We drove to Dartmouth today (about an hour away), after a leisurely start to the morning. It’s a very pretty spot at the mouth of the River Dart (of course) with Dartmouth on one side of the river and Kingswear on the other. We parked at the top of the hill and used Park and Ride to get into the centre.
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| Dartmouth |
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| Kingswear from Dartmouth |
There are lots of cruises on offer (and a steam train from Kingswear) and after looking through the flyers over a cup of coffee decided we would take the Coastal Wildlife Cruise. When it came time to book we discovered that the seas were too rough and it had been cancelled for the day. We went for a cruise on the river instead. The guide doing the commentary did an excellent job – a very dry humour and made the hour cruise very interesting.
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| The Royal Naval College |
Dartmouth has a long naval history. The port was used as the sailing point for the Crusades of 1147 and 1190, and has been home to the Royal Navy from the reign of Edward III. – The Royal Naval College buildings above the town are quite impressive. Dartmouth was twice surprised and sacked during the Hundred Years' War, after which the mouth of the estuary was closed every night with a great chain. The narrow mouth of the Dart is protected by two fortified castles, Dartmouth Castle and Kingswear Castle.
The Pilgrim Fathers also put into Dartmouth's Bayard's Cove, en-route from Southampton to America. Some of the naval history is not so respectable. Dartmouth was a major base for privateering (state-sanctioned or licensed piracy) in medieval times.
The town itself is quite attractive and contains many medieval and Elizabethan streetscapes in a patchwork of narrow cobbled lanes. After the cruise, we had a late lunch in a coffee shop in one of the cobbled lanes followed by a bit of a wander and then headed back to Dunsford.
We had seen a flyer promoting a fundraiser for the cancer council in the local hall. It mentioned something about the pampered cook and food so we thought we would go up a grab something for dinner. It turned out to be a ‘Tupperware’ style party in disguise. There was a cooking demonstration using all these kitchen gadgets that you could buy. We made a strategic withdrawal as soon as we could and settled for rice cakes with tomato and chicken for dinner.
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| Dartmouth Castle |
The town itself is quite attractive and contains many medieval and Elizabethan streetscapes in a patchwork of narrow cobbled lanes. After the cruise, we had a late lunch in a coffee shop in one of the cobbled lanes followed by a bit of a wander and then headed back to Dunsford.
We had seen a flyer promoting a fundraiser for the cancer council in the local hall. It mentioned something about the pampered cook and food so we thought we would go up a grab something for dinner. It turned out to be a ‘Tupperware’ style party in disguise. There was a cooking demonstration using all these kitchen gadgets that you could buy. We made a strategic withdrawal as soon as we could and settled for rice cakes with tomato and chicken for dinner.
