Dartmouth → Totnes → Paignton → Kingswear → Dartmouth

We were woken during the night with flashes of lightning, claps of thunder and pouring rain. At breakfast it was just a bit misty and by the time we were ready to go out it was clearing nicely. The forecast was for a pretty good day and so it turned out.

Before we left home we had booked a ‘Round Robin Circular Tour’ with the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company. This was an excursion that for us started in Dartmouth with a one and a half hour boat trip up the Dart River on a vintage paddle steamer to Totnes, a thirty minute bus trip across land to Paignton, a thirty minute steam train ride first along the coast and then along the Dart River to Kingswear, a five minute ferry crossing of the river back to Dartmouth. Depending on where you are staying you can start at Dartmouth, Totnes, Paignton or Kingswear and do it in either direction.

Unfortunately for us we were emailed two days ago to advise that due to predicted high winds the paddle steamer would be replaced by a regular (boring!!) boat. They offered us a full refund if we wanted to cancel. Apparently in strong winds they have trouble turning the paddle steamer at Totnes. We decided to do the trip anyway.

A few times a year they use vintage buses for the section from Totnes to Paignton but for us today it was just the regular Stagecoach Southwest Route 100 double decker bus. So today we walked a total of about 5 kilometres and spent the rest of the day sitting on our butts.

The cruise up the river was interesting as there was a commentary by the ‘captain’ that filled us in on all the considerable history of the river and its ‘personalities’ – everyone from Sir Walter Raleigh to Agatha Christie. At Totnes there was plenty of time to eat and stroll around a historic village even older than Dartmouth. The bus ride to Paignton was pretty mundane except that we were in the front seat upstairs and couldn’t believe how this huge bus got through tiny narrow streets and squeezed its way around roundabouts choked with traffic.

Paignton was sort of interesting in that it is everything you expect the worst seaside tourist town to be. Just absolutely crass and a total contrast to charming towns like Dartmouth and Totnes. We were not in a group as such and the only fixed times were leaving Dartmouth on the boat at 11.45am and being on the 4.15 train at Paignton. You could spend as much or as little time as you liked at Totnes and Paignton.

The steam train was probably the best part using a British Railways standard class 4-6-0 locomotive, built at Swindon in 1951, called Braveheart. This class was designed for mixed traffic duties on secondary routes and was withdrawn from service in 1966. It was glistening and gleaming in black and all hissing and snorting and tooting. Just fantastic.

To finish the day we went to a chip shop in Dartmouth and had a traditional meal of fish and chips but couldn’t stand the mushy peas so had a green salad instead.

The lovely people at the B & B when servicing our room had taken our saturated walking shoes from yesterday and put them in a drying room for the day, so they are all nice and dry for tomorrow – our last day of walking.