Torquay; Thursday, 25 June, 2009

I had intended on visiting the castle at Berry Pommeroy today, about a 50 minute bus ride from Torquay, most of the way to Totness. Given that the bus appeared to go around the back roads, and just serve a couple of small towns, I had assumed it would be pretty quiet, and that I would be able to look out and easily spot where to get off.

By the time the bus finally left the suburbs of Torquay (which in itself took nearly 30 minutes), the bus was absolutely heaving and I was squished in a seat with mostly a pillar as a view.

Consequently, by the time I finally saw a sign for the castle we were in the process of pulling away from a bus stop, it was pointing back the direction we had come, and said it was a mile away. I decided it was probably easiest to stay on the bus and carry on into Dartmouth. Which I was glad I did as the view I could see (and after Totness it emptied out enough for a few minutes to get a better window seat) was stunning, as the bus chugged (and at time struggled up hills) its way through the Devon countryside to Dartmouth.

Dartmouth itself was even busier than it had been yesterday, so I quickly grabbed a sandwich from a supermarket, ate it quickly on a bench on the river side, and then caught the ferry back across to Kingswear, with enough time to make the 13:30 steam train back to Paignton.

From Paignton it was a quick bus ride back to Torquay and then onto Torre Abbey, before rounding off the afternoon with a ride on the Town Road Train.

After a quick pit stop back at the hotel I caught the bus into Brixham for a bite to eat and then the evening on the Original Brixham Ghost Walk.

By the time I got the bus back to Torquay it was almost 11, so I headed back to the hotel to get some kip.