Bertie goes to South Hams, Devon 16-19 July 2018

Our third trip away in Bertie, we also now have the use of a ‘driveaway’ awning we promised ourselves from the last trip. On Sunday we stop over in Aust again on the way to Devon to see Rich, Nic and the grandchildren – Russ has also made it down from London for the weekend. It just happens to be the World Cup final weekend (15 July), so we enjoy the unusually hot weather and have a BBQ in the garden. Also we take a look at Rich’s new bar in one of the stables taking shape – we watch the final in there on a big screen projected on to a wall! My last ever standby also, so we crack open a couple of bottles of bubbly at 5pm exactly – yippee no more standby EVER 🙂

Here’s the pic’s from the weekend …

Here’s Bertie parked up our drive getting the fridge stocked up and the garage packed with the bikes and the tables and chairs and ….

Me, Rich and Russ manage to get a ride in on Sunday before the big match is on TV. Of course Freddie wants to show off his new skills at road cycling without any assistance or aid – look at me making a breakaway at the front!

Rich’s back garden, there’s a certain theme here I think. Notice Bertie is parked outside the gates – all plugged in to the mains to keep the fridge running.

Rich’s got this far with the bar, really a lad’s den – looking forward to Freddie’s birthday party and it will be finished I reckon.

Here’s the ride from the weekend …

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We arrive at Start Bay Caravan and Motorhome club site on Monday, phew what a close call getting to the site for the last 10 miles or so into and out of Kingsbridge – narrow twisting lanes with just about enough room for the motorhome in some stretches so you have to wait at passing points to let traffic through. A nice site though, we get lucky and have plot #2 available – right near the shower blocks and flat as a pancake at the top of the site overlooking everyone. We decide to erect the awning shortly after parking up, we made a couple of schoolboy errors but finally got it up and attached to the van in about 30 minutes – next time should be just 10-15 minutes I reckon. I am ‘working from motorhome’ this week so we stay put mostly and work through my shifts – Denise getting stuck into her kindle. I use the 4G signal and a portable hotspot to get me through OK. Steaks on the BBQ first night. No time for pictures on Monday, but Tuesday is different, I manage a ride out first thing before work in the morning from the site to the river bank opposite Salcombe – very hilly! Then later after work Denise and I go exploring around the area on bikes, I change pedals from cleats to straps. First we head into TorCross and Slapton, finally deciding to eat at Torcross. Then on the way back we stop at the farm shop around the corner (it’s also the South Hams Brewery outlet), so I take a couple of ‘Wild Blonde’ beers back that I’ve just sampled at the pub in Torcross, the Start Bay Inn.

My early morning ride ….

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Lovely morning for a ride, I see about three cars and a lorry. A huge descent into East Portlemouth brings me to the end of the ride, the foot/bike ferry across to Salcombe.

Too early for the ferry to run, this is where you catch it and I guess wait in queue when it’s busy.

View across from the ferry waiting area.

There’s the pontoon for the ferry, £1.60 for adults and another 60p for your bike!

Along the beach and seafront at Slapton Sands, just a couple of miles from the site. The road has been washed away by a freak storm and tide some months ago, so we can’t get to Dartmouth by the normal route and the diversion is too much for Denise.

Here she comes back down from the hill up to Slapton village.

We stop at Torcross, the Start Bay Inn – renowned for it’s fish and chips apparently!

While we are sat there, we of course have a beer and a gin and tonic. Also while we are there an elderly gentleman collapsed in front of us, he’d tripped up the kerb and was OK – I asked if his camera was OK 🙂

Back to the site, thought I’d take a picture of the nice extended area we now have with the awning

Here she is with the BBQ and bikes outside.

Wednesday and I manage another early morning ride before work, checking out the local beaches. Didn’t realise how hilly it would be again, you descend into these beach villages from atop the hills, the gradient is averaging about 12% but peaks at about 15-16% in places – hard work going uphill that time in the morning and no breakfast yet! In the afternoon after work we decided to go into Kingsbridge by bus, so we stopped at the pub opposite the bus stop, the Church House Inn. We have the bus timetable and we know that the bus has to come past the pub on the way to Torcross before turning around and coming back. So we confidently sip away at our drinks expecting to see the bus go past. Well it did – but in the direction of Kingsbridge where we wanted to go – doh! Where the hell did it come from we thought? No worries, we head back to the site, but think we should try again – so off we go again to the bus stop an hour later. This time we wait at the bus stop, we never saw the bus going to Torcross but another bloke with his dog waiting at the bus stop assured us it went past! So we eventually make it to Kingsbridge and have a coffee and look around and take the bus back again, the driver lets us off right outside the site. In the evening we check out the pubs in the nearest village – a 10 minute walk.
Here’s the morning ride …

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For some weird reason I stop at the top of the hill into Beesands village and share the moment with a few cows 🙂

Descent into the village and I am the only stupid person around at this time in the morning, gorgeous picture of the sunrise and a lone boat at sea I thought.

Looking across to Torcross and Slapton Sands where we were yesterday.

The Beesands village pub, the Cricket Inn. Maybe they play cricket on the beach?

In the evening, we decide to try our luck at one of the village pubs in the nearest village – Stokenham. This is the view from the footpath from the site to the village, just about half a mile.

This is the village church at the end of the footpath., next to the Church House Inn pub.

But we decide to give the Church House Inn a miss and walk up the hill to the second pub, the Tradesman’s Arms. It looked beuatiful in the evening sunshine.

What we didn’t know however, although this is a litte village pub in the middle of nowhere – all of the dining tables were reserved!!! So we thought – hell – we’ve made it up the hill, we’ll have a drink here and wander back to the other pub.

This was on tap at the Tradesman’s Arms – wonderful pint – I am in heaven.

So back down the hill to the Church House Inn, we get a table OK and it’s not so full, we woinder why. But alas, we have a wonderful meal – we share a specially smoked and BBQ’ed T Bone steak they named it a Tomahawk.

There’s a certain theme to my picture taking indoors – yet another extremely good local ale 🙂

Head back to the site after dining, this is the gate.

And the evening sun caught the wheat field in a certain way

Looking back to the village in the evening, I thought I must come back in the morning and take a picture at sunrise.

Once again looking at the footpath into Stokenham.

Denise making tracks through the path closest to the site.

It is still wooded close to the site, a delightful walk and safe from the road.

It’s Thursday and we must depart for home later, so before work I take my camera for a stroll around at sunrise.

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