I had booked and paid for another small Guest House in Brixham for Saturday night so I was committed and had to have a real long run on the Saturday with a small number of breaks.
The food in the Eype’s Mouth was really good and beer wasn’t bad either. The hosts Kevin and Glennis, are really welcoming they have been working really hard to refurbish this small Country House Hotel since they took over 5 years ago, their efforts are really starting to show and if they maintain the level of food they produce (the breakfast was first rate and kept me going all day)they are on to a winner. Okay the en-suite facilities in my room were on the snug side, as it had been partitioned from main room but I have to say the highlight was the bed. I stay in hotel rooms on average about 50-70 times a year at least and this was the best bed I have ever slept in and when I come to change mine I want one just like it. If you are thinking about a quiet weekend walking the South West Coast and want a nice relaxing base, you will have to travel a long way to find many better for the money.
As you can see from the above pictures it is a very flat light from the early morning.
I then went up into town and around another way back down in to the Harbour. It is a very, very steep road to say the least and it was at this point that I realised that I have to check my back brakes as they were not as they should, in fact they appeared to be fading. Anyone that rides motorbikes knows, the rules that you learnt when riding a push bike change with a motorbike If you are just braking to reduce speed for a corner the ‘bulk’ of it comes from the front brake, in fact when taking your practical test, when doing your emergency stop 70% plus should come from the front brake, in fact if you lock the back it could be a reason for failure. The only caveat to this is; all front wheel braking should be done on the level, don’t do it on the turn especially in the wet as the front end will just wash away (Yep I learnt that lesson years ago and has bitten me in the ass everytime I chose to forget it)
I didn’t stay long as I was determined to get as many miles as possible under my belt. Thankfully as I left Lyme Regis, the sun started to come out and I was able to pick up some speed on the A3052, it was still fairly early so there wasn’t much traffic about which meant I was making good progress I then turned off through Downlands and into Axmouth by the back road then into Seaton along the Esplanade.
After a quick cup of coffee from my flask I got under way again fairly quickly and took the B3174 up through Beer and onto Vicarage and Branscombe where there is the large Donkey Sanctuary. I’m not a religious person in fact quite the opposite, however I was very impressed by the Church in Branscombe especially with it’s semi-turret on the top. 
Taking these roads, I noticed loads of signs for the following day when the famous Grizzly Run was due to take place, having looked at what is involved, they are welcome to it. The Grizzly Run is organised by the Axe Valley Runners and is one of the toughest multi terrain races in the world. The 20 miles route takes in hills, a bog and stretches of shingle beach as well as roads.I bypassed Salcombe Regis and took the back lanes down towards Sidmouth. Part of the research showed that there was an interesting way into town by going through a Ford, which turned out to be great fun.
There is a sign which states ‘Not suitable for Cyclists’ I took that as a green light for me on a Motorbike. As you may have seen from earlier posts I am no stranger to Fords, so I know the best way of tackling them and thank god I do. It is all about a constant speed and not getting over excited, as I came up out of the water the ramp was slightly steeper than expected and very wet and slick, okay I’ll cut to the chase, as I squeezed the power on the back wheel started to spin up and I ended up going up the ramp sideways in a nice graceful power slide which caused the eyes on driver at the far end to come out on stalks, mainly out of fear for the front of his car I expect. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and it had me whooping, so much so I had to stop and have another drink from my flask and take a deep breath, I also had to search out a petrol station and the public conveniences, as all this coffee was having an effect.After the brief stop it was time to head off further West, through Otterton and Budleigh Salterton, I’m not going to show all the photos I could as the view above is very similar to that at Seaton and the one I would witness at Budleigh, the one common factor being, in all of them the view to the West was increasingly greyer than that of where I had come from.
After leaving on the B3178 I turned off down Castle Lane and then just as it appeared I would ride through the gates of the Sandy Bay Holiday Park, I noticed the almost hidden fork to the right which was Gore Lane which would take me into Exmouth via the back lanes and I mean back lanes, for all those that think I was using nice metalled roads. This is Gore Lane and this is a good section looking out towards Exmouth.
Heading down onto the front along Queens Drive the wind picked up and it looked as if it was going to rain at any moment, so pushing on through Exmouth without stopping to take any photos I headed out towards, Lympstone and then turning off at Ebford, just after the Royal Marine Commando training camp I headed into Topsham, a very quaint little town where the Firemen were out doing a charity car wash, I almost challenged them to wash my bike down, but as ever I was very conscious of the time, it was now almost 1pm and I still had a long way to go. A quick photo at the end of Strand and I turned around and was on my way.
Up the High Street it carries on till it meets the A379 over Countess Wear then back down the A379 towards Starcross and Dawlish, this took me past my 6th Castle of the trip, Powderham but only after a major detour, I had got all the way to Kenton before realising I had miss read the sign post, which says, Powderham Church and SYCC only, it was the through road I was looking for and should have said NO entrance to Powderham Castle, which is what I think they meant. Powderham Castle was Built in 1391 by Sir Philip Courtenay it has remained in the same family to this day, currently home to the 18th Earl of Devon. Having survived a great deal of damage during the Civil War, the Castle was restored and altered in later centuries it is also the home of a great series of music festivals and in July they will host the Greatest 80’s Party ever with artists such as Marc Almond, ABC, Go West, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw, The Three Degrees, Cutting Crew, Dr & The Medics and Altered Images, appearing. Taking the road alongside the railway line at the back of the estate I did pull over to have a look at a flock of Little Egrets behind the Church, I didn’t expect to see these however when doing some research later they have become an increasingly common sight on the estuaries of Dorset and Devon.
I pushed on through the lanes to Dawlish Warren and then Dawlish on to the B3199 towards Teignmouth taking a small break at Car Park overlooking the mouth to the estuary, I tried to take some photographs of what looked like a small fleet of super tankers out on the horizon but the murk made it almost impossible but it did look strange as they were so low in the water the riddle would be solved later in the day. But for now after a quick picture across the water at the Marine Parade at Shaldon it was off inland to Newton Abbot before coming back down the other side.
After travelling through a fairly non-descript housing estate coming out of Newton Abbott, it was off through some very tight and twisty lanes through Netherton and Combeinteignhead before taking Shaldon Road through Teignharvey, looking at a 2 dimensional map it really doesn’t give you any idea how hilly this side of the estuary is and there are some really beautiful houses with stunning views that mere mortals like me can only dream of ever owning.
The one thing that does stagger me at times is the intelligence or lack of it some car drivers have, and this stretch really brought it to the fore. On one section a woman saw me coming and decided not to wait at the passing place she was coming up to, but push on until we were face to face and then expect me to get out of her way after a quick but quite frank conversation she had to back up much to the amusement of the driver that had been following her, who had decided to stop. The conversation had been based around the fact that motorbikes don’t have reverse gears, okay you anoraks – Gay Wings do, I know. (Honda Gold Wings) these ‘mobile juke boxes’ are so heavy you would need to be a World’s Strongest Man competitor to back one up, hey there’s an idea, rather than the Truck Pull, have the Gay Wing, Sorry!, Gold Wing Push.
On the other hand I met another woman further down one of the lanes, who came round the corner to see me coming down the hill and straight away, stopped, backed up around the corner and then pulled so far into the passing place to let me go through, I could have got a bus through, smiled when I thanked her and she waved me on my way, obviously either a biker herself or married to one. It was very similar the night before on the A31 some drivers are ‘Bike Aware’ and others are just totally ignorant to anything outside their tin box, some want to help you ‘filter’ and others would rather block you. So for those of you that think that bikes travelling between two lines of slow traffic is not allowed. You are wrong in fact the Highway Code encourages motorbikes to do it. It is totally legal as long as it is done with due diligence and consideration of other road users. So much so that I even had a Motorcycle Policeman overtake me in a traffic jam on the M6 a few years ago so he could threaten a driver with a ticket, who was trying to block me from passing.
I couldn’t take my planned route around the headland you see in the previous photo as it was closed for roadworks but it was quite quickly back onto the B3199 Teignmouth Road and it was a bit of a climb up the hills and I had to feel sorry for a guy on a scooter, it was only a 50cc job and some of the hills had him slowing to almost walking pace, unfortunately it was double white lines so everyone was stuck behind him for at least a couple of miles before he could turn off and let people pass. I stopped briefly at a layby in the hope of taking a photo of the tankers I had spotted earlier without much luck, it was too overcast but I did find out that they weren’t in transit they were in fact laid up off Torbay, such is the economy that even these leviathans of the sea are being mothballed, the last time I witnessed anything like this was when I went on holiday to the Greek Islands and saw a huge number of ships anchored off one of the islands, I can’t remember which one.
It was a tricky ride around this area, as so many of the roads could end up as dead-ends without warning. Made even more tricky by some kids messing about along the Marine Drive at Paignton, the skateboard came out of no-where and made me swerve quite violently, the laughter from the idiots made me circle the block and go back and have a word that being ‘If that skateboard hadn’t taken me off it would have been one of you that was going to Casualty’ at which point the giggling stopped and the apologies started. In their defence I think it was an unfortunate accident one of the boys had been trying to teach one of the girls how to skateboard and she came off propelling the offending item into my path. The laughter was another issue however.
After the verbal rebuke I pushed on around Paignton, the harbour and on towards Brixham, down to the harbour and on to Berry Head where I took my kids a few years ago for one night of our camping holiday, obviously closed at this time of year. The one thing of note is the weather was very mixed, in one direction it looked quite good in the other it was pretty grim.
Looking at the image before I cut it down for posting it actually showed 6 not 5 Super Tankers or bulk carriers laid up. In the end I was going to be close to here later this night but for now it was off around Berry Head and a couple of missed turns before I got it right and headed off towards Kingswear and Dartmouth. Coming into Kingswear I came across a great view of the ferry and the Dartmouth College on the other side of the estuary, some of the students from there were obviously out on some sort of Rag Day fund raising, dressed in crazy outfits.
I hope you can see the ferry in the last photo (right in the centre at the far side) as it was probably one of the most difficult all day, because of the steepness of the road I was on tip toes trying to take this picture. After this it was a run back up to Galmpton and Totnes before turning towards my dig for the night in Brixham, it started to rain in earnest after leaving Totnes and after a quick check of the Sat Nav and my Maps I arrived at the Guest House I was booked into just before 5.30. Bob and Annick at The Anchorage proved to be really, really nice hosts. The room I was booked into was very nice and thankfully the en-suite facilities were somewhat larger that the previous nights, so I was able to have a nice shower and clean up, I also took the opportunity of cleaning my helmet and changing the visor for the following day, for the last few hours it had been so dull and murky my dark visor had spent more time up, so with the crap forecast for the following day I decided to go back to my clear visor.
Bob recommended a particular pub in Brixham on the harbour that proved to be outstanding and by far and away the best place in Town,I hate to slag it off and okay it is the off season but for a holiday resort like this it is almost bereft of good venues. The Price William seems to be THE place a fact being backed by the crowds of locals eating here when everywhere else seemed empty. Always the best tip, if the locals use it then it can’t be bad. It is run by a couple from Worcester originally John and Martine Wakefield, so when they heard of my exploits they were very interested and even one of the locals at the bar was kind enough to buy me a pint, sorry again I didn’t get your name, very rude of me but I was tired. Anyway I was warned about the size of the Cod and Chips and still went for it, when it arrived it was probably one of the biggest pieces of Cod I’ve ever encountered even so it was cooked perfectly in a very light batter, accompanied by a huge portion of chips and vegetables, well the veggies were finished off and so was the Cod but I gave up on the chips. So remember the name of this fine establishment it is The Prince William, named after William of Orange who was said to have landed here.
After a couple or three pints and this large meal there was no way I was walking back up the hill to The Anchorage, I jumped in a cab at the bus station. (I had walked the 1 ½ miles in) I know you shouldn’t go to bed on a full stomach but I was shattered and needed to sleep as I had to be packed and ready, so once breakfast was served at 8.30 I would be the first, in fact after loading the bike up ready I was probably the last to sit down for breakfast and was surprised how many people had stayed the night before, Bob had said he only had a double left when I arrived and I could see why, almost all the tables were occupied.
The ride back was of mixed fortunes and half an hour after getting back I was very grateful I had set off so early. I stayed ahead of the bad weather all the way but I didn’t miss the wind, which was very hairy indeed, travelling back up the A30 and A303 there were times particularly around RNAS Yeovilton when the bike almost had a mind of its own, with sudden gusts changing lane for me, whether I liked it or not, thankfully the roads were very quiet which had the added bonus of getting me back home at around 11.45. 2 ½ hours for approx 150 miles an average speed of around 60mph.
I just had time to put the bike away get changed and go and collect my daughter and her horse to go off to the event. At the same time get soaked to the skin in a major downpour bringing the horses in from the field and loading up the horsebox. So a good weekend where I thought I achieved quite a bit was spoiled by the weather right at the end. I should remain thankful that it remained mostly dry when I was riding.
Where next is the question, back to Totnes for the next section or the one day blast around the Isle of Wight? Before that I have some work to do on the bike, the chain is not right, so I have to re-adjust that, I think I have got it too tight, also the chainoiler is not working as well as it should. Finally my side stand needs some work done to it, it is so worn it resembles a stiletto heel, so anything other than firm concrete and it seems to dig in, once all that is done she needs a good wash and polish. So…….
Take care and as Mick says ‘You don’t stop riding when you get old, you stop riding when you don’t look after your bike’
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