Exmouth with Shearings

Exmouth Coach Tour
On Tuesday 4th April we embarked on a coach tour to Exmouth with Shearings. We did not have to meet our feeder coach in Southampton until 10.47 so we had plenty of time to make our own way from Hythe. The weather being good we walked with our cases to the ferry at 09.45 and arrived in Southampton town Quay at about 10.00. It took a good twenty minutes to walk to the National Express coach station and we stood waiting for the coach. It arrived on time and was a ‘Grand Tourer’ coach so we travelled in comfort to Membury Service station where we were due to pick up our holiday coach. It was a good job the coach was comfortable as we had to call at Eastleigh, Winchester and Basingstoke before arriving at Membury. We got lost twice, once at Winchester where the driver missed a turning back on to the motorway, and once at Basingstoke where the wrong postcode was entered into the satnav.
On arrival at Membury an official lady boarded the coach and informed us which coach bay and time to be at for our onward travel. Unfortunately she did not use the coach speaker system and the coach being one of the latest was quite long. All this and people standing in the aisle meant that us at the back could not hear what she said. She seemed quite surprised when we got off the coach and asked what she had been talking about. As we had about an hour at Membury we toddled off in search of refreshments. The café upstairs was a drab affair with basic wooden floors, metal chairs and canteen tables. The food I had was a toasted cheese and ham Panini squashed flat by the toaster; quite the worst food I have had in a long time. On top of this at £17 it was one of the more expensive and poor value for money.
We boarded our holiday coach that would transport us for the rest of our holiday and met our driver Graham for the first time. He introduced himself and took us all the way to Exmouth with commentary as we went. We learned lots of interesting facts like Somerset is derived from Summer settlement. Originally the Somerset levels were flooded in winter and the monks came down from the high land in the spring to graze their animals and plant crops on the fertile land. Since then dykes have been built so the water runs off to the sea on one side and the river on the other.
The coach went along the M4 and the M5 motorways before turning off at Exeter and we soon arrived at the Grand Hotel in Exmouth. We were greeted by a blue hydraulic platform in front of the hotel which stayed there the whole week doing repairs and painting to the hotel façade.
Shearings obviously go to great lengths to pick their hotels because they are all the same. All are old terraced houses with walls knocked out to accommodate dining and function rooms; passageways are constructed on multiple floors and bedrooms are identical. If you want a bit more luxury you have to pay for it in the form of their ‘town and country hotels’. One such, as the driver pointed out, was next door to our hotel and had been refurbished to the tune of millions of pounds.
The meals, as we found out that evening, are also specified to the last pea and could be found on any Shearings holiday. Having said that we never had any complaints about our food and the waitress was very efficient and helpful. This was also helped by the fact that a free glass of wine was provided with every meal and a selection of free drinks given on production of your room card. It was waitress service only in the restaurant and she got very upset if anyone came to her serving table and tried to help themselves. We met our dining companions for the first time on this evening who were a couple called Dave and Dorothy who like us were from the north east and had moved down to Southampton to live in retirement.
After dinner we moved in to the function room and sat at the same table as Dave and Dorothy and were joined by an elderly gentleman by the name of Kevin. Kevin was a southerner through and through although originally from the north west but he was fascinated by the north east accent and sayings which he would try and prompt us to speak at every opportunity.
The Tuesday was our first full day of touring and Graham was waiting with the coach at 09.30. Most of the places on our holiday ended with mouth but the general theme on this day was the moors of Devon so we headed inland and our destination was Tavistock which you will notice does not end in mouth. The weather was dry but overcast when we set out but a light drizzle started when we disembarked from the coach in Tavistock. We had two hours to explore on our own and did not fancy wandering around to no purpose so on seeing a local tourist information office we asked for a town walk. They not only provided us with a town trail document but gave us a plastic folder to keep off the rain.
The walk itself started by going uphill to a viaduct carrying a disused railway line which we walked along through a steep sided gorge. At the end of the gorge we turned left through a modern housing estate to join a canal along which we walked back towards town. The canal was replaced by a river as we neared the town centre and the weather was changing to a steady drizzle. We missed off the last bit of the route so we could visit the indoor market which we had been told was worth a visit. The market contained a good selection of stalls including second hand furniture, old mantel clocks, haberdashery and various food stalls but we did not buy anything.
We re-joined our coach at 12.30 and proceeded to Princetown for our lunch. Princetown is famous for Dartmoor prison which is not located there by coincidence being miles away from anywhere. According to Graham our driver Dartmoor is no longer a top security prison but has been downgraded to category ‘C’. It used to house the ‘Axe murderer’ before he escaped with help from the Kray twins who apparently arranged for his killing and burial.
When on holiday you generally hope for good weather but on this day the drizzle had changed to heavy rain and fog. This weather was exactly the sort you read about in books like ‘the hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘Jamaica Inn’ which is used to give a sense of menace to the story. How anyone can enjoy living in a land of moors, bogs and granite rocks is a mystery but some people obviously find it romantic. Looking out of the coach window we could only imagine the conditions through the rain and fog but an occasional sight of moorland ponies with rain sodden coats reminded us of the real dangers of getting lost on the moors.
Our visit to Princetown was limited by the weather to lunch at ‘Lords Gifts ‘which was a rather basic affair although somewhat cheaper than Membury Services. After lunch we boarded the coach and travelled to the ‘House of Marbles’ near Bovey Tracey. To get there we descended below the cloud level and the rain had stopped when we entered the factory cum shop. There was a lot of marbles for sale and a glass blowing area but marbles are no longer made on site. One feature that was absorbing was a ball race covering one of the end walls of the building. Balls the size of snooker balls are lifted to the top by a motor driven chain drive and they run under gravity along wire channels initiating levers and rotating ball carriers that divert the balls according to the order in which they start.
We returned to our hotel, had dinner, and settled down for our evening’s entertainment. The entertainment provided followed the same pattern on the next three nights of our holiday but the presenters were different. On the first night it was a female singer and she began with a game of bingo. We did not join in for this one but we did subsequently and lost every time. After the bingo there followed a quiz which we attempted every night. Our first attempt gave us joint first place but we lost the decider question. The quiz was followed by a few songs from the singer and the evening concluded with records to which we could dance if we wished. At the end of all this we were more than glad to get to our beds.
Wednesday was an optional excursion half day to Teignmouth and Dawlish which we opted to do. I thought the driver said Tinmouth initially and I had quite a bit of trouble finding it on the map. We got there by following the coast westwards from Exmouth but we had to travel a fair way towards Exeter before we were able to cross over the river Exe at Topsham. Again according to Graham Sir Trevor Macdonald had a house here but was a naughty boy and had to sell his house to pay alimony to his wife. Teignmouth turned out to be a pleasant seaside resort and we had a good walk along the coastal path. The path is between the sea and the main railway line to the west built by Brunel. On our return to the town centre we decided to have lunch in a café called ‘The Pickwick’ and settled on the Devon crab sandwich. This turned out to be the culinary delight of our holiday. We returned over the moors via Dawlish to our hotel at about 13.15.
The afternoon was time at leisure and we decided to go on a river boat trip up the Exe estuary. We knew the boat left at 14.15 so after the coach got to the hotel we walked directly up to the marina from where the boat departed. When we got to the quay we were one of the first to arrive but as the boat got ready to embark passengers a coach drew up and about thirty people got off for the boat trip. The boat was almost full when we left. All boat trips usually begin with emergency procedures and this one was no exception. The only difference was that the procedure in case of emergency was to go over the side and walk to the shore. We knew that the tide was low but the skipper told us that the depth was only three feet maximum and that the exe had a tidal range of about four metres. Having being reassured in this way the boat moved slowly up river winding between mud flats. Even so we were not able to go very far inland before turning round and heading towards the sea. The skipper told us that the Exe was a favourite spot for bird watching and explained the different types of birds as we went along. He did however miss one bird that we and a few passengers saw and that was an Osprey which swooped down to the water a couple of times before being chased off by other gulls.
We returned to our hotel, had dinner, and settled down for our evening’s entertainment. This evening we tried the bingo and won the quiz outright. The prize was a bottle of champagne perry with a strength of 5% which we had difficulty disposing of as no one wanted to drink it. The entertainment was a guitarist by the name of Steve Davis who played tunes from around the world on a variety of guitars including a Russian balalaika. He was generally accepted to be very good.
Thursday was a full day touring starting with a trip to the city of Exeter in the morning. We decided to spend our time in Exeter with a visit to the cathedral even though it cost £3 each entrance fee. The cathedral is a very pleasant sanctuary from the noise and bustle of the city streets and the entry fee was well worth it. A friendly guide explained everything we needed to know but I was most interested in what the cathedral was like in the time of Henry V111. The cathedral was spared the ravages of monasteries but during a normal day the clergy were separated from the common people by a wood carved enclosure from within the cathedral. Outside of this area people carried out their daily activities to a general background of prayer and music.
After our visit to the cathedral we just had time to find a bank ATM and have lunch at a Café Nero. Our coach then transported us to the seaside town of Sidmouth. Sidmouth is a typical seaside place and the day turned out to be a very warm and sunny one. We decided to walk through a park and up a steep hill overlooking the town where we sat at a wooden bench on a grassy knoll. After a short rest we walked back along the promenade to the town centre for an ice-cream. The day being hot and with us having our fill of seaside towns ending in mouth we sat on a covered seat in a small park near the bus station. We were soon joined by an elderly couple who I assumed was on another bus tour but it turned out they lived locally and had just come for a day out.
The last evening followed the same routine as those previously but was hosted by a fair haired lad of small stature who was probably older than he looked. He was jokey and laughed a lot at his own words but he was difficult for us to hear and the bingo and quiz were quite an ordeal. Luckily we did not win the bottle of champagne this night. His singing was a bit amateurish too.
On the Friday we had to get up early in order to have our cases outside by 07.15 and we set off on our long journey home. Unfortunately my wife had contacted a stomach bug and was violently sick several times on the journey. It took her nearly a week to recover. We cannot say exactly where she caught the bug so don’t know if it was anything to do with Shearings but we will be a bit more cautious next time.