Darting Around the UK

As so often happens with boating, our aim to sail from south to north Devon with my cousin Lorna and her husband didn't quite go to plan. Nevertheless, we spent a lovely few days with them aboard their little sailing yacht on the River Dart, before heading back ashore with a new plan to complete the trip later in the year. Whilst it was disappointing to have to postpone the passage, I do look forward to making it in August/September, when hopefully the weather will be a little warmer in the UK than it has been of late!

Beth, Zach and Scrat keeping warm whilst on the River Dart

By a happy coincidence, our trip being cut short meant that we ended up being in Totnes for a few hours at the same time as Alex's sister Lucy and her wife Charlie. They are currently travelling around the UK and Europe in their motorhome, and happened to be exploring the south west of England at the same time as us, so we arranged to meet for a few hours at the Signal Box Cafe at Totnes Railway Station. Having not seen them since Christmas, it was lovely to catch up on each others' news, whilst enjoying some delicious and great value cooked breakfasts and hot drinks in the cafe. The children, being children, were soon more interested in all the leaflets on display by our table in the cafe and took a liking to the one advertising Babbacombe Model Village. Charlie was also very enthusiastic about model villages (although, warned us to avoid signage for Model Farm, which they had apparently followed on a whim, only to discover that it was not at all what they had expected, but actually a country house by the name of Model Farm!) and so we kept the leaflet and promised the children a visit to this attraction before dropping Alex back to BRNC.

An unexpected meetup with Lucy and Charlie at Totnes Railway Station

 

The following day, we took the train back to London, so that we could visit Alex's parents for the remainder of his Easter holidays. We had a lovely time and the weather was fairly pleasant, on the whole. Alex and his dad took part in Peckham Rye Parkrun on the Saturday, and then the children did the Junior Parkrun on Sunday morning, which was good fun. Zach wanted to run with Alex (who had run with Beth previously) and so I agreed to run with Beth. Having not done any running myself for a good few years now, I was secretly worried that I might struggle to keep up with her but, thankfully, I was able to keep pace. However, she didn't really want me to run with her so I agreed to stay just behind her, in case she needed me there at any point for moral support. This seemed like a sensible idea, but was actually a terrible idea since she spent the first few hundred metres constantly looking back to see where I was, and then trying to speed up in order to leave me behind. Clearly, running in a busy event whilst looking backwards is not the best idea and, when she eventually ran straight into a park bench because of it, I agreed to leave her to run alone, and so sprinted back and forth across the field around which they were running, in order to be able to cheer her and Zach on as they passed.

Parkrun fun at Peckham Rye Park

As promised, we drove Alex back down to Devon on May Day via the model village in Babbacombe. Perhaps I have been to a model village as a child, but I don't really remember it so this felt like the first time I had ever been to such a place. What an amazing sight to behold! It certainly wasn't cheap, but when you consider the amount of time and effort that it must take to maintain over 4 acres of model village displays (including a river, canal, railway network, and even a fire-breathing dragon) and immaculately kept miniature landscaped gardens, it was well worth it. There were lots of fun things to spot along the way (such as characters from "Where's Wally" and a variety of oversized bugs) which kept us all engaged for hours. We also enjoyed a free game of crazy golf there. A really wonderful day out, and a lovely way to end our time with Alex. After stopping off for some fish and chips, we dropped him back to BRNC in Dartmouth, hopeful that we might perhaps get to see him over the Coronation weekend before heading back to Portugal.

The model village may be small, but Zach still
needed a lift up to appreciate its vast expanse

My cousin Lorna very kindly offered for me and the children to come back to their house in Westward Ho! for the week, and I gladly accepted this offer. This meant that we didn't have too far to travel, and could easily get back to Dartmouth the following weekend to see Alex if he had time off the following weekend. Unfortunately, it is very hard to plan such visits as there is often very little notice of whether or not Alex will actually have leave. Thankfully, Alex confirmed on Wednesday that he would have some time off over the Coronation weekend, so I hastily booked an Airbnb in Dartmouth from the few that were remaining and began to make plans for how best to enjoy the Coronation celebrations available in the area.

Enjoying a pleasant dog walk back from Westward Ho! beach

After searching online for all available events in the Torbay/Dartmouth/Kingsbridge area, I came up with the following plan for the weekend:

• Saturday - watch the Coronation at home whilst Alex was completing some adventurous training, then collect him late afternoon and head to Paignton for the fun fair and fireworks
• Sunday - head down to Salcombe Primary School with a picnic for their Big Lunch and sports day
• Monday - head across the river to Kingswear for their Coronation street party

I must admit, I had some reservations about attending the events in Salcombe and Kingswear, as they are fairly small places and I was a little worried that we might stand out as being definitely not locals, but I decided that it wouldn't be a problem, since all events were advertised widely online with phrases such as "all welcome".

The children got to meet some baby dinosaurs at the fair in Paignton

Saturday went to plan, on the whole. The children and I enjoyed the televised spectacle of the Coronation Ceremony and Parade, and felt very proud of the military precision with which the entire affair was carried out. We were especially impressed with the "Hip Hip, Hooray" from the military personnel in Buckingham Palace Gardens - that surely must have been the loudest and most impressive "Hooray" of all time! We collected Alex late afternoon, headed to Paignton and had great fun at the fair with the children. They explored the Fun House and went on the Dodgems for the first time, then we headed to Wetherspoons for food, to kill some time before the fireworks at 9pm. Unfortunately, the display didn't start until 9.30pm (most likely because it was a clear sky and, therefore, still light at 9pm) but it was an incredible display so definitely worth the wait. However, my lack of local knowledge meant that (having parked in the most central multi-story car park possible, with lots of road closures in place around the fair and fireworks) we got caught up in an almighty traffic jam along with the hundreds of other people who, coincidentally, also decided that they wanted to leave the town centre as soon as the fireworks had come to an end. After almost an hour (and some questionable driving, ignoring some minor signage such as "no entry" for a one way road), we managed to leave Paignton and, thank goodness, made it onto the penultimate ferry back across the river to Dartmouth. Missing the last ferry would have meant that we had to drive another 45 minutes around the long way!

Dodgems Dream Team selfie

With Saturday having gone so well, we packed up our picnic of a rice salad followed by scones and cream, then headed down to Salcombe for our greatly anticipated Big Lunch and sports day. We parked in the long stay car park at the top of the hill, then were taken to the primary school by the very friendly Park and Ride bus driver. This was slightly embarrassing, as he literally drove us a few hundred metres before stopping the bus and announcing that we had arrived! What can I say... we had to save everyone's legs ready for the afternoon's events on the playing field! We walked into the school playground where there were lots of tables set up for those who had booked them. I had not done so, since I did not want to decorate a table (as was expected) and I also felt it might be a little awkward to sit at a table alongside the villagers of Salcombe, as outsiders. So, we looked around for where to sit down for our picnic (as the advertisement had said book a table or just turn up with a picnic blanket) and eventually settled ourselves down (sans picnic blanket) on an appealing patch of tarmac, next to a bin. 

Reigning champions, feeling chuffed after their first ever sports day!

The picnic was a little awkward, to say the least, but we made the best of it and then hurriedly stood up and headed to a table area where children could decorate some paper crowns. Then came the announcement that the sports day events were about to begin, so we followed families heading that way towards the playing field, over a grassy knoll.... where we discovered hordes of happy families eating their picnics on blankets, on gloriously soft grass! No wonder people had looked at us strangely, seeing us sat on the floor in the playground! Ignoring this blunder, we ushered Beth and Zach towards the sports day races, and helped them to get involved in the afternoon's proceedings. Once again, this was a little awkward, as clearly everyone organising was either a teacher or a parent, and everyone knew the names of all the children... except ours! Still, Alex and I styled it out pretty well... we just got stuck in and behaved as if it was completely normal for us to be there, then watched as Beth repeatedly placed in the top three, taking valuable winners stickers away from the local children. Zach, bless him, worked so hard but, being one of the youngest there, he only ever got consolation stickers such as "Super Sports Day Star" for coming last or thereabouts. Actually, I tell a lie; he and Beth came second in the three-legged race! Regardless of placement, they both had a really super time and thoroughly enjoyed the classic events such as sack race, egg and spoon race, the 100m sprint and a tug of war. There were also adult events planned, but I forbade Alex from entering into them as I feared that he would win them all and then questions would be asked about our eligibility. However, he excused himself for a toilet break and then, on his return, managed to slip himself nicely into the adult tug of war without me noticing!

Alex getting stuck in with the adults tug of war

When Monday came around, I just couldn't face the idea of gatecrashing any more village Coronation celebrations so, with the inclement weather helping to influence our decision in favour of giving the Kingswear Coronation street party a miss, we decided to head down into Dartmouth instead for a boat trip on the River Dart. How funny life can be; six months ago, I had never been to Dartmouth at all, and now I find myself heading up and down its river multiple times less than a fortnight! After the river trip, we walked along the coast from the town centre to Dartmouth Castle, and back again, before finally seeking refuge from the rain and enjoying our last evening at home with Alex. We said goodbye to him, as he prepared to head off for his six weeks initial sea time aboard an aircraft carrier, and we made our way back towards Gatwick airport, ready to escape the rain and head back to Portugal.

An atmospheric view over the River Dart, from Dartmouth Castle