Yesterday Andy caught up with me and turned 28 years old! I planned the day with a few options that could be changed if needed, but I did not expect how things ended up.
We got the train to Topsham, had a drink in the Lighter Inn, then got the boat across to the Turf Locks. I was expecting the White Heather boat to be running, so that we could then go on to Double Locks, but the person running it decided not to, and unfortunately we didn’t realise this until after the last boat back to Topsham (for the day) had left! For those who don’t know the Turf Locks, it’s a pub situated between the river and canal, and therefore access to it is not limited. The main access is by boat. Without any boats running (and no bikes or kayaks to use) it left us with the only option being walking. We could either walk towards the top of the map where there would be a boat from Double Locks, or walk to the bottom of the map, to Starcross where there is a train station. Bare in mind that where Starcross is named on the map is not where it is, it’s quite far down from that! It is roughly a 3mile walk first along the side of the estuary, then along the side of the road which runs next to the trainline. It would have been longer to walk to Double Locks.
We got the train from Starcross (phew) and got off at St Thomas. We then walked to the quay and enjoyed the rest of the evening – with much less walking!