
countryside & very narrow lanes to Greenway, which is closed, and were
unable to get close enough to get a photo. We did appreciate that it is in a
lovely spot.
Greenway
House from the National Trust’s photos
Next stop was Torquay, for a walk along the
beach in Agatha’s footsteps. We hated Torquay instantly, and the heavy rain
made it impossible to walk anywhere, let alone the beach, so we abandoned that
plan & drove to Ashburton, where Sherlock Holmes allegedly stayed during The Hound of the Baskervilles. There is
a pub which has named itself after the book, there are dark & threatening
moors, very suitable to the book, but our main impression after a quick walk
around, was of an affluent town, with lots of lovely shops & very little
sign of unemployment.
Finally, we drove back here to Dartmouth
& went in search of an early dinner. We liked the look of the Seven Stars, Darmouth’s oldest pub, and
were warmly greeted by the young landlord. Dinner was grilled gammon &
chips for Wes & scampi & chips for me. We agreed this was easily our
best pub meals of the trip.
Wes
enjoying the pub!
Pub open
fireplace
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