Day 45 Tuesday 5 July 2016

Away at 8.30am for the short drive to Saltash & the Tamar River waterfront under the twin bridges where we waited for our cruise boat. The bridges are both more than 100 feet above mean high spring tide. The Royal Albert Bridge looks unusual with two large cylindrical trusses that supports the railway bridge. Opened in 1859 it still carries rail traffic & is the main line into & out of Cornwall. The Tamar Bridge opened in 1962 & carries the road traffic. Our boat was a little late getting to us & had fun docking due to the strength of the tide pushing the bow around. We motored upriver of the two bridges a little, watched our coach drive over the bridge, they gave us a toot, then motored back under the bridges & the rushing tide carried us downstream. The temperature was a little fresh with a light breeze off the water. We spent most of the time passing the naval dockyards, they are huge here in Plymouth. There were a few large naval ships tied up in various stages of maintenance. We also saw the conning towers of 8 or 9 nuclear submarines docked & in the process of being de-commissioned. Apparently it takes 30 years for the nuclear reactors to cool down so that they can be removed safely. There are a lot of old buildings at the docks, one for making the hemp rope for sailing ships, another for cutting & making the sails, others for slaughtering & butchering animals in the days of sail. Some of these old buildings are no longer required & have been sold & converted to other uses, such as up-market waterfront apartments. Others are being used for the manufacture of pleasure boats, currently the largest single employer outside defence in Plymouth. We pass the Plymouth Hoe, replete with old lighthouses & the naval garrison overlooking the harbour, still in use.

At Plymouth pleasure boat marina it is guarded by a magnificent statue of a prawn with dragon teeth. We disembark at the Barbican, near an old wharf where the Pilgrim Fathers left for America, before walking through this very old dock area with lots of nice old stone buildings. Just as we are leaving we notice a plaque on the wall commemorating the sailing of the two First Fleet ships Charlotte & Friendship from Plymouth in March 1787 bound for Australia. Leaving Plymouth Harbour we drove south-west through rolling hills full of green fenced pastures, it does look beautiful, to the small seaside beach town of Looe. It is great that we are in a coach high up, if we would be driving in a car we would only see the high stone fences or hedging shrubs on either side of the road.

The streets are very narrow getting into Looe & we have to make a few stops to allow vehicles pass from the other direction. Once again we are so glad that someone else is doing the driving. These coach drivers have amazing driving skills. The water in the river is low & the tide is still running out when we pull up & disembark. Looe is a pretty little town, it was a major fishing port (now mainly an overseas tourist destination) a lot of the old buildings have been converted into cafes/restaurants or some other tourist shop. Everywhere they are after the tourist business. We walk through the narrow streets checking out the pastry shops as we walk past them, Ron is keen to try a Cornish Pasty seeing we are in Cornwall (anywhere else it is only a pretend Cornish pastry). The narrow streets are packed with tourists. We walk to the beach & surprised this one does have sand & a lot of it (but not beautiful like in Australia), the tide is a long way out. There are groups of kids playing on the beach & people sunbathing, yes, the sun is out & the temperature is 16C.   After we stop for a short bite to eat we go for the obligatory walk out to the end of the break-wall, a very civilised concrete wall with a large round concrete buttress at the end with plenty of seating around it. On the way back we stop at a very small old pasty shop with a very low roof & indulge in a Cornish pasty, so we walk back to the river & find a nice bench in the sun & out of the cold wind. It tasted pretty good, lots of pepper, a bit of meat, lots of diced potato & some corn kernels plus diced onion etc. Walking back up to the bridge we noticed the tide had receded even further & all the boats were high & dry, not something I am familiar or comfortable with.

Next it was back to Saltash & then up into Dartmoor again, this time sunshine & a little bit further than yesterday. We pass lots of sheep & cows wandering around & a few wild Dartmoor wild ponies. We pass the old Dartmoor Prison & continue through grassy fields with lots of rocks & very few trees. We come to a plateau & there are lots of wild ponies grazing near a convenient parking lot so we stop & walk around the ponies (they seem to be used to tourists, not shy at all) for a while & enjoying the splendid views across the Cornwall countryside. We stopped at Tavistock, just out of Dartmoor & have a look around the village, again lots of tourists with some very nicely preserved old buildings. The town is renowned as the birthplace of Francis Drake & a statue honouring him graces a roundabout. More lovely rolling green countryside on the way back to our hotel.

This is our last night dinner as a group so it is a celebratory dinner with all our fellow travellers. We have a lovely dinner with champagne & another nice chat, there were a few short speeches thanking people then to bed. Another great day.