Westward Ho! to Plymouth

Today was just a transition day. We moved almost directly south from the coast of North Devon on the Bristol channel to the coast of South Devon on the English Channel.

From Westward Ho! We caught a Stagecoach Southwest No 21 bus to Barnstaple Railway Station. The bus took about an hour, with dozens of stops, to do what it had taken us a day and a half to walk. It only cost £2.90 each which seemed very cheap.

Barnstaple Railway Station is the terminus of a branch line and has a large cycle hire business operating out of part of the station. From Barnstaple there is excellent cycling on the path we have been walking the last few days. Up one side of the river to Braunton or the other side to Westward Ho! No hills though, absolutely flat.

From Barnstaple the train took an hour to get to Exeter St Davids with about five ‘request’ stops. At Exeter ST D we had to change to a main line train to Plymouth. Only two stops, at Newton Abbott and Totnes, and it took an hour. In five days’ time we are having a ‘day off’ in Dartmouth and will return to Totnes on an excursion.

We were in Plymouth by 2.30 and check-in wasn’t until 4.00 so we spent a bit of time sussing the route out of Plymouth for tomorrow. We are staying at the same B & B as last year, Sea Breezes, and the hostess Anne remembered us from then. Since we last saw her she has been to Japan so we got a lengthy account on her impressions of Japan – all positive, especially the transport system. She has travelled a lot and knows NZ well.

This week is graduation week for the University of Plymouth and a huge marquee has been set up on The Hoe. There are three graduation ceremonies per day for five days. The town and its bars and cafes are packed with people all dressed up and looking their very best. I didn’t take many photos of Plymouth as there are enough in last year’s blog.

For dinner we went back to The Waterfront. The same place we celebrated completing 500km of the South West Coast Path last year. This time we toasted the start of our walk from Plymouth to Brixham.