Post by Dave on Sept 13, 2010 17:51:24 GMT
Exmouth And That Ferry
Yes Exmouth and that ferry, but that was not the planed title for this thread, it was meant to be called Dave and Carol take a cruise. A week off work for Carol and I simply means we get the chance to spend whole days together and we enjoy the simple pleasures far more than anything else we could do.
A coast walk, a stroll through a wood, exploring a village or just standing on a bridge trying to spot some fish in a river, simple yes, but for us its quality time and the day is full of chat and laughter, closeness and a real feeling of togetherness and you can’t put a price on that.
After a great day in Wells and then a day at Lanhydrock near Bodmin, I decided to take Carol on a cruise, well lets be honest if we were asked next week by someone what we did on our holiday, we could say we went on a cruise and would not have been telling any porkies.
I checked the website and there was one at 11am and another at 2.15pm, so we got into the car and headed to Exmouth to find the booking office of Stuart Lines to get tickets for the 2,15pm river cruise up the river Exe.
Only standing at the counter we were told there was no 2.15pm cruise and it should not have said so on the website, I must confess I was a bit angry but that’s because I was disappointed as I knew Carol would have loved it. Not that she minded, she never does, just smiles and says never mind we will find something else to do.
As we walked away from the booking office their boat was returning form the 11am cruise and guess what? It went out again at 2pm with people on board; they must have had a booking for a group and just did not bother to update their website.
We walked around the small dock side area and were heading for the Dock Café, its not that big, but very clean and the food is always freshly cooked as its so busy, plus you won’t find prices as low as are charged in there and that suits me fine, as I’m not one who likes to pay over the top prices, when you can get so often better food at fair and reasonable prices.
Then I saw the board for the Starcross ferry, well come on folks it’s a boat, it goes on the water and with a bit of imagination it can be a cruise to where every you like. We checked out all the times and planed to catch the 1.40pm, then stay an hour in Starcross and get the 3.10pm one back to Exmouth.
Having 45 minutes to kill we went over a footbridge and discovered that Exmouth has an inner harbour, its looks very pretty and is surrounded on all four sides by those new builds that seem to be built everywhere there is water these days. One block that looked like it was the first one built bore all the signs they were all second homes, no signs of anyone being at home, or there or a while at least.
The newest looking block had signs in most of the windows saying available and just a few said reserved, a sign of the times I fear. Taking a right turn we expected to be heading back for the dockside, but very strangely we found we were some way south of it where we ended up, a place known as the duck pond, its not a pond but more like a large sort of cove that only has water in it when its high tide. A look at the watch and we realise we will not get back on time to catch the ferry we had planed to.
No problem as there was another one an hour later only it would mean we would have to make sure we did not over run our time when we got to Starcross as the last ferry was at 4.10pm and we sure did not want to be stuck on the wrong side of the river.
Taking a road in land and a good long walk it was we came out north of the docks by the end of Exmouth beach and enjoyed our stroll along the beach back to the docks. It did not take me long to get chatting to the ferry man and told him why we were taking the ferry, the dear man said he would take the longest route to the other side to give Carol and I a longer ride on the river.
On the other side and off the ferry you walk up an old wooden walkway and come straight onto the unmanned Starcross railway station, it was deserted as you might expect, but then most trains just fly through the station without stopping.
We walked the road toward Dawlish Warren as the railway line is right beside the road and I was hoping to get some great shots, only unlike the day I made my short film “The Trains At Teignmouth” hardly a train went by and when one did it was not at the place I would have hoped it to be.
Still I got two shots I thought looked good and then we found a stream about two foot wide and the water was just still, the quest was on to find a fish and in the end we found three, why o why do we always get surprised when we find a fish in a place they should be anyway.
Time to get back onto the last ferry now and we sat and cuddled on the stern of the ferry as we headed back to Exmouth, a great day and yet another one we will look back on and remember fondly.
