Devon and Cornwall, (Day 3). Saturday 3rd October 2026.
I had only been back from my Czech Republic trip for 7 days, before I was off again, but with my son this time. He had booked a week for us in a house in Bude, a place I took him to as a child back in the early 1990s, and each day we were to explore a different town driving down as far as Penzance and the Lizard, he was doing the driving. For my part I wanted to explore a few railways in the area and also check out what was left of the railways and remains of the Atlantic Coast Express routes. My son isn’t a rail enthusiast, but didn’t mind dropping me off at a few places while he went exploring further afield, so it worked out well for both of us.
On the Friday morning, we drove down to Bude from the Fens, a drive of just under 6 hours, my son was doing the driving all week though, as I had left my car at his house in the Fens. After doing some shopping for the week, we retired to our accommodation for the night, a beautiful house just a five-minute walk from the beach and town.
The next day however, we decided to spend exploring Bude. We took breakfast in the town, called at a few shops, took Layla, (my son`s dachshund), to the beach, visited the excellent museum, which had plenty of railwayana and a model of Bude railway station and one of the Bude Canal incline planes and sand sidings, and I also spent some time on the Bude Canal and sea lock, a fascinating piece of engineering.
We spent a full day around Bude, such a shame it’s no longer rail connected and it use to be one of the destinations of the Atlantic Coast Express.
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