Bristol to Brixham and beyond

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We decided to keep our holiday local allowing us more budget to spend on food, genius. On the Friday night Eve of our little trip we mooched down the road to The Runcible Spoon where we enjoyed a lovely and tasty three course meal which left us all happy and satisfied. The decor and table dressing is as warm and cosy, as a tiny country kitchen and we felt as relaxed as if eating supper at home.

We arrived in Brixham and the sun was shining. Our cottage just set back from the main high street, up mount pleasant hill with views down a cluttering of rooftops to the tourist bustling harbour. We grabbed a box of fish and chips from the ‘up market’ chippy/ restaurant, I had whole tail scampi and Arnaud a skate wing so big the box didn’t close, both with a kilo of chips, we sat with our feet hanging over the harbour wall and bonded with the seagulls. Feeling stuffed we decide to walk it off and like mountain goats (not) we strolled a couple of miles up to Berry point, a mist engulfed fortress in the cliff top, and enjoyed views across The English Riviera.

The next day we spent the morning in Neighbouring Dartmouth and picked up a picnic ready for our afternoon hike. We took the coastal path across blackberry lined lanes and cow and sheep fields, down to the rock pools of Prawle point. Arnaud enjoyed his crab sandwich which contained nothing other than about 500gm of uber fresh local crab. In the evening, we dined at Mitch Tonk’s The Seahorse restaurant on Dartmouth harbour side. Warm and glowing in décor and atmosphere alike, we enjoyed two courses of the freshest baked crab, lobster linguini, chargrilled meaty sea bass and silky Royal Bream cooked in paper. The fish was cooked to perfection.

I managed to get Arnaud to agree to horse trekking in Stiverton on the edge of the moors and we trekked and occasionally trotted (with severe consequences to Arnaud’s derrière) through the village lanes with gorgeous views over the rolling countryside. Later we visited Totnes and Darlington artisan village as well as Compton castle; a beautiful medieval fortress set in green rolling hills then later, enjoyed a curry back in Brixham.

We decided we need to take our bellies for another long walk so spent the next day hiking on the moors. We drove through the ancient wool village of Buckfastleigh and parked up in Holne. After an uphill canter of a couple of miles we arrived breathless on top of a goat dotted moor with breath-taking views undulating as far as the eye could see. In the evening we dined at The Elephant in Torquay. We had a window table overlooking the glittering harbour. The food lived up to expectation and the dessert was the tastiest point of the holiday; Chilled Fondant dark and rich with creamy Salted Caramel ice-cream, Banana puree and the most delicate twisted Feuilletine that crumbled like burned paper, utterly delicious.

On Friday we visited The Eden Project/ which was superb, as was the café/bakery and then in the afternoon we headed up to Padstow for a Cornish pasty and an ice-cream by the harbour.

On Saturday we parked up at the Brixham park and ride walked in the glorious sunshine to Greenway, the summer home of Agatha Christie. The house was evocative of their way of life; love of artisan crafts and their collections from their travels, we found it very romantic. The wooded gardens have a maze of paths down to the sparkling Dart Estuary and then enjoyed a cream tea in the café. What a perfect day for it! In the evening we went out in Totnes for a Thai supper. There seemed to be a smell of wood fire everywhere and we felt we could almost be in the mountains.

On Sunday morning another stunning property- Coleton Fishacre built in 1926 by D’Oyly family- an Art deco extravaganza, seriously evocative of the jazz age. The gardens are magical and set in a valley, a blend of British and tropical plants with towering ferns and twisting paths, tiny bridges over a stream, lily ponds and bamboo alleys, opening up onto a striking cliff faced cove of clear dark blue Ocean. This was followed by a trip round the corner to Woodhuish farm, a national trust farm whose buxom blokes were enthusiastically demonstrating their working Victorian cider press. On route back to Bristol, we stopped off in Dart farm near Exeter, a fantastic farm shop selling everything you could want where we had yet more fresh fresh fresh fish and chips, grilled Hake and Thai fish cakes, and grabbed a couple of ‘Tom’s Pies’ to have later for supper. A lovely end to our little trip.

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