Devon England

It’s another cloudy day but dry so we aren’t complaining. As per our usual routine we have a quick coffee and drive into Exeter early to be able to get a parking spot that is suitable for Bluey’s length. Most parkings have rules that must be obeyed… one of them is that your vehicle cannot overhang the marked parking spot. We’ve heard that some larger Motorhomes buy 2 tickets rather than getting a hefty fine. We, on the other hand, struggle to part with funds to pay for one ticket. Anyway… we find a spot, cough up @3.90/2 hours and set off to explore to city centre.

Rows and rows of this sort of housing here

The flip side of getting here early is that most things are closed. Exeter is Devon’s capital and unfortunately much of its center was destroyed by WWII bombing and only a few historical buildings remain scattered around the new. The city is built high on a hill above the Exe River and still has substantial sections of Roman and Medieval wall surrounding it.

We walk along High Street past a few interesting buildings. 

Then have a look at the outside of St.Peter’s Cathedral mainly built in the 14th century with 2 Norman towers and lots of decorative stonework. 

We stroll down to The Quay that was once a hive of activity with many warehouses. The customs house was built in 1680. 

Walking back into the centre we gazed at the outside of the Royal Albert Museum. 

Next we pick to visit Castle Drogo, a National Trust property. It is a dramatic 20th century mock castle built for grocery magnate Julius Drewe. Did we mention the narrow roads…

The stonework inside and out was beautifully done. We started in the Library. Mark looked very comfortable as the man of the castle..

In The Drawing Room, a couple of ladies were playing some music. There were some lovely cabinets and impressive chandeliers.

The Dining Room was laid out. One of the quirky things they had was electric tablecloths to power the electric candlesticks!

The servant quarters down stairs were well laid out. 

There was a telephone exchange for the 18 phones within the castle.

The castle also had its own hydro-electric supply that came up to the switchboard. 

We walked through the kitchens etc.

We went upstairs to see the bedrooms. Unfortunately Julius died in 1924, only 3 years after the castle was completed.

The bathroom had an impressive bath and shower combo.

The Boudoir was used for day-to-day living.

Their eldest son, Adrian, was sadly killed in WWI. He was 26. They dedicated this room to his memory. 

Up another set of stairs was the nursery which had some of the toys the children had. We loved the dollhouse and the rocking chair, as well as the soccer game. We thought our grandchildren would love these.

On our way out we looked in on the Chapel.

The exit took us through the formal garden.

We decided not to walk down to Teign Gorge but to continue on another 30km to  Lydford Gorge, which we were told was much more dramatic. Being a National Trust site we didn’t need to pay to visit. The website tells us that it is the deepest river gorge in the South West. We begin our visit at the Devils’s Cauldron section. We stroll down through some beautiful forest and follow the river up along some narrow stone pathways to a viewing platform suspended over the river. It was magical with the dark waters and rich green mosses clinging to the surrounding cliffs. The walk to Tucker’s pool was lovely too. 

Within an hour we had returned to Bluey and drove 1mile to the Whitelady waterfall carpark. The walk down was not as picturesque as but still very nice. It wasn’t far along the river until we reached the 30m high cascade. On the way we saw a log and a mushroom shaped stump with coins imbedded in it, we presume people have put them there for good luck.

Not surprisingly, the day was getting on, and all the other National trust properties were closing for the day, so we made our way to an overnight spot in Plymouth at the Mount Batten breakwater. A lovely spot overlooking the port and harbour…let’s see how the night goes. 

View over the water at Hoe and Royal Military buildings

Fishing boats coming in

Naval vessels

119km today