I've been building up a sizeable to-do list of things in the South West and set aside 5 days in which to try and do all of them. Here is the tale of my South West exploits.
Wednesday
The bags are packed. The car is ready. The alarm rings out at 3am and I am on my way at 4am. The journey is as undramatic as I'd hoped for. I reached Highbridge & Burnham station in 3 hours with a little hesitance on the motorway due to some torrential downpours near Weston-Super-Mare. I needed to clear the Weston-Super-Mare spur as it was first on my to-do list. I had a good 30 minutes to wait so had a little look at burnham seafront to sea if any cafe was open for a breakfast bap. One cafe had its door open but wasnt ready to serve me until well after the train to Worle had left. I returned to the station and a large collection of Bristol-bound commuters joined me. Even more joined at WSM but some left at Worle for some of the offices located there. I was surprised to see a lady in a tiny cabin selling tickets here. Even Chassen Road has a bit more room for staff. I wasn't able to jump on the HST already in platform heading back to WSM so had an hour to kill so festered at McDonalds having breakfast until I had to run the short distance in the torrent back to the platform. 30 minutes later, I was back in my car at Burnham.
Next objective was to visit both Norton Fitzwarren and Bishops Lydeard stations. These were/are served by a gWr shuttle so I thought I better have a look. I have been to Quainton Road too as Chiltern do some specials there so I best keep up with my own rules. I previously googled Norton Fitzwarren and found that it is inaccessible but there is an accessible farmers field right next to it. It would be a 45 minute drive through a lightly loaded collection of roads and the sun beaming over the northern limits of Taunton. Norton Fitzwarren is close enough to the mainline to see some classy new 800s glide past. There is no name board that I could see at NF but I was within 10 metres of the station without being a naughty boy which was good enough for me. Tick.
A short drive north is Bishops Lydeard which has about 20 people on both platforms milling around in the midday Sun. It is a charming, very well-kept period station offering runs on steam and diesel upto Minehead and points inbetween. A very good place for photos indeed. I opt to not leave Minehead to get busier and rejoin the A road.
I reach the glorious seafront of Minehead and see Butlins which is of personal significance to me. Here on the rocks I allow myself to be lulled for a catnap by the crashign waves. I awaken for a promenade towards the shops and station to find a botle of water and a chip butty before I mentally prep myself for the Porlock Hill!
I leave Minehead and soon realise this narrowing road is going to be both a delight and a challenge to drive. The village of Porlock has such narrow roads and tight bends I almost forget what happens after it. I boldly opt to take the A39 instead of the less steep toll road and am rewarded by a strong ascent of Porlock Hill and amazing views of Exmoor and glimpses of the blue below and to the left. More sharp turns and descents follow, especially Countisbury Hill and I reach Lynton/Lynmouth and it is chock full. It is gutting not to be able to stop and admire the view but I'd be blocking the main street. I continue round the bend and into a valley reminiscent of some narrow Indian foothill pass. We slowly grind up this single track A road past an impressive cyclist. At the top of the hill I see the town I've just left which is a bit confusing. The heather and the steep drop down into the Bristol Channel is just astonishing. The blue is replaced by green: fields, hedges and valleys as we dip, weave and plod up and over to Barnstaple.
Here, I park up in the station and wait and wait and wait for a customer to pick up several split tickets for some three part journey with kids and railcards galore to Sheffield! Eventually I get a car park ticket and a return to Yeoford. I raid Tesco before our train is in platform and we leave on time. We pass a large festival near Umberleigh and pick up/drop off several at every station, in particular Eggesford. Several people are waiting at Yeoford which I'm astonished by. I'm part of about 7 who leave here too which is impressive unless Yeoford has got bigger since I was last here. I note the lonely bookshelf in the dusty waiting shed full of books stretching back decades including an old tax manual. The return train is about 3 minutes late. I will return here at speed on the other track on Sunday which has a lot of weeds on it.
Back at Barnstaple, I walk into the Pizza Hut around the corner and have a good hour in a busy restaurant. Now the sun is starting to retreat. I am not really near anywhere to make a strategic snooze so I go for broke and drive to Westward Ho!. In hindsight I should have dropped it and gone for Clovelly in time for sunset but Westward Ho! was a very, very beautiful place on a warm and balmy evening to watch the sun go down with several other visitors and locals. This has to be one of Devon's best secret resorts.
After having been to Clovelly, I realise how much I should have made for it before the night claimed it. You start from the car park and either go through the visitor centre or the side-ramp for local people and descend and descend and descend and descend. Then you see the cottages clinging desperately to the Devon hillside. Now you stumble downwards past a pub! (Don't get seriously drunk here or you will not be able to get up or down the hill safely.) You continue to descend, descend, descned until you hit the beautiful harbour with serene and still ocean in front of you. I trudge up whilst seeing residents and guests relax by the window or by a fireplace and go past the local feline presence who must adore the fish at the end of the cobbled track.
At my car, I rack my brain for a trusted Cornish friend and I recall the solitude of Coombe Junction Halt. After consulting my brand new atlas, I interweave the Cornish/Devon border down a B-road to Launceston and thence to Callington adn Liskeard before the final valley into Coombe. No sooner had I arrived than a young couple got out of a car and stay there whilst I was waiting to do some nighttime ablutions before finally sleeping. With growing impatience I ask if they require a lift and they decline. 10 minutes later, 4 more youths appear and using their torches on their phones, walk into Coombe station. I don't see them again apart from as I am almost at the verge of deep sleep, hear male voices but on waking up at 5am, my car, myself and the enviornment are unmolested.
I have a little look at Coombe properly and can't see anything amiss.
0755 Highbridge & Burnham - Worle
0851 Worle - Highbridge & Burnham
1709 Barnstaple - Yeoford
1818 Yeoford - Barnstaple
Thursday
I trace my finger along a crooked line towards Port Isaac, snaking down one valley to Bodmin and a second towards Wadebridge. One more road winds down to a turnign for Port Isaac. Why do I drag myself to this sleepy harbour village. It is the setting for Doc Martin but more importantly, it is the origin of the famous sea shanty singing Fisherman's Friends. I must have walked past 5 of them but they weren't singing
There was also a fisherwoman. Doc Martin's cottage is easily located but the steep streets nag me after the knee and back torment that was Clovelly. I arrive back at my car just as the car park charges officially begun. It is very good to be the early bird today!
Next, the North Cornish Coast is to be abandoned for the South Cornish Coast. The very South. The Southernmost in fact. The roads are alive with commuters. I aim for Truro and Falmouth then Helston and am stuck with caravans and lorries combatting these severe yet short gradients. At Helston, I'm impressed by seeing a huge Tesco and a huge Sainsburys so far south. I compare with what I saw at Wick and Thurso, not much at all. Now we have to join a slowish convoy to The Lizard which really only takes about 20 minutes but today took 35 minutes. The scenery, the gulls and the seal I spotted make up for the £3 car park fee. Really it should be £2 and Kynance Cove should be £3 as it is far more spectacular, testament to the fact that visitors from near and distant lands have arrived and are taken aback by the clear, blue waters lapping against a beach that could easily be mistaken for some Carribbean destination with the sun as it is on my visit today. There is even a family having a swim and frolic in the waves. After chiselling off the smile I have for both seeing an iconic location from Poldark and having just completed the set of the 8 Great British Compass Points (Land's End, Lizard Points, White Cliffs of Dover, Lowestoft, John O'Groats, Dunnet Head, Cape Wrath, Ardnamurchan Lighthouse), I look forward to a second train ride, St Erth to St Ives.
The drive from Helston to the park and ride at St Erth is sluggish but nothing in comparison to the queue that APCOA has helped to create by only installing two card only car parking tickets at the gateway to St Ives. There was a 30 minute queue for the car park. Eventually I walked over the footbridge to a heaving crowd awaiting the 4-car shuttle. I picked up a ticket with my railcard and joined the throngs and waited for 20 minutes before we skipped Lelant Saltings, had a healthy interchange at Lelant and then a busier interchange at a staffed Carbis Bay. Lastly, St Ives was just insane. I should have just stayed in the carriage but I got out to take a photo but was shouted at for jumping back in as the lady assumed I was confused but I think she was just saying 'This is St Ives.' instead of saying 'Stop!, You've arrived.' The set up at St Ives was for all passengers to disembark with the front two (furthest from St Erth) loading leaving passengers from that end of the train to try to speed up departure times. This didn't make sense to me as there was no similar operation at St Erth so no-one would be aware or expecting it.
St Ives is just amazing. The beach. The harbour. The sky. The clinging buildings. The sea. The food. Such a shame to depart but I really needed to put my head on a bed. At Barnstaple Tesco, I rung ahead for a guest house in Plymouth. Now a simple drive along the A30 and A38 would take me to Plymouth in about 2 hours. The fee for the Tamar Bridge was luckily the change I had in my wallet - £1.50. I had to have 3 attempts with The Hoe to finally reach the guest house. It's got an amazing hotelier who is well acquainted with Plymouth and does a superb 'raft' breakfast twist. I allow myself a nap and allow my car a far longer rest as I walk around Plymouth's Barbican and find the globally significant Mayflower Steps. There is also a tenuous connection with Wigan (Myles Standish) which I enjoy. The abundance of boats, ships, yachts and even a rowing boat in action on the choppy, windy ocean is a spectacle, even for the most keen landlubber. I enjoy fish and chips at The Harbourside and then switch out until breakfast the folling morning.
1218 St Erth - St Ives
1333 St Ives - St Erth
Friday
I enjoy a delicious breakfast and bid farewell to the hotelier. The car is treated to a very short drive to the station and then gWr takes my £8 and gives me a Cornish ranger for me to tick off the St Budeaux - Liskeard and Par - Penzance/Falmouth sections. The journey is comfortable on a 800 but one of the carriages has a failed air-con. We contort the countryside on our way to the end of the line. The jewelled ocean surrounds St Michael's Mount as I get up and seek out a good photo vantage point and a bite to eat close to the station before we get out on the road again to Truro. I hop off here and await a branch line service to Penmere where I can walk into and through a busy Falmouth, locating some food and drink provisions before finding Falmouth Docks station within a complex of partially built flats that weren't here when I was last here. The train pulls in in a short time and we are soon back to Truro and after watching a young, disabled train fan be greeted by the staff here, we all jump on the London Paddington service. I have acquired a Plymouth-Newton Abbot return and enjoy the 2 hour cruise back over the Tamar and then a further hour back to my car in Plymouth station. I sit all the way to Newton Abbot next to very attractive female with a dog on her lap who is going into the Big Smoke according to her ticket.
That paragraph takes us to about 6pm where I get a bit to eat in the shopping centre nearby. I drive firstly to Ivybridge timidly as another torrent impedes progress on the A38. I'm shocked at how poorly Ivybridge is served but I guess it's counterbalanced by the frequent bus services into Plymouth.
Rejoining the A38 and following it for 40 minutes drops me into Exeter services. I wonder where I am going to snooze this evening. Bruton? Newton St Cyres? Starcross? I have booked ahead for a guest house tomorrow in Exeter so just tonight to figure out. I go to the toilet and I click. Digby & Sowton is 5 minutes drive and a train for Exmouth is 10 minutes away. I know I can always come back to this service station later. It's a really busy service station at 8.30pm with people seemingly going in all directions, even into deepest Dorset from what I overhear. The ride into Exmouth is joined by some chavvy youths who just want to escape the rain. In my big coat, I'm prepared for the howling winds and diagonal rain beating down the track and along the Exe. Mercifully Exmouth station has a building to shelter. I decide to risk it and mooch about Exmouth seafront before beating a hasty retreat since the train going back is in 50 minutes. The chavvy youths return and ask me and another male for a lighter. I'm in no mood to sit with such types so sit in the bus shelter down the road until the train rolls in. I return back to an empty Digby & Sowton park and ride within an hour and back the tantalising smell of the Cornish pasty at the Exeter service station.
I did say I had a problem of where to settle for the evening. I look closer at my phone and recall 'Exton is a request stop' and the last train at Exton is at 0011 and the first train is at 06XX. I double check and leave after a coffee break. In 15 minutes, I'm at this tiny car park with 2 abandoned cars and one car with people in it. I find that they too are young lads who want to let the train go past and splash them with the lashing rain to try and recreate some kind of homage to Michael Jackson's Earth Song from what I can gauge. Thankfully they aren't doggers and I'm not in a dogging spot. The youths leave as soon as the train goes past them. I perform some night time rituals and tuck in for the night.
0945 Plymouth - Penzance
1204 Penzance - Truro
1251 Truro - Penmere
1350 Falmouth Docks - Truro
1441 Truro - Newton Abbot
1642 Newton Abbot - Plymouth
2047 Digby & Sowton - Exmouth
2211 Exmouth - Digby & Sowton
Saturday
Exton is a beautiful landscape to wake up to, particularly if you are a twitcher. I can't name the birds I awoke to but there were several species. I return to Exeter services for my morning ablutions and then drive in to Babbacombe nice and early as this is where Donald Sinclair and his hotel gave John Cleese the inspiration for Fawlty Towers. There is no blue plaque here which is dreadful in my opinion but if you are looking for it, it is near a cavern. I go for a stroll along an outcrop and then swoop into Torquay, Preston then Paignton. The town is starting to wake up as I admire the main street and view into the great big blue again. I see the steam engine next to Paignton station get awoken. I pick up the Devon day ranger and take the London Paddington service which calls everywhere apart from Starcross to St Davids. I jump off here, wait 15 minutes and then I take SWR to Axminster, the limit of this rangers validity. I'm impressed with how this 6-coach train just explodes with speed towards London. I thought it would plod along but we were in Axminster in 40 minutes. In 40 seconds I was on the opposite train, heading back to Exeter. When I got into Exeter, I walked from the train door, across the platform to the Cross-Country train that had just pulled in. This is an express to Newton Abbot.
At Newton Abbot, confusion abound as near Redruth, a tree has come down, upsetting several services. I only need a Paignton train. Thankfully, this pops up after 30 minutes. I spend longer in Paignton, having sausage and chips at the pier and saunter along the seafront before my car park ticket is up and my guest house check-in near St James Park is open. In an hour, I'm dozing off for a mid-afternoon sleep. I wake myself up with a shower and then take a walk down to St James Park for a return to Digby & Sowton before going to Polsloe Bridge and walking back up to my guest house. I'm not too sure how faraway or where is the best place to go in Exeter for food so I take my car and eventually find a Harvester.
I return to sleep in a comfy bed in a functional guest house. One more day, one more line left!
0918 Paignton - Exeter St Davids
1025 Exeter St Davids - Axminster
1106 Axminster - Exeter St Davids
1146 Exeter St Davids - Newton Abbot
1150 Newton Abbot - Paignton (dep 1229)
1854 St James Park - Digby & Sowton
1914 Digby & Sowton - Polsloe Bridge
Sunday
I enjoy a cold option breakfast with juice and fruit before I get all my belongings and drive nearer to St James Park. Here, 3 of us are waiting for the Okehampton service that originates here. We are joined by a very healthy amount of people for the first train to Okehampton today. It takes out several branches beyond Crediton as we thump and squeal towards High Willhays and the town station which is high above the River Okement. The 3 gWr staff open the gate at Sampford Courtenay for the elderly couple to join us as 2 younger males jump off to take a photo or bag a station (anyone on here?).
Okehampton station is full of families, couples, enthusiasts who are looking forward to this irregular service to Exeter. The station is as beautiful as when I was last here so I leave it in perfect nick and get back on the same train and bounce back to Crediton, picking up the two males we dropped off at Sampford, before exploding down to Cowley Bridge junction in an impressive fashion.
I decide to visit Paignton Zoo before I trudge back up the M5 so leave for the north at 4pm. Just north of Exeter on the M5 the motorway halts for 45 minutes until normal service resumes. Radio 2 tells me it was some kind of accident knocking 2 lanes out. I arrive eventually to see one badly impacted car with a passenger in it as all three lanes are now free flowing.
I stop at Worcester as my light comes on. I luckily happen upon a BP garage just off the M5 where the deal is to fill up with more than £30, you can get a free drink from the coffee machine. So I take my free mocha and drive to finish it off in front of the construction site for Worcestershire Parkway. I was hoping to see something over the Cotswold line as I'd parked nearer to it. However it was a double XC Voyager passing towards Brum that appeared.
Mocha drunk. Ignition switched back on. I arrive home at 11pm.
0857 St James Park - Okehampton
0953 Okehampton - St James Park
I was quite pleased I'd fitted everything in. I just wish I was a bit quicker in Barnstaple to have got to Clovelly a bit quicker. Otherwise, it was a perfect 5 days!
Do let me know if you were any where near me. I'm certain I saw Yorkie's doppelganger on the Okehampton journey.
Costs:
Accommodation - £110
Tickets - £40 ish
Petrol - £100 ish
Food & Drink - £70 ish
Animals seen: Fox, Seal, Seagulls, Camels, Rhino, Giraffe, Meerkats, Stag Do group, Baboons, Echidna, Owls, Dogs, Cats, Peacocks, Turtles, Tortoises, Crocodiles, Ibis.....
Wednesday
The bags are packed. The car is ready. The alarm rings out at 3am and I am on my way at 4am. The journey is as undramatic as I'd hoped for. I reached Highbridge & Burnham station in 3 hours with a little hesitance on the motorway due to some torrential downpours near Weston-Super-Mare. I needed to clear the Weston-Super-Mare spur as it was first on my to-do list. I had a good 30 minutes to wait so had a little look at burnham seafront to sea if any cafe was open for a breakfast bap. One cafe had its door open but wasnt ready to serve me until well after the train to Worle had left. I returned to the station and a large collection of Bristol-bound commuters joined me. Even more joined at WSM but some left at Worle for some of the offices located there. I was surprised to see a lady in a tiny cabin selling tickets here. Even Chassen Road has a bit more room for staff. I wasn't able to jump on the HST already in platform heading back to WSM so had an hour to kill so festered at McDonalds having breakfast until I had to run the short distance in the torrent back to the platform. 30 minutes later, I was back in my car at Burnham.
Next objective was to visit both Norton Fitzwarren and Bishops Lydeard stations. These were/are served by a gWr shuttle so I thought I better have a look. I have been to Quainton Road too as Chiltern do some specials there so I best keep up with my own rules. I previously googled Norton Fitzwarren and found that it is inaccessible but there is an accessible farmers field right next to it. It would be a 45 minute drive through a lightly loaded collection of roads and the sun beaming over the northern limits of Taunton. Norton Fitzwarren is close enough to the mainline to see some classy new 800s glide past. There is no name board that I could see at NF but I was within 10 metres of the station without being a naughty boy which was good enough for me. Tick.
A short drive north is Bishops Lydeard which has about 20 people on both platforms milling around in the midday Sun. It is a charming, very well-kept period station offering runs on steam and diesel upto Minehead and points inbetween. A very good place for photos indeed. I opt to not leave Minehead to get busier and rejoin the A road.
I reach the glorious seafront of Minehead and see Butlins which is of personal significance to me. Here on the rocks I allow myself to be lulled for a catnap by the crashign waves. I awaken for a promenade towards the shops and station to find a botle of water and a chip butty before I mentally prep myself for the Porlock Hill!
I leave Minehead and soon realise this narrowing road is going to be both a delight and a challenge to drive. The village of Porlock has such narrow roads and tight bends I almost forget what happens after it. I boldly opt to take the A39 instead of the less steep toll road and am rewarded by a strong ascent of Porlock Hill and amazing views of Exmoor and glimpses of the blue below and to the left. More sharp turns and descents follow, especially Countisbury Hill and I reach Lynton/Lynmouth and it is chock full. It is gutting not to be able to stop and admire the view but I'd be blocking the main street. I continue round the bend and into a valley reminiscent of some narrow Indian foothill pass. We slowly grind up this single track A road past an impressive cyclist. At the top of the hill I see the town I've just left which is a bit confusing. The heather and the steep drop down into the Bristol Channel is just astonishing. The blue is replaced by green: fields, hedges and valleys as we dip, weave and plod up and over to Barnstaple.
Here, I park up in the station and wait and wait and wait for a customer to pick up several split tickets for some three part journey with kids and railcards galore to Sheffield! Eventually I get a car park ticket and a return to Yeoford. I raid Tesco before our train is in platform and we leave on time. We pass a large festival near Umberleigh and pick up/drop off several at every station, in particular Eggesford. Several people are waiting at Yeoford which I'm astonished by. I'm part of about 7 who leave here too which is impressive unless Yeoford has got bigger since I was last here. I note the lonely bookshelf in the dusty waiting shed full of books stretching back decades including an old tax manual. The return train is about 3 minutes late. I will return here at speed on the other track on Sunday which has a lot of weeds on it.
Back at Barnstaple, I walk into the Pizza Hut around the corner and have a good hour in a busy restaurant. Now the sun is starting to retreat. I am not really near anywhere to make a strategic snooze so I go for broke and drive to Westward Ho!. In hindsight I should have dropped it and gone for Clovelly in time for sunset but Westward Ho! was a very, very beautiful place on a warm and balmy evening to watch the sun go down with several other visitors and locals. This has to be one of Devon's best secret resorts.
After having been to Clovelly, I realise how much I should have made for it before the night claimed it. You start from the car park and either go through the visitor centre or the side-ramp for local people and descend and descend and descend and descend. Then you see the cottages clinging desperately to the Devon hillside. Now you stumble downwards past a pub! (Don't get seriously drunk here or you will not be able to get up or down the hill safely.) You continue to descend, descend, descned until you hit the beautiful harbour with serene and still ocean in front of you. I trudge up whilst seeing residents and guests relax by the window or by a fireplace and go past the local feline presence who must adore the fish at the end of the cobbled track.
At my car, I rack my brain for a trusted Cornish friend and I recall the solitude of Coombe Junction Halt. After consulting my brand new atlas, I interweave the Cornish/Devon border down a B-road to Launceston and thence to Callington adn Liskeard before the final valley into Coombe. No sooner had I arrived than a young couple got out of a car and stay there whilst I was waiting to do some nighttime ablutions before finally sleeping. With growing impatience I ask if they require a lift and they decline. 10 minutes later, 4 more youths appear and using their torches on their phones, walk into Coombe station. I don't see them again apart from as I am almost at the verge of deep sleep, hear male voices but on waking up at 5am, my car, myself and the enviornment are unmolested.
I have a little look at Coombe properly and can't see anything amiss.
0755 Highbridge & Burnham - Worle
0851 Worle - Highbridge & Burnham
1709 Barnstaple - Yeoford
1818 Yeoford - Barnstaple
Thursday
I trace my finger along a crooked line towards Port Isaac, snaking down one valley to Bodmin and a second towards Wadebridge. One more road winds down to a turnign for Port Isaac. Why do I drag myself to this sleepy harbour village. It is the setting for Doc Martin but more importantly, it is the origin of the famous sea shanty singing Fisherman's Friends. I must have walked past 5 of them but they weren't singing
There was also a fisherwoman. Doc Martin's cottage is easily located but the steep streets nag me after the knee and back torment that was Clovelly. I arrive back at my car just as the car park charges officially begun. It is very good to be the early bird today!Next, the North Cornish Coast is to be abandoned for the South Cornish Coast. The very South. The Southernmost in fact. The roads are alive with commuters. I aim for Truro and Falmouth then Helston and am stuck with caravans and lorries combatting these severe yet short gradients. At Helston, I'm impressed by seeing a huge Tesco and a huge Sainsburys so far south. I compare with what I saw at Wick and Thurso, not much at all. Now we have to join a slowish convoy to The Lizard which really only takes about 20 minutes but today took 35 minutes. The scenery, the gulls and the seal I spotted make up for the £3 car park fee. Really it should be £2 and Kynance Cove should be £3 as it is far more spectacular, testament to the fact that visitors from near and distant lands have arrived and are taken aback by the clear, blue waters lapping against a beach that could easily be mistaken for some Carribbean destination with the sun as it is on my visit today. There is even a family having a swim and frolic in the waves. After chiselling off the smile I have for both seeing an iconic location from Poldark and having just completed the set of the 8 Great British Compass Points (Land's End, Lizard Points, White Cliffs of Dover, Lowestoft, John O'Groats, Dunnet Head, Cape Wrath, Ardnamurchan Lighthouse), I look forward to a second train ride, St Erth to St Ives.
The drive from Helston to the park and ride at St Erth is sluggish but nothing in comparison to the queue that APCOA has helped to create by only installing two card only car parking tickets at the gateway to St Ives. There was a 30 minute queue for the car park. Eventually I walked over the footbridge to a heaving crowd awaiting the 4-car shuttle. I picked up a ticket with my railcard and joined the throngs and waited for 20 minutes before we skipped Lelant Saltings, had a healthy interchange at Lelant and then a busier interchange at a staffed Carbis Bay. Lastly, St Ives was just insane. I should have just stayed in the carriage but I got out to take a photo but was shouted at for jumping back in as the lady assumed I was confused but I think she was just saying 'This is St Ives.' instead of saying 'Stop!, You've arrived.' The set up at St Ives was for all passengers to disembark with the front two (furthest from St Erth) loading leaving passengers from that end of the train to try to speed up departure times. This didn't make sense to me as there was no similar operation at St Erth so no-one would be aware or expecting it.
St Ives is just amazing. The beach. The harbour. The sky. The clinging buildings. The sea. The food. Such a shame to depart but I really needed to put my head on a bed. At Barnstaple Tesco, I rung ahead for a guest house in Plymouth. Now a simple drive along the A30 and A38 would take me to Plymouth in about 2 hours. The fee for the Tamar Bridge was luckily the change I had in my wallet - £1.50. I had to have 3 attempts with The Hoe to finally reach the guest house. It's got an amazing hotelier who is well acquainted with Plymouth and does a superb 'raft' breakfast twist. I allow myself a nap and allow my car a far longer rest as I walk around Plymouth's Barbican and find the globally significant Mayflower Steps. There is also a tenuous connection with Wigan (Myles Standish) which I enjoy. The abundance of boats, ships, yachts and even a rowing boat in action on the choppy, windy ocean is a spectacle, even for the most keen landlubber. I enjoy fish and chips at The Harbourside and then switch out until breakfast the folling morning.
1218 St Erth - St Ives
1333 St Ives - St Erth
Friday
I enjoy a delicious breakfast and bid farewell to the hotelier. The car is treated to a very short drive to the station and then gWr takes my £8 and gives me a Cornish ranger for me to tick off the St Budeaux - Liskeard and Par - Penzance/Falmouth sections. The journey is comfortable on a 800 but one of the carriages has a failed air-con. We contort the countryside on our way to the end of the line. The jewelled ocean surrounds St Michael's Mount as I get up and seek out a good photo vantage point and a bite to eat close to the station before we get out on the road again to Truro. I hop off here and await a branch line service to Penmere where I can walk into and through a busy Falmouth, locating some food and drink provisions before finding Falmouth Docks station within a complex of partially built flats that weren't here when I was last here. The train pulls in in a short time and we are soon back to Truro and after watching a young, disabled train fan be greeted by the staff here, we all jump on the London Paddington service. I have acquired a Plymouth-Newton Abbot return and enjoy the 2 hour cruise back over the Tamar and then a further hour back to my car in Plymouth station. I sit all the way to Newton Abbot next to very attractive female with a dog on her lap who is going into the Big Smoke according to her ticket.
That paragraph takes us to about 6pm where I get a bit to eat in the shopping centre nearby. I drive firstly to Ivybridge timidly as another torrent impedes progress on the A38. I'm shocked at how poorly Ivybridge is served but I guess it's counterbalanced by the frequent bus services into Plymouth.
Rejoining the A38 and following it for 40 minutes drops me into Exeter services. I wonder where I am going to snooze this evening. Bruton? Newton St Cyres? Starcross? I have booked ahead for a guest house tomorrow in Exeter so just tonight to figure out. I go to the toilet and I click. Digby & Sowton is 5 minutes drive and a train for Exmouth is 10 minutes away. I know I can always come back to this service station later. It's a really busy service station at 8.30pm with people seemingly going in all directions, even into deepest Dorset from what I overhear. The ride into Exmouth is joined by some chavvy youths who just want to escape the rain. In my big coat, I'm prepared for the howling winds and diagonal rain beating down the track and along the Exe. Mercifully Exmouth station has a building to shelter. I decide to risk it and mooch about Exmouth seafront before beating a hasty retreat since the train going back is in 50 minutes. The chavvy youths return and ask me and another male for a lighter. I'm in no mood to sit with such types so sit in the bus shelter down the road until the train rolls in. I return back to an empty Digby & Sowton park and ride within an hour and back the tantalising smell of the Cornish pasty at the Exeter service station.
I did say I had a problem of where to settle for the evening. I look closer at my phone and recall 'Exton is a request stop' and the last train at Exton is at 0011 and the first train is at 06XX. I double check and leave after a coffee break. In 15 minutes, I'm at this tiny car park with 2 abandoned cars and one car with people in it. I find that they too are young lads who want to let the train go past and splash them with the lashing rain to try and recreate some kind of homage to Michael Jackson's Earth Song from what I can gauge. Thankfully they aren't doggers and I'm not in a dogging spot. The youths leave as soon as the train goes past them. I perform some night time rituals and tuck in for the night.
0945 Plymouth - Penzance
1204 Penzance - Truro
1251 Truro - Penmere
1350 Falmouth Docks - Truro
1441 Truro - Newton Abbot
1642 Newton Abbot - Plymouth
2047 Digby & Sowton - Exmouth
2211 Exmouth - Digby & Sowton
Saturday
Exton is a beautiful landscape to wake up to, particularly if you are a twitcher. I can't name the birds I awoke to but there were several species. I return to Exeter services for my morning ablutions and then drive in to Babbacombe nice and early as this is where Donald Sinclair and his hotel gave John Cleese the inspiration for Fawlty Towers. There is no blue plaque here which is dreadful in my opinion but if you are looking for it, it is near a cavern. I go for a stroll along an outcrop and then swoop into Torquay, Preston then Paignton. The town is starting to wake up as I admire the main street and view into the great big blue again. I see the steam engine next to Paignton station get awoken. I pick up the Devon day ranger and take the London Paddington service which calls everywhere apart from Starcross to St Davids. I jump off here, wait 15 minutes and then I take SWR to Axminster, the limit of this rangers validity. I'm impressed with how this 6-coach train just explodes with speed towards London. I thought it would plod along but we were in Axminster in 40 minutes. In 40 seconds I was on the opposite train, heading back to Exeter. When I got into Exeter, I walked from the train door, across the platform to the Cross-Country train that had just pulled in. This is an express to Newton Abbot.
At Newton Abbot, confusion abound as near Redruth, a tree has come down, upsetting several services. I only need a Paignton train. Thankfully, this pops up after 30 minutes. I spend longer in Paignton, having sausage and chips at the pier and saunter along the seafront before my car park ticket is up and my guest house check-in near St James Park is open. In an hour, I'm dozing off for a mid-afternoon sleep. I wake myself up with a shower and then take a walk down to St James Park for a return to Digby & Sowton before going to Polsloe Bridge and walking back up to my guest house. I'm not too sure how faraway or where is the best place to go in Exeter for food so I take my car and eventually find a Harvester.
I return to sleep in a comfy bed in a functional guest house. One more day, one more line left!
0918 Paignton - Exeter St Davids
1025 Exeter St Davids - Axminster
1106 Axminster - Exeter St Davids
1146 Exeter St Davids - Newton Abbot
1150 Newton Abbot - Paignton (dep 1229)
1854 St James Park - Digby & Sowton
1914 Digby & Sowton - Polsloe Bridge
Sunday
I enjoy a cold option breakfast with juice and fruit before I get all my belongings and drive nearer to St James Park. Here, 3 of us are waiting for the Okehampton service that originates here. We are joined by a very healthy amount of people for the first train to Okehampton today. It takes out several branches beyond Crediton as we thump and squeal towards High Willhays and the town station which is high above the River Okement. The 3 gWr staff open the gate at Sampford Courtenay for the elderly couple to join us as 2 younger males jump off to take a photo or bag a station (anyone on here?).
Okehampton station is full of families, couples, enthusiasts who are looking forward to this irregular service to Exeter. The station is as beautiful as when I was last here so I leave it in perfect nick and get back on the same train and bounce back to Crediton, picking up the two males we dropped off at Sampford, before exploding down to Cowley Bridge junction in an impressive fashion.
I decide to visit Paignton Zoo before I trudge back up the M5 so leave for the north at 4pm. Just north of Exeter on the M5 the motorway halts for 45 minutes until normal service resumes. Radio 2 tells me it was some kind of accident knocking 2 lanes out. I arrive eventually to see one badly impacted car with a passenger in it as all three lanes are now free flowing.
I stop at Worcester as my light comes on. I luckily happen upon a BP garage just off the M5 where the deal is to fill up with more than £30, you can get a free drink from the coffee machine. So I take my free mocha and drive to finish it off in front of the construction site for Worcestershire Parkway. I was hoping to see something over the Cotswold line as I'd parked nearer to it. However it was a double XC Voyager passing towards Brum that appeared.
Mocha drunk. Ignition switched back on. I arrive home at 11pm.
0857 St James Park - Okehampton
0953 Okehampton - St James Park
I was quite pleased I'd fitted everything in. I just wish I was a bit quicker in Barnstaple to have got to Clovelly a bit quicker. Otherwise, it was a perfect 5 days!
Do let me know if you were any where near me. I'm certain I saw Yorkie's doppelganger on the Okehampton journey.
Costs:
Accommodation - £110
Tickets - £40 ish
Petrol - £100 ish
Food & Drink - £70 ish
Animals seen: Fox, Seal, Seagulls, Camels, Rhino, Giraffe, Meerkats, Stag Do group, Baboons, Echidna, Owls, Dogs, Cats, Peacocks, Turtles, Tortoises, Crocodiles, Ibis.....
