East Devon Holiday

On Friday 16 March we headed east for a long weekend exploring East Devon.  Our first port of call was
Bicton Gardens.

Having won a photographic competition last year I had gift vouchers to go to Bicton Gardens.  I hoped to be able to take some good photos this time so that I could enter the competition again.

Firstly I noticed the bright colours of the plants in the glass house.

There were some lovely magnolias out and also camelias.

As we walked up to the Hermitage there were lots of daffodils.  I had hoped to take a picture of the train with daffodils but I did not get the train in the right position.  We then saw some rabbits.  They would have made a lovely picture, but they blended in with background and the close up shot was out of focus.

We came to a bird hide where we watched lots of birds feeding - blue tits, great tits, nuthatcher and robins.  Again I photographed them, but the birds were too small to be very clear in the photographs.

The Hermitage was looking really beautiful with all the daffodils.

After a brief visit to Otterton Mill we headed to the coast to visit Sidmouth.

Sidmouth

We parked just outside the town centre and walked through the Connaught Gardens to the path by the edge of the beach and along to the town centre.  We were very impressed with the town centre, there were lots of independant shops.

The next morning we set off from our caravan at 8.30 to walk to Budleigh Salterton.  The caravan site was right on the coast at Sandy Bay and the coastal path went round the side of the site.

Sandy Bay

The coastal path was more undulating that we had anticipated, but the views were worth the effort.  We could see across to the River Exe and inland as well as the sweep of the bay towards Budleigh Salterton with the distinctive red cliffs.

  As we started to walk down towards the town gorse bordered the path

When we reached Budleigh Salterton, after a quick look around the town we walked up the River Otter until the coastal path crossed the river to come down the other side to continue its way up the coast.  The clouds were gathering so we hurried back to the town, but soon we were caught in a heavy shower.  This soon passed and it had stopped raining  by the time we caught the bus to Exmouth.

After looking around the town centre in Exmouth and having a fish and chip lunch we headed to the sea front and started to walk back to the caravan.  This was a flatter walk with only one steep hill at the end of the beach up on to the cliff top.  This was near the Orcombe Point where the Jurrasic Coast starts, marked by the  geoneedle.

After walking along the cliff top we were soon back at the caravan at the start of our walk.

The next day, Sunday, started with bright blue skies.  We drove to Seaton, where we were surprised to see the cliffs were white, not red.

We parked the car near to Axmouth harbour and walked along the beach to the Tram station, where we took the tram to Colyford, going along the River Axe.  The tide was out so there was a lot of birds to be seen on the mud flats near the mouth of the river.  The highlight for me was the kingfisher I saw on the return journey.

The tram goes up to Colyton but we decided just to go as far as Colyford.  We walked around the village and  then along the river towards Colyford, but the rain clouds were gathering again so we hurried back to the station to wait for the tram back to Seaton .

Motor Museum, Colyford

From Seaton we drove on to Killerton.  There were loads of daffodils in the grounds and some very pretty magnolias.  I also spotted one bluebell.

We had hoped to walk in the surrounding area, but they had run out of copies of walk maps and the weather did not look good enough to walk too far from the car, so we just walked around the grounds and went inside to look at the house and fashion display - a bit disappointing.

Monday morning started in the same way as Sunday with bright blue clear skies.  After packing up all our things into the car we set out for Steps Bridge to view the daffodils.  We started walking down the side of the river next to the road.  We could see there were more daffodils on the other side of the river, but nevertheless there were some daffs to see.

There was a steep hill up the side of the path which was obviously forestry ground and there were daffodils scattered all up the hill.  We continued walking until we got to Clifford Bridge, then crossed the bridge and walked up the hill until we came to the entrance of Dunsford Nature Reserve.  We walked through this by the river back to Steps Bridge amazed by the numbers of daffodils.

From Steps Bridge we drove on to Castle Drogo, where we walked around the gardens and admired the views over the Teign Valley.  Again there were daffodils out in the gardens.

On our way home we decided to stop at Lydford Gorge.  We had not visited this National Trust property for a number of years.  Our memory was of a very dangerous path along the gorge.  We opted to do the short walk to the Devil's Cauldron and were soon walking on the narrow stone paths that looked perilous.  At least there were handrails and a wire fence in most parts, but as we approached the Devil's Cauldron there was a section with no barrier on the side of the path so we decided to turn back.  We did walk further along the river but again the barrier then disappears so we made our way back to the starting point.  However, it was good to see the rushing water.