Holidays and Other Excursions

Tag: Salcombe

Salcombe – the Jetty – and Home

Thursday 25 May 2017

The sun is out again as we again drive down to Salcombe for lunch at the Jetty which is part of the Alex Aitken chain which has appeared out of almost nowhere in the last couple of years.  We went to the Jetty in Guildford (it is also in a Harbour Hotel; as far as I know there are no actual jetties or harbours in Guildford) about a year ago and if anything this meal is better.

The sun is beating down and we choose to sit indoors in the air conditioning but the outside tables are fairly well occupied and allow us people watching time – and some possible cases of sunburn (no hat or cream hence our choosing indoor seats).  Parking at the Harbour Hotel can be tight – but I think we got away with it!

This is my starter which is a Taste of Salcombe Crab and very tasty it was too.  A good start to the meal.

 

 

 

Jackie had this stunning looking crayfish and prawn combination to start.  I am told it was tasty.

 

 

 

 

This is my main course –  a nice piece of sea bream on spring vegetables and risotto.

 

 

 

And here is Jackie’s main course of fish and chips which does look rather good.

Food photographs once again come from Jackie’s resourceful iPhone – much better than the two of us both trying to out photograph each other!

Now it is time for the drive home.  I follow the road signs rather than have the sat nav telling me what to – so do not take the most direct route (which would probably have been faster).  Instead we wind back to Buckfastleigh and rejoin the main road.   This twisty bit follows the South Devon Railway which we visited at the start of the holiday and although I hear a steam engine we have no sighting of it!  We swap driving duties at Exeter and then again near Salisbury Plain.

However there is another reason for coming home a night early – apart from getting a better night’s sleep.  One of our guest dogs is coming to stay this evening and we are at home to greet him rather than our daughter doing the honours.

Distance from home to Salcombe is about 190 miles and we did some driving around narrow back roads (and some main roads) so total mileage was probably around 500 miles for this particular holiday.

Next up is a tour through large chunks of Europe which is largely by train!

 

Salcombe

Tuesday 23 May 2017

We do not sleep overly well.  This is not unusual for the first night in a strange bed – but the bed does not feel comfortable.  There is of course the usual restricted space in a caravan around the bed (it is almost impossible to get to the “wrong” side, which is my side) and the thin pillows mean my  head is not high enough so my neck hurts.  There is however a nice view out of the caravan across the park to the adjacent hillside and to the right we can see the sea as we are quite elevated over the main site.  You win some and you lose some!

We are off out this morning for breakfast at the Winking Prawn on the water front in Salcombe.   It is found without too much difficulty and we arrive just before the self service breakfast is available – so we have a few minutes wait.  A nice substantial breakfast and my third cooked breakfast in less than a week, so it will not help the supposed diet!

Not as bright today as expected so we drive into Salcombe itself, park and find a newsagent to buy a couple of items.  Then meander up and down the High Street – and get away before our one hour parking expires.  Whilst I have been here before a long time ago I do not really remember the town at all.

There are some photos here.

Our next destination is the Sharpham Estate shop as we plan to buy some cheese.  Being lunchtime we have a glass of wine as well as you do.  Beautiful scenery along the Dart estuary towards Totnes as we drop down into the estate – which took some finding along some back roads.

Our return route takes us through some more of the outstanding scenery as we initially head towards Totnes and then swing west before reaching the town and tracking back towards Challabrough for a quiet afternoon resting.

We do some reading before we head out in the evening to the Millbrook Inn at South Pool which once again is a little bit of a drive along some narrow roads to reach our destination.  The route requires that we have to go through Kingsbridge, then cross Bowcombe Creek, pass the end of the Frogmore Creek (as it is not bridged) and the pub is at the end of the South Pool Creek – all these creeks are part of the Kingsbridge estuary.

The pub dining room has a fire – not too near us – but the room goes from hot (doors closed) to cold (doors open) very quickly.  Anyway to the very good food – with Jackie’s photos as usual (I cannot quite bring myself to take photos in a restaurant):

My warm duck gizzard, pigs feet and other nice things!

And we get home in the day light despite the tiny back roads we are using!