Torquay; Tuesday, 23 June, 2009

A smooth journey down as far as Newton Abbott, with the only hold-up being caused by the train prior to mine at Exeter having problems joining with another train. Eventually, that one left five minutes after my train was supposed to have left and given it was occupying the only platform my train could pull into it did look at one point as if my train could get cancelled.

At Newton Abbott a whole school load of kids got on filling the already busy train up to beyond capacity, which made getting out at the next station quite interesting. I walked away from the station and prepared myself for what I thought would be about a 10 minute walk to the hotel. As I came round the corner from the station I realised that Google Maps had struck again and in fact the hotel was only yards from the station.

After checking in and dumping my stuff I had a wander into town. The walk from the hotel in Torquay proper was quite dull, along a few shopping streets (which had an alarming number of empty shops). However the walk was rewarded by the stunning scenery of Torbay when I got down to the coast.

I had a wander along the seafront and part way along stopped off to have a ride on the Torquay High Flyer balloon to take in some of the views, with the sweep of the bay all the way from Torquay through to Brixham visible in the warm evening sun.

Having descended back down to earth I continued on walking along the coast road, eventually, after about an hour of walking, arriving into Paignton. I had a look around the town and a quick bite to eat before deciding to cheat at catch the bus back to the hotel, which given I had walked over three miles I though was perfectly reasonable.