Pick up and first trip - Day 3

Monty the motorhome is happy to be level again, having moved all of 2 miles to the Start Bay Caravan Club site at the other end of Slapton Ley from where we were yesterday.

Woke this morning to a gloomy day, fog and very light rain. The warden told us that the forecast was for this gloom to continue until 1300hrs, then for rain to set in! We pondered about moving elsewhere, but in the absence of any reliable forecast decided to risk it and stay put. After all we don’t get to the coast all that often.

Tried out a new gadget at breakfast - a small rectangular cage that sits over a gas flame so that you can place a piece of bread on top and create toast. Brilliant.

So, full of egg on toast we moved across to the new site. This was smaller, but much neater and we got on a level hardstanding. Hopefully that will make sleeping arrangements more comfortable tonight. More on that in future posts. Once again no internet coverage, so these posts will have to be uploaded as and when we get some, or get home.

Monty dwarfed by bigger outfits

It took us all of 5 minutes to get sorted out and after a quick chat to the neighbours (reminiscing about our caravanning days) we walked down into the village of Torcross. Cornish pasty for lunch, followed a little later by a cream tea. Well we are in Devon and it would amount to quite an insult to the locals if we didn’t.

More history - same subject as yesterday. There is a Sherman tank that was dredged from the sea in 1984. It was one of those that sank in all the preparations for D Day. While we were looking at it a fella appeared and told us he had written an account of what really happened in 1944, as it was all covered up at the time. He said he had been a 7 year old boy at the time, and was evacuated from one of the local villages, so could remember some of the details. He advised us to google it as 'A Most Unusual Evacuation’. He was pushed for time, so we didn’t get much more from him - though he now lives in Cambridge and was visiting the area for a school reunion.

The tank forms part of a memorial, and this time there is reference to the loss of life. In one night approximately 750 men lost their lives, having been torpedoed by german e boats. In all 956 men were killed as part of the training for the actual D Day landings.

We wandered about the village, watching life go by, including a chap busy thatching one of the local pubs - the array of specialist tools he had was quite intriguing, and enjoyed a sunny afternoon. Where the 1300hrs rain went we shall never know and never care. 

Back at the site we saw one of our neighbours spinning wool with one of those big wooden spinning wheels - she looked like something out of a Grimms fairy story, so that combined with the fact that she had earlier warned us about some ‘evil’ pitches meant she became Mrs Rumplestitskin, or Mrs R for short.

For evening meal we walked up to the village of Stokenham, about 20 minutes away, and dined at The Tradesmen Arms. We both has fish and chips - it was locally caught Hake - and we agreed it was some of the best F & C’s we’ve ever had. Ruth had panacotta (what a surprise), while I had the cheese board - yum.

One last funny - some elderly guys were sitting next to us discussing David Attenborough nature programmes. One commented “what’s that thing with the big fluffy tail”, to which another replied “wot, you mean an Avatar”, which first man replied “yea that’s it”