To paraphrase that famous expression “it’s not you, it’s me” I overhear several people commenting on how lovely breakfast is. Clearly I’m the one with the problem so I’m not going to bleat on about that again. Suffice to say the hotel is otherwise excellent.
During said breakfast, as the heavens open, we debate our dress-code for the day and very nearly opt for jeans and waterproof trousers. Fortunately at the last moment we swap to shorts but with an extra layer up top as it’s several degrees colder than yesterday.
The first five miles is a duplicate of Monday, so we take slightly different pathways where possible until we hit Paignton, including the seafront zoo near our hotel.
After a quick wander up the pier as far as we can, marvelling at the number of classic games on show, we head inland. We’re looking for the Palace Theatre which is now the only remaining venue since the seafront one is a cinema these days. It looks more like a church than a thestre but seems very active with lots of bills posting future events, we hope it will recover from this longest interval ever.
Another of our passions currently on a long break is cruising. Out in the bay we see Emerald Princess, and overnight three very familiar ships have joined her. Regular readers will know one of our favourite cruise lins is Holland America (HAL) and it’s a delight to see Westerdam, the sister ship of the one we circumnavigated New Zealand on earlier this this year, and also Volendam, on which we enjoyed South East Asia in 2008 on a very memorable cruise.
Carrying on in a southerly direction we again retrace our steps until we come to Broadsands Beach. Here’s where yesterday we left the coast and started the ascent and crossing over to the Dart. Today we continue along the beach intending to hug the coast right to our destination of Brixham. Stopping at the curiously named beach bar K’ohana, ostensibly to replenish our water, we are tempted by ice cream and marvel at how wonderful these Cornish clotted cream delights are, hubby’s with strawberries too!
The coastal paths round here are a mixed blessing - before long we’re climbing again up through dense woodland yet the sea is only yards away, but way below us, with a golf course on our other hand. We descend again this time crossing a rocky beach before another climb, and this process repeats twice more before our final descent into Brixham Harbour, well not actually into the harbour of course, although the tide is currently out.
Here’s a pleasant surprise, it’s a huge working fishery with large trawlers and loads of smaller boats, yet the harbour is very attractive. Even out of season there’s plenty of people and all around the sides are restaurants, takeaways and bars. To walk from where we emerge at the ‘Battery’ to the lighthouse at the end of the harbour wall is almost two more miles, this is a large harbour.
We don’t go as far as the lighthouse but start the wall walk just to get a nearly close-up view of Neuiw Statendam, the third of the HALs which is looking magnificent in the sunshine. Larger than the kind of ship we like, but still modest-sized compared to the leviathans we saw in Bournemouth bay a few weeks ago.
Having failed to secure a crab sandwich at Robin Hood’s bay in the summer, and during the whole week in Bournemouth, we’ve set on this goal today, and have already identified numerous solutions as we circumnavigate the harbour. We settle on gastro pub The Prince William which turns out to be an excellent choice. Basking in the sunshine we enjoy our sandwiches with a very pleasant South African chardonnay.
The geography means the route is mostly a retrace, but for the first section we plot a route across the golf course to get a slight change of scenery. This drops us back down to sea level at K’ohana but we resist the temptation to restock with wonderful Cornish ice cream. From here on it is the same route back to Torquay and our lovey hotel on the hill.
The spa is a recent addition to Lincombe Hall and it’s very nice. Even nicer is that our room includes a 2 hour session each day. We arrive back with little time to spare, and after hosing down our muddy legs head down to the spa for an enjoyable session in the facilities, even braving the ice room this time.
Chablis pre dinner is once again lovely, and we enjoy a Malbec with the excellent shoulder of lamb.
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