South Devon Walk Day 5

Alison was happy not to complete the final walk of the week and reluctantly I agreed to forego the pleasure of tramping another 12 miles along the coastal path simply in the interests of keeping her company and absolutely nothing to do with wanting an excuse to opt out of more demanding clifftop climbs.

That meant Sandra and Jerry, who continued despite the worst blisters I've ever seen, were the only ones to finish the walk, all 46 miles. In the meantime the rest of us took a cruise up to Kingsbridge from Salcombe and spent most of our time there looking round the town museum which was very interesting especially about the role played in the area during World War 2 when Slapton and the surrounding localities were evacuated so that troops could prepare for the D Day Landings.

I also ended up having the world's worst pasty there as we waited for a bus to take us to Torcross where we would meet up with S & J.

The middle two pictures are on the boat to Kingsbridge while the bottom one shows Torcross and along to Slapton.

The first is of an American tank recovered from the sea a few years ago and now a permanent memorial to the hundreds of servicemen who died near here preparing for the invasion of Europe. More men died during the exercises than on the beaches of Normandy including the slaughter of 700 men caught by German E boats.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/3666355.stm

The link provides further details about the area and the memorial.

We had our final night in a pub which did offer some good food, a pool table and a dart board which made for a good way to round things off, although the world's worst pasty was followed by the world's worst bed. Now having been a student and slept anywhere I could at times, this was in a league of its own for sheer squeakiness, banging, creaking and sinking into the middle. It was awful.

The next morning couldn't come quickly enough but it also gave the tour company a final chance to show how poor they could be by not organising transport back to Plymouth where the train awaited Jane and Keith while the rest of us picked up Jerry's car from the station. That meant a £60.00 taxi fare back to Plymouth followed by three and a half hours driving back to Woodlands in time for cricket at lunchtime.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the week and the pictures, I hope, give some idea of just how wonderful the scenery was in places making the walks worthwhile for that reason alone.