Heading North and Home

Looking forward to my own bed…

As we settled down for the night in Newton House it got darker and darker. It is a “Dark Sky” area so there are no lights outside and the room soon becomes pitch black.

I wake in the night needing to use the loo – it’s an age thing – but I cannot see a thing it is so dark. I fumble around trying to locate my phone, I find it and flick on the screen to provide me with some light to light the way, but not so bright as to disturb Kate. I nearly fall down the two steps leading out of the room as I release the hook and eye on the door itself. I slowly open the door and peer out onto the landing hoping no one is about to see me scuttling into the bathroom just to the right of our room.

I return to bed and fall back to sleep. We are woken at about 04:00 by the sound of Gracey the newfoundland singing like a shaggy humpback whale. It makes us smile in the dark, bless her, she must be wanting to be let out of her cage. But, she has to be kept calm and her movements restricted whilst the operation she has had on her leg heals and strengthens.

We awake a couple of hours later, but we cannot make a hot drink so have to settle for tap water. We start to pack the bags and panniers, shower, get our bike gear on and when we think it is a reasonable time to go down we take stuff out to the bikes to load them up to make our getaway.

Charles and his daughter are downstairs, but no sign of Margie. Truffle does come to say “hello” and I give the old boy a fuss.

I take the stuff out to the bikes, It looks to have been raining and the sky doesn’t look very promising this morning. Oh well, we’re heading home.

Whilst I’m loading the bikes Kate goes to pay. They accept cash or cheque… cheque? I can’t remember the last time I wrote a cheque. Kate says she has neither on her, but says she can do a bank transfer but has no connection on her phone. They give Kate their Wi-Fi connection details. Margie has knocked £10.00 off because we didn’t have breakfast.

We thank them for their hospitality and leave to go to see Kate’s Aunty Josie, and to get a cup of tea. Keith has waited to see us off too, before hitting the road back to his family in London.

We stay about an hour, have a couple of drinks and chat. It’s then time to leave Josie in peace so I plumb a route into the sat-nav. We still have not had anything for breakfast yet, and the local bakery\coffee shop doesn’t open until 10:00.

We say our goodbyes and ride off. We soon have to pull up as I realise my goggles are hanging off one of the webbing straps on my pannier. I retrieve them and we continue. We need petrol and come to large petrol station on an island near Shaftsbury.

I fill the bikes and go in to pay. There is some confusion at the till. The lady trying to pay is confused, so is the cashier. The pump number she has given the cashier is showing as zero, no fuel delivery.. “but, I’ve just filled the tank, it registered on the pump” the lady says. It turns out that the wife of the chap stood directly in front of me has paid for the first lady’s petrol because she gave the attendant the wrong pump number. He is queuing to pay, she has paid for someone else’s fuel… The attendant beckons me forward to pay for my fuel whilst the manager tries to sort out the mess…

Whilst I was stood waiting I noticed there was a small Greggs counter in the corner of the shop, so after paying for my fuel I go and grab two vegan sausage rolls. That wasn’t without it’s annoyances… the chap in front of me is ordering three different types of coffee and a number of different baked items.. some of which are still baking… is it me? Perhaps it’s because I’m hungry, but people are getting on my wick this morning…

I return to Kate and give her one of the sausage rolls.. she thinks this is wonderful and devours it. On the next bank of pumps is a gentleman riding a 1960’s BMW Boxer. I say how nice it is and ask him what size it is, “500cc” he says. “R50?” I ask, to which he replies, haughtily “R50S” and then proceeds to give me a lecture about the differences like I’m a fool and should have know that… I turn away as he has now got on my wick too with his attitude.

We ride on, feeling a little better after having something warm to eat. We are making our way towards the A429, and the Fosse Way. The weather is deteriorating and it is raining constantly now. We pass three bikers in a lay-by putting wet weather gear on, I wave and carry on. Kate is fine in her Triumph Navigator gear, but the lower half of my jeans are getting quite soggy. It isn’t too long before I pull into a layby to get my rain over-trousers out of my pannier. I dance about, hopping from one leg to the other pulling them on over my boots… much to Kate’s amusement and she ends up helping me with them.

We have decided that we are going to stop in Stow-on-the-Wold and visit Lucy’s Tearoom again. We know where it is, we know we can park easily, and we know they do Vegan. So, after three hours of leaving Sturminster Newton we park up in the Market Square in Stow.

We are told at Lucy’s Tearoom that we can be seated outside immediately or wait for a table inside. We choose outside, we are wet already and the weather does look like it is brightening slightly. We are seated under a large umbrella. It has stopped raining, briefly. We order the Garden Platter (for 2 people) along with two pots of tea. This consists of …

Chilli jam twist, hummus, avocado,
sun dried tomatoes, green salad,
chutney & crusty loaf

It is very tasty. Whilst we are eating the rain has stopped fully so I removed my over trousers as they are a little restricting. Again, feeling better after having something to eat we continue on our journey home heading up the A429.

The journey was uneventful as we passed through many pretty, and fairly busy, Cotswold villages. We did consider stopping off at Blaze Inn Saddles and possibly the Triumph Factory Visitor Centre on our way home as we did at the start of our road trip, but decided we just wanted to get home.

We followed the route up to Nuneaton and spent what seemed like an age navigating the Jimmy Hill Way through Nuneaton. I just wanted to get off this road but at every junction and every island the Sat-Nav directed us onto the next part of this road… we did eventually leave the Jimmy Hill Way behind and found ourselves on some rather nice sweeping country roads. At one stage a large white van pulled out of a junction ahead of us and just disappeared into the distance. He obviously knew the road well, but it wasn’t too long before we caught him up as he got stuck behind traffic. I can only imagine Mr. Delivery Drivers frustration behind the wheel…

This lovely road took us passed Twycross and eventually led us onto the A42, then the M1 and the A52 to home.

It’s always nice to go away, but it’s also nice to get back home. We pull on the drive, unlock the front door to be greeted by all three cats.. only kidding, the cats are ignoring us for having the audacity to leave them without 24\7 staff available for seven days 🙂

I unload the bikes and put them in the garage. The bikes are filthy, That’ll be a job for another day, although I hate putting them away dirty. I just don’t have the energy today…

Kate puts the first load of washing on, and we sit and have a cup of tea. It starts raining, then the heavens open… It is raining so heavily it is hammering on the windows. Looks like we timed it right. If we had stopped at Blaze Inn Saddles and \or Triumph on the way back we would now be riding in this…

I’m looking forward to my own bed tonight..

For some reason my tracker has not mapped the route, and still thinks my bike is safely parked in Sturminster Newton. But I reckon we have covered 175 miles today. Which means we have covered approximately 900 miles over the past 7 days.

We don’t know when our next road is, or where it will be yet. I can’t see any USA Road Trips on the horizon until the pandemic is less prevalent.

Thanks everyone for reading my daily ramblings, and thanks for the nice comments.

I can now get on with my new project… I bought the cheapest Hinckley Triumph Bonneville off AutoTrader to do up in my new workshop I’ve had built in the back garden. That’ll keep me quiet for a while… The plan is to do it up and sell it.. but Kate is referring to it as “my first failed restoration” like failed fostering.. where you can’t bear to be parted when the end arrives…

Let me know if you want to know more details about my Bonneville project, or if you’d like me to post progress reports up here.

Thanks again all for reading… so, until the next time Stay Safe everyone…

BigDavezz & Kate

On to our last stop over

We’re going to a party!

We sleep really well in the Nautical room at the Ranscombe House Hotel. I make a couple of cups of tea to wake us up, we shower and get ready for breakfast. I forgot to mention the shower yesterday, it’s a bit of a challenge… nothing wrong with the shower itself. But the shower curtain that hangs over the bath and wraps around is a little close fitting, and as you shower you are battling with it, as it sticks to your wet body and wraps itself tightly around you.. it is most amusing and adds to the fun.

The owner is staggering breakfasts for his guests to enable better social distancing, we chose the 08:00 slot. We make our way down to the dining room and make ourselves known to the owner, who is also chef this morning. The owner’s name is “Pip” and featured on Channel 4’s ‘Four in a Bed’ and ultimately won the series. We are given some instruction how to use the rather large modern looking touch screen coffee machine by the waitress who we assume is his daughter. We only need hot water for our tea so a simple touch of the screen fills our cups. Earl Grey for me, English Breakfast tea for Kate.

The owner tells us he has both Oat milk and Soya milk and asks Kate which one she’d like. Kate confuses him and asks for both. “In the same jug?” he asks with a quizzical look on his face. Kate explains – Soya milk for her tea, Oat milk for cereal. He nods and goes back into the kitchen.

We sit at a table next to some French doors leading onto a balcony and down to the garden. The waitress brings Kate’s two jugs of milk and takes our order… two vegan breakfasts please.

This hotel really is lovely, the dining room is spacious and there is a very comfortable looking sitting room next to it overlooking the large garden.

We take advantage of the continental breakfast from the counter, helping ourselves to fruit, fruit juices, cereals, etc. The waitress brings over three slices of toast along with non dairy spread.

The cooked breakfast soon follows. This is by far the best breakfast we have had – Vegan Full English with 2x Linda McCartney sausages, Beans, Hash Brown, Mushrooms and Grilled Fresh Tomatoes. The waitress also keeps the toast coming. A perfect start to our day as we have a long ride ahead of us into Dorset today.

We clear our plates, demolish the toast – there was even Marmite for me – and finish our tea. We thank the owner and tell him that his was the best breakfast even better than the Jamaica Inn. He is more than happy he outdid the Jamaica Inn…

We would definitely stay here again.

The weather isn’t looking great today, it is quite overcast and damp this morning. We load the bikes and get our gear on and leave Brixham for Dorset.

Kate has been a little jealous of me in my Knox Jeans and Knox Urbane Pro mesh shirt for the past couple of days in the hot weather, but her Triumph Navigator adventure gear (waterproof, windproof and breathable) is definitely the gear to be wearing this morning.

I had plotted a run right around the coast of Torbay towards Dorchester through some areas of outstanding natural beauty. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated so we could not enjoy the little seaside towns.

It was also the weekend of the Devon Country Fair so the route was quite busy, and the roads had been cordoned off for the traffic heading to the fair.

As we headed into East Devon the weather really drew in, the low cloud was incredibly thick and made riding a bit hairy. As we climbed and then descended the hills the cloud\fog got thicker and thicker. We had to be particularly wary and defensive riding was needed. This kind of riding is very tiring, luckily I had planned a stop in Sidmouth, a visit to The Donkey Sanctuary.

I was actually looking forward to this stop to take a break and see the rescued donkeys. Unfortunately visibility was so bad we rode right past it. Kate suggested doing a U-Turn and going back but I was so keen to get out of the poor weather I decided to give the donkeys a miss and carry on.

Just before Axminster – yes, the place the carpets come from – we picked up the A35. We follow this pretty much all the way to Dorchester.

I’m starting feel a little uncomfortable and tired so decide to look for somewhere to to take a break. We eventually come across Bridport Rest Area on the A35 so we pull in for a comfort break. They have toilets a little cafe and shop with picnic tables. It’s a popular stop over for caravanners.

We stretch our legs, have a drink and I feel much better. We continue our journey east and as we do the weather starts to pick up which always makes us feel better.

We turn north just before Dorchester and eventually take a detour onto a fabulous road which becomes the B3143. We follow this road through some lovely Dorset countryside and little villages with thatched cottages, very pretty. We leave this road and join another lovely unmarked single track road for many miles which brings us into Sturminster Newton.

After this mornings challenging ride in heavy cloud and rain this road through Dorset villages in the sun is an absolute joy to ride. It is relatively devoid of other traffic too. I am always amazed how “planted” my 1200 Scrambler is. It has excellent road holding for such a tall, off road styled bike. I think Kate enjoyed this part of our journey too.

We are staying at a B’n’B called Newton House which is opposite the old water mill on the edge of the town. As we ride in passed the mill we look for the B’n’B but we cannot see it.

It doesn’t matter yet as we are visiting Kate’s cousin Mandy’s first. It is her husbands 65th birthday and retirement party today. Hence the South West road trip plotted to end up here for the party, and so Kate can see her Aunty Josie who is 92.

There is quite a gathering, and two excited boys – Mandy’s grand children – waiting to see the bikes.

We pull onto the drive and a couple of small faces appear at the front window when they hear the bikes…

Everyone comes out to meet us and we are glad to be here.

The boys are a little shy and stay close to the people they know, they’ll get used to us I’m sure and will want to take a closer look at the bikes. It’s better that they are holding back as the exhausts are very hot. My high level exhaust is a little too prominent and they could easily burn their little hands on it.

We go inside and meet everyone. There is quite a gathering of Kate’s southern relatives. There is Kate’s Aunty Josie, her two children Keith & Mandy and her husband Alan who’s birthday and retirement party it is. Two of Mandy and Alan’s children William and Eloisa, her husband Al and their children – the two young boys Woody and Dougie and their gorgeous 1 year old daughter Finny, she has the most amazing eyes. It isn’t long before I’m cuddling Finny… she’s a little unsure to start with but quickly comes around.

I don’t think we have seen Eloisa since she was Kate’s bridesmaid 32 years ago… now she has children of her own.

Mandy has prepared a lovely looking lunch for us, and it isn’t long before it is all eaten. I am holding Finny and feeding her some vegan cake Mandy has made specially, but Finny thinks it is better for smearing on my white T-shirt than eating…

The boys have got used to us now, and as the bikes have had time to cool down, we go out the front to let them see the bikes. They enjoy climbing on and off them, swapping between mine and Kate’s.

Woody and Finny

Dougie

They are quite excited about the bikes until we start them up and then the noise is a little too much for them and they cover their ears.

It’s time for us to go and find the B’n’B so Kate gives the owner a quick ring to find out exactly where it is. She gets instructions so we head off through the little market town back to the road we came in on. We ride slowly past the water mill looking for a sign for Newton House but we cannot see the B’n’B anywhere.

We pull up and Kate makes another call. This time the owners daughter answers. There is no sign because her Mum doesn’t want one outside the house… how are people supposed to find it? It looks like all of the other large old houses in the town. The daughter says she will open the gate and meet us on the front.

We spin around and ride back to see her waving outside of one the houses we have driven past a few times already. We pull along the long drive into a large garden with gravel parking.

The owner, Margie, meets us along with an elderly wiry haired terrier called Truffle who is super friendly and fussy. They also have a young Newfoundland called Gracey who has had a major operation after tearing a ligament. She needs to be kept quiet and not excited.

The house is very old, mainly Georgian, but parts of it date back to the 16th century. Margie leads us through the house to our room. The house smells very strongly of dog… if you are not an animal person you would probably find it overpowering, but we are dog lovers so forgive them.

The owners must be in their 80’s\90’s and of another time, the house is filled with a great deal of old furniture from many decades, along with many unusual trinkets. It is almost as though time suddenly stopped in the house in the seventies after years of being a family home. I imagine it was an amazing house to grow up in as a child with it’s many rooms and olde world style and large garden.

We are shown upstairs to the Garden Room. There are two steps just inside the door to the bedroom up into the room itself through a short but narrow entry and I have to duck to avoid banging my head. The room is large with heavy oak beams which look like they were once part of a great old sailing ship from the 15th century. The room has a large bed and a number of pieces of, shall we say “period”, furniture. It does over look the large lovely garden. We later realise we are under the older thatched part of the house.

There is no ensuite, but we do have access to our own bathroom on the large landing just outside the bedroom door. We are slightly gob-smacked, as this is one of the most expensive places we have stayed in on this trip but the amenities are a little “wanting”. There is no lock on the bathroom door, just a small “hook and eye” in the top corner. This is the same on the bedroom door. There isn’t even a kettle or tea and coffee in the room just a carafe of water and a couple of glasses.

I plug the intercoms in to charge in two of the plugs in opposite corners of the bedroom. On both occasions as I bend down my face breaks through cobwebs… I do not mention this to Kate.

We unload the bikes and decide to shower and change before walking back through “Stur” to re-join the celebrations at Mandy and Alan’s.

The shower is over the bath, except it isn’t. It is attached to a very nice brass vintage tap set but there is no hanger on the wall for it, so showering means holding the shower head in one hand whilst washing with the other.

After freshening up and changing we wander downstairs. We are met by Charles, Margie’s husband, he offers to run us back to the party, we thank him for his kind offer but decline saying we are looking forward to the walk through the town.

Margie appears and asked what she can feed us for breakfast “I don’t know what I can give you to eat, can you eat eggs?” er no… “are you Ok with bread?” yes, we can eat bread, “can you eat tomatoes?” yes, we can eat tomatoes, “even if they are roasted in oil?” yes that would be fine. So it looks like we are having homegrown roasted tomatoes on toast for breakfast. I say that she doesn’t have to go to any trouble and we’ll get breakfast from the local bakery on our way out in the morning. Kate does not pick up on my suggestion to avoid breakfast and continues to run through food we can eat with Margie!

Margie asks if we are going to be late back after the party, we say “no, we won’t be late, 10:00 o’clock at the latest, probably much earlier”. Margie seems happy with this news.

We leave the family in peace and walk back up to Mandy and Alan’s. It doesn’t take too long and the walk is quite pleasant past the old mill and through the old market town.

On the way we concoct a cunning plan to avoid breakfast at the B’n’B. We will say that we were unaware that a large family breakfast has been arranged at Kate’s Aunty Josie’s to see us off on our way back to Nottingham so we need to leave quite early to be a part of it.

Everybody is still at Mandy’s house, and as I walk into the kitchen Al plonks Finny in my arms. She has her pyjamas on after having her bath. We take a stroll around the back garden watching the boys chasing each other.

It is really nice sitting in the garden relaxing and chatting whilst the boys race around the garden with their Dad and their Uncle Keith… Keith does seem to be the main focus of their attention, playing the “smelly sock game” and swapping noses 🙂

We stay for a couple of hours and the kids go to bed after their supper. Before they go to bed I double check they have the right noses on.

We take our leave and scrounge a lift off Keith who is running his Mum (Kate’s Aunty Josie) home as he is staying there tonight. We thank Keith for the lift, arrange to return tomorrow for a cup of tea as we are leaving, and to say cheerio. We walk the rest of the way back to the B’n’B. We go in the back door and poor old Gracey is in her cage with blankets over her. We creep past her in the hope of not exciting her.

Margie greets us and we tell her about the “large family breakfast” that is planned… we thank her and go up to our room. as we are going up Margie warns us that Gracey may start “singing” in the early hours. That’s fine , we’re used to dogs and their peculiar ways.

As I said earlier we are missing a few of the usual amenities that we have enjoyed at other B’n’B’s, it is quite literally “Bed” and “Breakfast” and nothing more. There is no Wi-Fi and no TV in the room, we can’t even make a cup of tea. So we sit and read, and chat until it’s time to go to bed. I have to say the bed is clean and looks very comfortable.

Today we covered 106 miles from Brixham to Sturminster Newton, some of it a bit of a chore, some of it enjoyable.

Back into Devon

Wild ponies and prisons

We both sleep well at The Jamaica Inn and awake much later than our usual 06:00… we have a quick drink in the room to wake us fully, shower, dress then head off for breakfast.

We are immediately shown to a table and that’s when breakfast service deteriorates. We wait for an age but nobody comes to take our order, we help ourselves to the continental breakfast and still nobody comes to take our order. We wait and wait, and eventually accost a passing member of staff, the same guy who sat us at the table, and advise him we’d like to order a cooked breakfast. He asks us to give him two minutes to put an order through and he’ll return. He does return, we order two veggie breakfasts without the eggs. We also ask him for some non dairy spread for the toast as there is only little packs of butter out.

I put on four slices of toast assuming the non dairy spread will be on the table very soon… the toast goes cold while we wait. We ask again, it still does not arrive. Ten minutes later our breakfasts arrive, it does look good. We remind the waiter about the non dairy spread for the toast, and ask for brown sauce. We sit and wait for the waiter to bring us some cutlery so we can eat it, along with the spread and brown sauce… he does not return and nothing arrives. I go over to the counter and ask a waitress for cutlery, and remind them for a third time about the non dairy spread. She passes me two sets of cutlery and tells me they are just getting the spread out of the fridge. I go back to the table to eat my breakfast. The waiter arrives with brown sauce and asks if their is anything else we need.. “NON DAIRY SPREAD!” for the fourth time. We have nearly finished eating when a pot of sunflower spread arrives.

The Jamaica Inn was supposed to be a treat, it was the most expensive hotel we booked and it was a complete disappointment.

The hotel itself is impressive with it old world charm, dark oak beams and has a cool vibe about it. The food was very nice when it arrived. But, the service is atrocious. I appreciate these are very trying times but how difficult is it to deliver breakfast to two hotel guests?

We will not be returning to The Jamaica Inn.

We load the bikes and leave The Jamaica Inn behind. We both need petrol and have a short 20 minute run on the A30 before turning off and riding mainly “B” roads to Brixham. We are getting quite familiar with this road now. Five miles down there is a petrol station, I “brim” both bikes with motion lotion. The range has now gone from under 30 miles to well over 150 miles on both.

Another 15 miles and we turn off the A30 and run along the first of many twisty, hilly “B” roads.

These roads are some of the most enjoyable we have ridden so far, allowing TomTom Rider to plot a “Thrill” ride has paid off today.

We ride and fall through the Cornwall countryside eventually passing a sign saying “Welcome to Devon”. So scones are now eaten upside down… with cream on the bottom and jam on top… this just ruins the structural integrity of the sweet treat.

We have one stop planned that I know about, and one I’d completely forgotten about.

The first stop was Dartmoor Prison Museum… we pull into the car park and park up in the dedicated motorcycle parking bays.

We enter and we’re met by the curator. He gives a brief history lesson, and advises of the one-way system that is in place. The museum is situated opposite the actual prison. I ask if there are tours of the prison and he says “No, there are currently 570 inmates held there” I didn’t know the prison was still in use.

The museum is really interesting. There has been a prison on the site since 1806. It was specifically built to hold French prisoners of war captured during the Napoleonic War. It is surprising to learn that some of the barbaric practices were only fairly recently outlawed, such as the use of the Cat of Nine Tails, in the mid 1950’s.

There are a number of displays showing the nasty looking weapons and tools made by prisoners that were found hidden in cells. Some quite simple, some ingenious. Sharpened toothbrushes, razor blades melted in to combs, homemade knuckle dusters and a sharp knife made out of matchsticks!

We spend an enjoyable forty five minutes wandering around the museum. Unfortunately there are no toilets or cafe here so we leave.

As we are getting our bike gear on I push my specs into a pocket and hear a crack. That doesn’t sound good, so pull them out, well one side of them, I’d managed to snap them in two… this necessitates a trip to a super store with an opticians to purchase another set of reading glasses somewhere on route.

We leave this fascinating exhibition and drive past the imposing main gate which is the entrance to Dartmoor Prison itself.

As we drive around on a sweeping road we get a good view of the prison buildings. Very imposing, and surprisingly close to residential housing. We will not be picking up any hitch-hikers around these parts… 🙂

The next part of our journey again twists and winds through Devon and we eventually we arrive at the Dartmoor National Park. We soon see our first wild Dartmoor ponies by the side of the road. The area is absolutely stunning in the sunshine, but I can imagine it is quite bleak in winter. We climb up and down through the park winding along some lovely sweeping roads with amazing vistas (sorry Kate) around us. We see more wild ponies, sheep, lambs and cows all free roaming along the side of the road. Kate even spots a foal with it’s mother.

The ride through Dartmoor has to be some of the best riding we have done for a long time. The weather helped of course.

We ride on and arrive in Paignton, heading towards Brixham. I spot an Asda so take a right turn into it. Unfortunately they do not sell reading glasses but a member of staff says to try Sainsbury’s on the way to Brixham. We rejoin the road and ride straight passed the Sainsbury’s not expecting it to be at the very next junction. A quick U-turn, a quick visit to Sainsbury’s and a new set of “readers” are purchased.

Just a few more miles to go now until we reach our destination. We follow the sat-nav’s directions onto Ranscombe Road. I must admit I’m a little concerned by the hill it’s on, and the fact that the houses and B’n’B’s all front directly onto the road. This makes me wonder about the safety of parking the bikes.

But, my worries are for naught, Kate spots the hotel – Ranscombe House – and it has a large, level, if some what gravelly, car park out front.

There’s a sign on the door saying the owner is out and will be “back at 3.00PM”. We decide to leave the bikes in the car park and walk down to the harbour, but Kate needs to get changed first so starts rooting about in the roll bag for cooler clothes. A couple arrive and walk up to the door so Kate asks if they have a key so she can get in to get changed. They advise the door is open (it was) so Kate nips in, uses the downstairs loo and gets changed whilst I lock the bikes up. I go inside next and by this time the owner has appeared. I bet he wondered what I was doing wandering in with a change of clothes tucked under my arm. I tell him who we are and that we are booked in for the night and what our immediate plan was. He says that we are alright to check in now so I go back outside to tell Kate. The hotel owner follows to take a look at our bikes. He’s a biker too but had to sell his Harley as the hotel cost him more than he expected. He is considering getting another bike soon though, and fancies a new modern classic from Triumph. He shows us to our room and we unload the bikes and freshen up before exploring Brixham further.

It’s a 2 minute walk to the sea front (which we can see from our room) and we take a walk along by the marina, admiring the boats. Hungry now a couple of veggie pasties are bought from a cafe and eaten sitting by the beach, I keep a wary out for marauding sea gulls! We then get a couple of sorbets before taking a walk along to the lighthouse at the end of the harbour wall, stopping to watch a huge seal in the sea eating a massive fish.

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There are also three enormous cruise ships moored off the coast, I suppose they have to be stored somewhere whilst no one can go on a cruise.

We took a slow walk back and then continued into the town which was busy, but not mad like St Ives. Not so many vegan choices about so we had a mooch and a good look around. We found a restaurant called “Quay 57” that served vegan options We asked if they were open but they said the restaurant was fully booked. They did have some “walk in” seating outside on the other side of the road but it didn’t open until 17:00. If we arrived at that time we were almost guaranteed to get a table. So we grabbed a table outside a pub just around the corner on the harbour side and had a drink and just chilled. It was table service only and a young waitress soon appeared with an iPad to take our order, I actually had a proper grown up drink… a pint of Tribute Cornish Pale Ale.

There was a small group of people on the next table, and from their conversion they were from Nottingham too… what are the chances of that I wonder… It reminded us of the time we rode the Wild West with Eaglerider in 2016, and at the first briefing in the hotel in L.A. was a chap in a Nottingham Forest shirt from Hucknall and he was on our tour…

After we’d finished our drinks and dead on 17:00 we went back to the restaurants outside seating and waited for them to open it up. We were the first and got to choose a table. We sat right on the sea front overlooking a replica of The Golden Hind.

The Golden Hind was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580.

We studied the menu, Kate ordering a vegan burger and I orderd the vegetable pizza. Very nice it was too, and we were sat looking out over the waterfront.

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Once we had finished our meal we took a wander around the old town, including a quick nip into the Co op for some tasty chocolatey treats then a slow walk back up a steep set of steps and back to the hotel to relax.

It has been our shortest ride today, just 64 miles from The Jamaica Inn to Brixham. But it has been some of the most enjoyable, especially riding through Dartmoor National Park.