Blighty Bound - Day Eighteen, Down Days are Nice

We opted for a down day, and chose a balmy, sunny day to do it, which was nice.

We did some more laundry, had a little tidy up and dozed a little out on the terrace, soaking up the sunshine. The quiet was broken by the farm work going on around us, but also someone playing some music somewhere off in the distance, so I resorted to my ear buds and continued the dozing.

In the afternoon, DW was seized by the idea of driving to Teignmouth in order to raid the RNLI gift shop there. We thought we had plenty of time, so parked in the East Cliff car park again and walked along the seafront to the appropriately named Lifeboat Lane, only to find the shop had shut at three, and not four, as advertised. That was a wee bit annoying, but as the sign said, the shop is staffed by volunteers and opening times may vary. Ah well.

We walked out to The Point, the place where the sandbar ends and the River Teign flows out into the sea. Teignmouth still has an active harbour back behind the sandbar, in the estuary, and there were two coastal freighters in there unloading, which was impressive for a Sunday. The ferry to Shaldon didn't appear to be running, though, as it was moored up in the river. Maybe it had been running, but it seemed a bit shortsighted because on any Sunday Teignmouth gets busy. Fortunately, we weren't going to use it anyway.

Teignmouth was awash with dogs (and their owners) on this fine afternoon. The sand on the beach is coarse and red, but that isn't a problem for hounds, as so many of them were proving as they bounded around. They're not allowed on the beach in the summer, so I guess they were letting steam off now.

Teignmouth isn't the most attractive seaside town you'll see, and the beach isn't the best, especially when you set it against somewhere like Exmouth, but it is popular for walkers and those that like ice-cream and going on (what's left of) the pier. All the outlets that were open seemed to be quite busy, which is good to see. 

Back at the car, I decided to take the long route home via Dawlish and the outskirts of Exeter. It's a route I've travelled many, many times, and it was good to check out the changes, which are many. Exeter seems to be expanding at an immense rate. My cry of "It used to be fields!" is surely a sign of my advancing years.

Back home, I finalised our itinerary for our next day trip, although the need to crash out overcame me and I was in bed earlier than I had been for a while. I've enjoyed every one of our outings, but the pace has been catching up with me. Stay tuned for our North Devon jaunt.