Torquay; Wednesday, 24 June, 2009

After being woken early by the majestic heard of stampeding Wildebeests that were the school kids heading towards the station, I had an early breakfast and then headed out to the bus.

The bus journey to Paignton was painfully slow. Not only did the bus stop almost everywhere, and then waited for 10 minutes in central Torquay, by the time it left Torquay it had passed the magical start time for the Senior free bus pass, which meant that by the time the bus reached the High Flyer it was already heaving. By the time I arrived in Paignton it was already gone 10. I had intended on catching the steam train down the preserved line to Kingswear for Dartmouth, but the queue for tickets made it pretty clear that there would be little chance of getting a ticket before the departure at 10:30, and even if I did, I would be standing all the way, so I walked back to the bus station to catch the bus.

The bus pulled out at 10:30, at exactly the same time as the steam train, and even though the bus went a more circuitous route as we manoeuvred our way past the queue for the Dartmouth ferry into Kingswear the train was only just arriving.

Of course, this did mean that several hundred people all at once were wanting the ferry across to Dartmouth, so I had a bit of a wander around Kingswear, letting the worst of the queues die down, before catching the ferry across the Dart to Dartmouth. From there I wandered down to the ferry down the river to the castle.

Having looked around both the castle and the church I walked back into Dartmouth to have a look around the town, and then caught the ferry back over to Kingswear. Onto a different bus and out to the final of the Torbay triumvirate of towns, Brixham.

A quick look around the town later and it was onto the bus back to Paignton. With the sun still beating down, and the busses busy with recently released school children, I decided to catch the open-top bus to Totnes. A quick look around Totnes and then back onto the bus to Paignton and then, avoiding the still busy, and painfully slow, bus back to Torquay, I decided to catch the train back two stops to Torre.

Having stopped for a quick pit stop I headed off again, this time north to Newton Abbott. I had intended on exploring the town and maybe stopping for dinner, but on arrival it was pretty clear that there wasn’t very much in the town (or else I didn’t find the correct area in my 20 minutes wandering), so I hopped back onto the bus into Torquay to grab a bite to eat and then back to the hotel for a well deserved sleep.