Our first wow moment came on Friday night when we received an email from Penny to say that she is the sister of Linda who is is the owner of NB Mary H. Linda is also a blogger and one of our blog readers, check out their blog
here. Penny and her husband, Jim live in the little village of Collaton Raleigh where we were moored up for the night. The email came in at 23.17 Friday so we didn't reply straight away. The next morning I was walking the dogs through the village when a chap said "Hi Paul"! It was Jim, Penny's husband ... he recognised the dogs from the blog!
I went back to the van only for Elaine to say Jim had dropped by and invited us for a cuppa!
We popped in and had a good chat about boats, as they have had a few different types of boat, plus motorhomes as they now have a motorhome. What a small world we live in.
It was great to meet Penny and Jim and their lovely very special little doggie ...
After our chat we headed off for Totnes. I have been to Cornwall many times but have never really had a good look around Devon.
We checked into the site which is right next to the river in the centre of Totnes.
Wow moment number two, what a lovely little town....
Straight away you know that this is a top little spot ...
However we were speaking to one of the local tourist guides and she said that the
Dartmouth Royal Regatta was on and at 18.00 the Battle of Britain memorial flight was doing a display.
Elaine's sister, Julie and husband Paul were driving down from Kent to spend the weekend with us in Totnes.
We gave them a few minutes to settle into their hotel and then we were off to Dartmouth! We drove to the outskirts of Dartmouth and parked in a farmer's field and caught the (laid on) double decker bus to the centre of Dartmouth.
Paul, Elaine and Bombo on the front row ...
Me, Sammie, Teddy and Julie opposite ...
Wow a million times over, what a place! Why had we never been here before?
Stunning scenery, lovely houses, loads of boats of all shapes and sizes, a steam train to Paignton, plenty of shops, pubs and restaurants. Most importantly, even though there was a major event going on the crowd and locals were fantastic. There wasn't a Chav in sight, they must still be attending the Tenby chav convention!
A chinook did things helicopters shouldn't do!
Next a Sea King displaying it rescue capabilities ...
Then a big disappointment. The Lancaster bomber had gone lame and wouldn't be appearing as it had an engine problem :(
No real biggie - we still had two spitfires to drool over ...
I also found a deficiency with my wonderful little Panasonic camera. Without a viewfinder it is very difficult to shoot fast moving planes in sunlight.
Next pic is for my good friend and blog reader Martin in Australia. He reads the blog but hates the doggie pics.....today we have three doggies....enjoy Martin x
The local kids were so impressed with the air displays they did their own ...
Brave little buggers ...
The Regatta officials were 'very groovy, baby' ...
I have never in my life seen a ferry like these, where a tug pulls and pushes the pontoon across the river ...
After the air displays we went for a walk around Dartmouth ...
Check out these houses ...
What a place, absolutely fantastic. It is by far our most desirable liveable place we have seen since arriving here in March 2012. This includes anything we have seen in Europe.
Not sure how the pensioners go - there are a lot of steps about.
It is so impressive we are going to stay here until Wednesday!
This scene is very similar to the upper reaches of Sydney Harbour ...
Posing for a shot ...
Finally, the fascinating ferries ...
We left Dartmouth before the firework display as we didn't want to frighten the doggies to death.
We then had a yummy dinner back at a Totnes pub.
Today, the weather is fantastic, we have the chairs outside, so we will do a bit of sightseeing and lazing around in the sun!
