Motor Boat & Yachting — August 2017

Blackpool Sands is an award-winning

beach three miles west of Dartmouth

entrance, with the Venus Café ashore

There’s plenty to

explore by sea kayak

Pretty pastel-coloured

houses line the shore

Arriving in Dartmouth
is always a feast for
the senses

joining a Dart river boat for the 8-mile cruise back downstream

to Dartmouth. This can be a useful recce for taking your own

boat upriver.

WOODLANDS FAMILY PARK With a young family to keep

amused, you might take the short bus trip inland to this popular

theme park. I’ve never been there and the idea makes me shudder,

but we have cruising friends with children who have given

Woodlands a defi nite thumbs up when staying in Dartmouth.

VISITS ASHORE

GREENWAY HOUSE Two miles inland from Dartmouth, this

elegant Georgian house stands in woodland gardens overlooking

the river. Once Agatha Christie’s holiday hideaway, Greenway feels

just the setting for a murder in the library. The rooms are a time

capsule of the writer’s life and the gardens slope down to an old

stone boathouse. Best visited from a Dittisham visitors’ buoy,

leaving the dinghy at Greenway Quay beach. Web: http://www.

nationaltrust.org.uk/greenway.

MARK LOBB ON SEAFOOD In Dartmouth town market, you can

buy superb fresh fi sh and shellfi sh from Mark Lobb. But seafood

enthusiasts with a culinary bent can join one of his regular

workshops, which include fi sh fi lleting and preparing a crab.

Practical, entertaining and highly recommended. Book at the

market shop or contact Mark Lobb. Tel: +44 (0)1803 832101

or +44 (0)7866 706621. Web: http://www.wildfooddevon.co.uk.

COASTAL WALKS The National Trust owns much of the coast

around Dartmouth and there are stunning cliff paths starting

from Dartmouth Castle and winding south-west past Compass

Cove, Redlap and Stoke Fleming village. You can catch a bus back

to Dartmouth embankment from Stoke Fleming village hall.

DARTMOUTH STEAM RAILWAY Just behind Darthaven Marina,

Kingswear station is the start of one of the fi nest heritage steam

railway journeys in Europe. This charming line follows the Dart

inland through wooded slopes, across a viaduct, then skirts the

Tor Bay coast to Paignton. Web: http://www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk.

RETURN BY RIVER BOAT On a circular ‘round robin’ tour, you

travel from Paignton station by bus to Steamer Quay at Totnes,

TRAVEL

The steam railway is a must