Sunday 7 June 2026

Day 42 of walking
Brixham to Torquay
Distance: 15.06km
Total distance: 829.36km
Climbing: 210m
Total climb: 27,563m

Today we hit the “English Riviera”. This is a Victorian nickname given to the Torbay area of South Devon stretching from Brixham to Torquay. The title comes from the area’s plentiful beaches, palm trees, mild climate and historical comparisons to the Mediterranean Coast of France.

The breakfast window was 8.30am until 9.15am so it was not possible to get an early start today. It didn’t really matter as it was a relatively short day. It is Sunday so the buses are only every twenty minutes from Torquay to Brixham. After a 30 minute bus trip and some shopping for lunch at Tesco Express, it was 10.15am before we started walking. Leaving Brixham through the commercial part of the port and a large car park we were soon into the best walking of the day for 3 kilometres in the woods, alongside a golf course we could hear but not see through the trees. We passed the Brixham Military Museum which had some military vehicles and guns and museum staff dressed up in various British and American army and navy uniforms. Two small beaches at Churston Cove and Elberry Cove, both pebbly so not great for swimming. They were very quiet just a couple of families and some dogs exercising their owners. We sat on the pebbles at Elberry for our coffee.

Around the next point everything changed. Broadsands is a long sandy beach with a very long row of beach huts. The beach huts are generally white with brightly coloured doors and roof fascias. They can be hired for the day or a week. The beaches from here become more and more commercialised with cafes, deck chair and umbrella hire, bars, car parks and shops selling buckets and spades, balls, etc. At the Broadsands public toilets, for the first time, we used our debit card to ‘pay wave’ into, and make use of, the conveniences. After going over a little headland and passing under a huge viaduct that carries the Dartmouth Heritage Steam Railway we came to Goodrington Sands, a bigger version of Broadsands. Goodrington has hundreds more beach huts, cafes, bars etc and the UK’s biggest outdoor waterpark, Splashdown Quaywest. It was busy and I have never heard so much screaming and squealing from kids having a whole lot of fun. The Dartmouth Heritage Steam Railway runs on an embankment directly behind the beach huts and if you stand on the beach it looks as if the train is running across the hut roofs. We have now been here twice and miss-timed the train by about two minutes each time. The photo of the train in this post is only mine in the sense that I took a photo of a poster at the railway station. Behind the beach is a park with a ‘Circus’ bouncy castle and some large swans if you want a sedate paddle on a pond. We sat on the edge of the promenade at Goodrington and ate our lunch.

Next is Paignton, a bigger version of Goodrington. Paignton is a large town, a bit run down looking, and is the terminus of the Dartmouth Heritage Steam Railway. It has a nice boat harbour and a large pier. The pier was built in 1879 and was popular with holidaying Victorians until it was nearly destroyed by fire in 1919. It was brought back to life in the 1980s and now has the usual collection of arcade games, children’s fairground rides, ice cream parlours and cafés.

After Paignton and the small Preston Sands comes the largest of the Riviera towns, Torquay. We haven’t seen Torquay this trip yet as our B & B is on the western entrance to the town. We will walk through Torquay tomorrow.

Except for the first 3 kilometres almost all of the walking today was on hard surfaces: concrete promenades, paved paths, sealed foot paths alongside busy roads. While the walking is faster it is noticeably more tiring on the legs and feet than dirt or grass paths. The only worse surfaces to walk on are sand and pebble beaches. This was a relatively easy day with no serious climbing, only about 200 metres total for the day. The serious business of going to the seaside in England was on full display but we prefer the wild remote cliffs and the secluded little coves and beaches.

I know I have used this song in posts in previous years, and I know it is winter back home, and I can’t get it out of my head, so you can all join in and sing:

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!
I do like to be beside the sea!
Oh I do like stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!
Where the brass bands play, “Tiddely-om-pom-pom!”

So just let me be beside the seaside!
I’ll be beside myself with glee
And there’s lots of girls beside,
Beside the seaside, beside the sea!