A good day in Dartmouth, Devon

Again, we drove first thing in the morning, and good thing. While Dartmouth itself has more modern roads, the roads getting to Dartmouth are narrow, and big trucks use them as well.

There aren't a lot of decent motorhome options in Dartmouth. But someone told us about a popular parking app here in the UK called "Your Parking Space". It lists a variety of paid parking spots ranging from private driveways to grocery stores... at a variety of prices, some really cheap. We ended up choosing a 24 hour one in a Sainsbury grocery store parking lot for £4.60 ($7.85 CAD, $5.85 USD).

But first we had to get there!

Yes, this is a two way road.

Ruth took a video for you...

Yikes.

We didn't meet any other vehicles in that video, but we certainly did when she wasn't recording. One van was really tight and we both had slow down to a near stop as we squeezed by each other. I will not miss driving in this area!

Dartmouth itself is a neat little town where the River Dart opens into the sea. It's located at the bottom of a long, steep hill, and there's actually a park and ride at the top of the hill to help stop vehicles trying to go into the town itself. The park and ride wanted £10 for day parking, and another £10 to stay the night, so that made our grocery store parking look really good!

The Ship in Dock Inn.

A lot of pleasure boats in the Dartmouth Harbour.

These people are crab fishing.

The inner harbour.

Anybody hungry?

Lunch, for £30 ($51.35 CAD, $38.30 USD)

A barge ferry, where you drive onto a barge and a tugboat guides the barge across.

Bayard's Cove Fort.

Free to enter, but not much to see.

From there, we carried on around the bay to Dartmouth Castle. This is another English Heritage property where our annual pass would grant us free entry.

Lots of nice views walking around the bay.

An artists depiction of what the castle would have looked like.

But it's not really a castle, it was a fortress. And most of it doesn't look nearly as impressive as what it does in the depiction above.

The canon body is original but the rest are reproductions.

View looking out the fortress.

View looking back towards Dartmouth.

You can try on various protective headgear of the time.

Bah! Too funny!

Again, we're glad we were able to visit using our English Heritage cards, but once again we thought the single admission price of £11 ($18.80 CAD, $14 USD) was pretty steep for what you get.

Looking back towards Dartmouth.

That guy has a nice view from his glass balcony!

Lots of people out enjoying the day.

The warmest we've had for a while, I think the temperature reached 21C (70F) yesterday, even though it was mostly cloudy. Supposed to be about the same today, which we are totally fine with!

Dartmouth Church dates back to the 11th century.

Ruth, looking up at the wood carved interior.

Amazing wood carving.

Old wood door, dated 1631.

Looking down from the balcony.

Stained glass windows.

After about 10 kms (6 miles) we had nice hike back up the long steep hill to Max, and we had a quiet overnight in the grocery store parking lot.

This morning, we are taking a different ferry across the bay, and to the beach community of Paignton.

Oh, and we have another house/pet sit booked through Trusted Housesitters. This weekend we are looking after two spaniels... a 5 year old and a 1 year old!

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