So Jen organised a bank holiday weekend away with Road Trip Overland Tours. I’d not heard of this tour group before and I’ve only been on one other organised tour trip so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The positive aspects of this tour was the small tour size (max of 16), a local Brit guide and transport all over the place. The negative aspects were never knowing what was happening next and being dropped off in little towns unexpectedly and being sent on our way. Duncan, our tour guide, was a relatively nice guy (with a lotttttt of stories to tell) and when we were in the mini bus had lots of things to say about the places we were driving by but when we were dropped off in Exeter, Totnes, Torquay and Dartmouth we were left to our own. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem but ordinarily we would know at least a little bit about the place but hey ho I guess you’ve just gotta go with the flow. Oh and one last thing – Road Trip have this Kitty system which supposedly covers accommodation, meals, entry into attractions. Hmm … is it only me that thinks these are normally included in the tour anyway? The funniest thing about it was that the “kitty” didn’t even cover one of the meals it was supposed to cover and required a top-up from us.

So now I’ve had my say about Road Trip I guess I should say a little about the beautiful county of Devon. After driving for four and a half hours out of London (the joys of trying to leave the city on a Friday before bank holiday) we checked into our Big- Brother style BnB accommodation, in Devon’s capital Exeter, complete even with our own hot tub! With no time to admire the scenery it was straight to bed in preparation for a big weekend ahead of us and this is how it went:

Saturday morning saw us visiting Exeter with its gothic Cathedral, beautiful quayside, That House That Moved and the narrowest street in the world. Nowhere was it more obvious than Exeter’s high street that we weren’t in London anymore. Considering it was a Saturday morning I wouldn’t say the street was exactly heaving. Highlights of Exeter was definitely the Cathedral with the longest unbroken Gothic vault in the world and the quayside – peaceful and soothing. After that it was off for a little bit of cider tasting at Brimblecombe’s. Eeee-uuuww to the cider (it was very vinegary) but their honey fudge was a treat. The afternoon saw us in Dartmoor National Park climbing the Tors in the Hound of Baskerville country. The Tors were amazing and great fun to climb. Duncan was leaping around like a madman causing my hands to break out in sweat with the risks he seemed to be taking. Definitely good fun (be sure to bring grippy shoes.) The view from the top of the Tors was amazing. Before heading back to home base we made a quick visit to Kitty Jay’s Grave. The story of Kitty Jay wasn’t the happiest and her end, supposedly at her own hand after being raped and falling pregnant, wasn’t any better. Due to the suicide the three local parishes refused to have her buried within their boundaries and therefore you can find her grave at a cross-point between the three parishes. Folklore has it that the fresh flowers atop her grave are replaced daily … though no one has ever seen who puts them there. Creepy …

After the hard day’s touring it was off to the Double Locks for a spot of dinner and then to the Ship & Pelican where I picked up a my souvenir for the tour – an Otter pint glass. Quite a few rounds were had tonight and all this drinking clearly had is effect on Kim and Justine who were in fine form once we got back to the BnB. It was hilarious! I think eventually everyone ended up back in their own bed.

Lucky for the gals Sunday was a pretty easy day for those not doing any of the optional activities. First up was a visit to Totnes and its unexciting Castle. I say unexciting as it was basically this round ring of built up stones. That is not to say it didn’t have great views over Totnes though. Totnes itself probably would have been interesting if any of the shops had been open – plenty for those those who are into crystals and general hippy stuff. The River Dart also runs through Totnes so I’m told it had a nice quay though we didn’t quite make it down there from the Castle. Next on the agenda was Berry Pomeroy Castle. Apparently the most haunted castle in England it is haunted by two ladies – The White Lady and the Blue Lady. Its said that you shouldn’t look into the eyes of either ghost if you should see them as to look into the eyes of the White Lady is like forecasting your immediate death and looking into the eyes of the Blue Lady will bring death to someone near you. Yikes! Actually the Castle was pretty boring though they did have some sort of re-enactment thing going (the kids especially were really cute.) I think I spent more time in the cafe having a nice lunch while a couple of the girls had Devon cream teas. You can sign the visitor’s book – as usual you get those cheeky people who sign as the White Lady etc. Funny to read but hardly respectful.

Then it was on to what was probably the highlight of the weekend – caving! Only five of us were brave enough to good deep into the catacombs of some cave. We donned our wellies, full body suit and helmets and we were ready to tackle the depths of darkness. Actually, its amazing how much light you can get from a head lamp. Caving was both more difficult and easy than I thought – difficult because it wasn’t a straightforward walk through the cave (we spent more time on our hands and knees than anything) and easy because the mud made it easier to slip and slide around. It was easier once you did get dirty and wet because after that you didn’t really care how much dirtier and wetter you got! It was actually amazing to think just how flexible the body is because I can tell you I had a few doubts about squeezing into a few of the gaps we were presented with but a twist here and there and we were through. Hard work but fab fun.

On our last, half, day in Devon we drove to the south coast for a stroll down part of the “English Riviera” in Preston, Torquay (past the colourful beach huts reportedly worth upwards of £30K!?) before taking our mini-bus over on the passenger ferry to Dartmouth. Dartmouth is a beautiful town by the River Dart. Once again Duncan dropped us off in the middle of town and left us to our own devices. The girls and I, after wandering around, ended up having some brunch before taking a cruise up the river. Although we were surrounded by some amazing vistas, the beautiful weather with the sun shining down combined with the movement of the boat nearly caused me to fall asleep! Hopping off the boat we made a bee-line to The Singing Kettle where, though we were still stuffed from our brunch, we indulged in our final Devon Cream Tea for our trip. It must be unusual to have a Devon Cream Tea (2 scones plus tea) all to one person as every single table had some comment to make about our scones. It was well funny. Personally I think they were all just jealous and wanted a piece of our scones!

And so, our final and last memory of Devon was 1. being the comedic act for the town of Dartmouth and 2. stuffing ourselves silly with Devon Cream Tea! 🙂 Despite the inadequacies in the actual tour guiding bit of the weekend we had a great lot of fun and I met a nice bunch of people.