Chapter 2 - DAY 21 - Plymouth

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Today is the last full day of our tour – man that went fast! It’s another full day starting with a cruise around Plymouth Harbour, followed by a visit to the picturesque Cornwall coastal town of Looe. We then returned to base before heading out to Dartmoor where we had a bit of a tour around a small part of the Moor before stopping at the Skylark Inn for our official final dinner.

PLYMOUTH
Plymouth has Britain’s biggest naval base and much of the city history is intertwined with the history of the British navy and other maritime adventures. You can see the exact spot where the crew and passengers boarded the Mayflower to head for the promised land of America way back in 1620. Our tour took us around the harbour and down the Tamar River past he Naval Base (we were even escorted by a destroyer at one stage – fortunately the crew were happy to wave at us and point their machine guns elsewhere).
Plymouth was bombed mercilessly during WW2 and much of the city has had to be rebuilt. There are the remains of a church that was bombed which is now smack in the centre of a busy traffic roundabout, it was left in its original position as a memorial.
The cruise offered great views back to Plymouth and reinforced how much the city was linked to the sea. There are boats everywhere, a number of marinas, the navy base etc.

LOOE
This wasn’t on our original tour schedule but Cheryl suggested it was a much more interesting place to go the one on the original tour itinerary. Everyone was happy to trust her judgement so there was no drama with the change. We were especially interested as Looe was on our shortlist of places to stay during our self drive phase of the trip.
The boat dropped us on the Cornwall side of the river where we were picked up by our coach for the 30 minute trip to Looe. Looe is dissected by the river and is close to the coast, an idyllic setting. It has lovely narrow cobbled streets, traditional old buildings –quite a small town though. I had my Cornish Pasty (another thing ticked off my list!) very nice. We watched kids catching crabs along the waterfront – they were having a great time. No wonder this is an extremely popular family holiday area.
We took the drive on drive off ferry back to Plymouth and had a short rest before heading out to the mighty Dartmoor.

DARTMOOR
Dartmoor is a huge national park covering 954 square kms. Initially it is structured farmland however as you move into the park it changes to more tussock and less quality pasture with no fences (just cattle stops every so often and common grazing where sheep, cattle and horses graze till their hearts content).
In the tiny portion we saw there was quite a few small villages, a prison (Princetown), a links golf course, Dartmoor Ponies, Devon cattle and a wide range of sheep. The Moors as you would expect are very wet and must have an extremely high water table.
The weather was clear when we started but as we went further in to Dartmoor and higher up the mist descended, giving an eerie feeling.
Our farewell dinner was held at the Skylark Inn in the small Dartmoor village of Clearbrook. The Pub landlord was a bit of a character – very proud of his award winning Steak and Ale pie! A great night was had by all, lots of photos, laughter and camaraderie – the group has come together really well.

A great way to end our last full day together

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Photos

Plymouth Hoe
The 'high place' overlooking the harbour.

Mayflower steps
A feature of the waterfont, the exact spot where the Mayflower left for America in the 1600's

Interesting colour scheme
Union Jack house as we approch oyr 'get off' point in Cornwall.

Dartmoor Sunset
We were treated to a spectacular sunset as we returned from our farewell dinner

Comments

[Melissa]

Looking forward to hearing about the next part of your adventures :) Can't believe you guys have finished a tour already!

[GrantD]

Tour
Its flyen by thats for sure, all a bit of a blur but heaps of fun. In Skipton now, big drive but it is definitely what we were looking for-traditional market town but big enough to have plenty of shops - for Mum! and everything e need for a nice relaxing break between tours:)