Exmouth and the Exe Estuary

Today was day 2 of our East Devon break. Today we were going to Exmouth to walk along the Exe Estuary towards Exeter and take the train back.

This was the invite from Joyce...

"Tuesday Oct 5th: Breakfast in Exmouth at The Powder Monkey, Wetherspoons and/or meet at 10am outside M&S food hall, Exmouth to start our days walk along the East Side of the Estuary. Parking is available in side roads but I find Maer Road EX8 2DB usually works and then it’s a short scenic walk to breakfast. We will walk our 8-9 miles to Topsham and then take train back to Exmouth. We can then stay in Exmouth for tea time (some like fresh fish). A look around the marina is always nice. "

I put the postcode for the Powder Monkey rather than Maer Road into my satnav by mistake, so Julie and I parked by the station and met the others as they arrived at the Wetherspoons. I'd already had breakfast at the hotel, but had a cup of coffee with the others before we set out on out exploration. 

This was our route to Topsham...

...and this was our route around the marina and sea front of Exmouth in the afternoon.

Here are a few of my photos...

There was a cool wind blowing off the estuary as we parked.

We passed this mural on our way to meet the others.

Breakfast in The Powder Monkey.

Joan and Joyce tried on the angels' wings.

Off we went on the Exe Estuary trail. We stuck to the walkway but there is a cycle path all the way round. We were only doing part of it today (and a bit more tomorrow).

We got lovely views all the way and plenty of intermittent sunshine.

We were also mostly close to the railway and water's edge... no more so than here....

There were plenty of waterfowl on the mudflats.

We stopped for a little look around the lovely village of Lympstone.

There are views across the river to Powderham Castle and its belvedere tower.

We visited the harbour.

The bicycle racks outside The Swan.

We didn't stay fo

r it to open at 12 and carried on passing The Puffing Billy in Exton, the next village. No steam trains on the line these days, though.

There are some lovely houses and gardens along the way. Here we found some more cyclamen.

We stopped for our lunch at Bowling Green Marsh, where we saw plenty of birds, including this heron.

We approached Topsham via the Goat Walk, where we had today's group photo.

This was the view down the estuary.

It was time for Kirsty to head for any early train back to go to our sister Sue's big event (more anon). On the way we passed this outside the bicycle repair shop...

...and these lovely flowers....

...and, on the way back to join the others,  the Angel of the South driftwood sculpture.

Very impressive.

Some more views before we got our train back to Exmouth.

We will be back in Topsham tomorrow.

Back in Exmouth we had a walk around the marina and along the sea front.

I liked the weather pebble.

...and the beach.

We loved the "Clay in the Park" pottery tiles just outside the lifeboat station.

Then ir was across The Maer to find our cars.

And here is the view from my hotel bedroom wind as the sun went down.

Another lovely day in Devon and we were very lucky with the weather. Thank-you Joyce et al.

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