Darts Farm and the Exe Estuary to Exeter

Today was Day 3 of our break in East Devon. We were to meet at Darts Farm, walk to Topsham Turf Ferry, take the ferry across the river and walk into Exeter up the other side of the river before returning to Topsham by train.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"Wednesday Oct 6th: Breakfast at Darts Farm, Topsham Darts Farm at 8.30am. We are allowed to leave our cars here all day. It’s a lovely place with plenty of consumer buying opportunities. We walk to Topsham Ferry for 11am and then continue our estuary walk into Exeter. We grab a train back to Topsham and our cars. Darts Farm have a Fish Hot Food bar that some might enjoy for their evening meal." 

This was our route today to Exeter...

...and when we got back to Topsham on the train.

Here are a few of my photos.

Darts Farm is rather like the Suffolk Food Hall, with lots of tempting foodstuffs to buy.

 Breakfast for some.

 

We were on the Exe EstuaryTrail again.

Here comes our ferryboat.

There was a godwit pecking at the shore by the harbour in Topsham.

On board the Turf Ferry.

We saw plenty more seabirds on our little trip across the river.

We alighted not far from the belvedere at Powderham Castle...

...by the Turf Hotel...

...by the last lock on the Exeter Canal.

After a little while along the Exe Estuary Path, we came to the other side of the Topsham Ferry, opposite where we were earlier.

The Double Locks (and associated pub of the same name) was not much further.

Soon we got a view of Exeter cathedral in the distance.

We reached the canal basin, where we stopped for lunch.

This appeared to be a team in training for canoe polo.

While others visited the ice cream shop, I had my sandwich and then investigated the Topsham Brewery Tap....

...where I had a lovely pint of Hard Brew Co Bird Bitter and a nice chat with Robin from Nottingham who had recently relocated to Exeter and was loving it. I wasn't sure when the others would be ready to move on, but they were in sight.

We walked along the river from here...

...and then into the city to see the sights...

...although we didn't go into the cathedral.

On our way to the station we passed an enticing pie-shop.

Our train back to Topsham didn't take long.

We revisited  Bowling Green Marsh on our way back. Nearly there... we could see our destination across the Clyst river.

 

Back at the farm, I could see the strip of pumpkins in the field.

A last trip to the farm shop for some while we caught up with Kim and Julie who had taken a shortcut back.

Thank-you Joyce et al. Another lovely day out in East Devon. My last day tomorrow 😢

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our routes here and here on MapMyWalk.