I am a bit weird when it comes to my birthday. I hate a fuss being made and I hate people wishing me happy birthday so much that I actively avoid telling anyone when it is, so that with one or two exceptions, only my immediate family know the date, and we mark the occasion with a very small birthday tea – mostly because we like any excuse for a picky tea in our house, especially when our favourite chocolate cake is involved. This, with some variations in decoration, has made an appearance at every family birthday for about the last ten years!

This year however, my daughter decided that she was going to take me away for a surprise trip (even though it wasn’t a big birthday), and with her exhortations that I should absolutely not over do it beforehand and should absolutely rest as much as possible ringing in my ears, I did manage to listen to the sensible voice in my head and was in a reasonably good state of health for this mini adventure.

It is the first time that anyone has ever organised anything like this for me and I was genuinely very touched. She had told me that we were going somewhere that neither of us had been before, and although I had mulled over a few ideas about where it could possibly be, I completely embraced the surprise element. Having been monitoring the weather forecast, she advised me on what to pack, and as we travelled, she put the tickets into the barriers at the train and underground stations so that I couldn’t see the final destination. Once we arrived at Paddington I had a general idea of the direction that we would be heading, but I avoided looking at the departure boards and it wasn’t until we were sat on the train and the guard announced that it was the 9.03 to Plymouth that I realised we were probably heading to Devon! That hadn’t even entered my head as I had assumed it would be too far for an overnight trip, but I was very excited.

I was allowed the window seat which was a great luxury as we have retained the habit of her naturally taking that place from when she was tiny, and I enjoyed watching the ever changing landscape – the rolling countryside, the glimpse of a chalk horse carved onto a hillside, the canals with their narrowboats and flights of locks. Oh, and there was the novelty of a refreshments trolley – we don’t have those on South Eastern trains anymore! – and so I was even treated to a drink.

We alighted at Exeter – but only to change trains. Where to now? I was certainly glad of the window seat when we boarded the next train bound for Torquay, as we followed the River Exe down the length of the estuary and then along a spectacular section of the Devon coast. We have travelled along this line a couple of times before and it had always stood out as a highlight. I love any kind of body of water – lakes, rivers and sea – and I was glued to the view, watching the boats bobbing and later, people walking along the promenades. And just as importantly, seeing the grey sky gradually being replaced by blue!

Although it was revealed that we would be spending the night elsewhere, our destination for the Saturday turned out to be Teigmouth – pronounced Tinmouth (thank you to the train announcement for saving us from the risk of embarrassing ourselves!) – which I absolutely fell in love with!

We slowly wandered from the station to the centre of town, stopping to look in some of the interesting shops, selling a mixture of lovely clothes and equally lovely gifts and home wear, before emerging onto the sea front. And there was a pier! I do love a pier, although sadly, apart from the arcade section at the beginning, it was closed for renovation and so we weren’t able to take a walk along it.

We did stroll along the sea front however, and with the sun shining, there was a real holiday atmosphere. At the end of the promenade we came to the mouth of the River Teign, and as we turned a corner and crossed a car park, we found ourselves in the river beach area. Wow! There wasn’t just a sea front – there was a whole new beautiful sea sidey part of Teignmouth waiting to be discovered!

I am a planner. Whenever I go anywhere new I do lots of advance research on what there is to see and do. I draw up a shortlist, and will usually also have been on trip advisor and worked out possible places to eat and drink. To go on this kind of trip was way out of my comfort zone, but the joy of coming across this unexpected area that I hadn’t seen pictures of on the internet beforehand was immense.

I loved the view up the river estuary, I loved all the boats, and I loved the colourful houses right on the river beach itself. I also loved the beach hut that we spotted that was up for sale and I was so taken with the town that obviously I wanted to buy it and spend all my weekends here (except for the fact that I have no money for beach huts, am very, very anti second home owners, even in beach hut form, and I would miss Kent if I spent too much time away!)

We walked further along the river beach than we had intended – not that that was a bad thing – initially because we were looking for a pub that my daughter had earmarked for lunch, and then, after discovering that their outside area was full (and it was too nice to sit inside), because we couldn’t find a way out as all the flood defences were in place. In the end we had to climb over one of the barriers in a not very elegant fashion. In need of food, we returned to the seafront, stopping at a cafe called Venus instead. They had lots of outside tables just across the road, and, although this did mean navigating my way down a set of steps and then crossing said road whilst holding a tray of drinks (tray carrying is not one of my greatest strengths even when only attempted for a short distance across a flat cafe floor!), we were soon sharing some delicious pea and mint arancini and loaded Greek fries, washed down with local Devon cider.

After our lunch we returned to the river beach to catch the ferry boat across the estuary to Shaldon. It is apparently the oldest passenger ferry route in the country, and I found out afterwards that my mum remembered using it when she was a girl and had been on a camping holiday in the area. As one of the ferries was built in 1946, it would be nice to think that we travelled across in the same one that she once did. It was only a short journey but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Shaldon was a pretty village with quaint winding streets of pastel coloured cottages, and intrigued by the signs for the Botanical Gardens, we made our way uphill to find them. It wasn’t exactly what I would call a Botanical Gardens, but it was a lovely park and, as it was built on the side of a very steep hill, the best thing were the amazing views which it afforded of Teignmouth, the river and the sea. Definitely worth the effort involved to get to the top.

As if all this wasn’t enough, I learnt that the next plan for the day was to walk along part of the South West Coastal Path to Dawlish, but feeling in need of more sustenance before tackling this, and after coming across a cafe (The Strand Cafe) with a lovely garden area right on the riverside, we decided that this would make a perfect drink stop before heading back to Teignmouth on the ferry. I say drink stop, but you can’t come to Devon without having a cream tea, and we did have a walk ahead of us, and I was flagging after what already seemed like a very long day, so we were duly tempted and gave into that temptation! Sitting there, I really felt as if I was living my very best life.

It was getting on for about 4pm by the time we set off along Teignmouth Promenade, this time in the opposite direction from our previous explorations.

The coastal walk to Dawlish follows part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Paddington to Penzance railway line and it was very pleasing to be following the path that I had jealously watched other people walking along that morning.

As we approached the red cliffs at the end of the promenade, my daughter pointed out the rock stacks ahead and told me the story of how they were a local parson and his clerk who were driven over the cliff by the devil and turned into stone. (You can read about the full legend here – https://www.visitsouthdevon.co.uk/blog/read/2022/09/devon-folkore-b583)

Just before we reached the railway tunnel (one of five built by Brunel along this section of coastline), we had to go down onto the beach and through another tunnel that took us under the railway line – good job the tide wasn’t in or we would have ended up with wet feet! – and up a steep lane called Smuggler’s Lane. We then faced a bit more road walking before cutting back across fields towards the coast again.

There were a lot of ups and downs and although I thought that I was travelling light, my bag was becoming increasingly heavy. If ever I manage to fulfil my desire to have a walking holiday I would definitely need to use a baggage transfer service! One path in particular, as we dropped back down to the sea and the railway line, was really steep and slippery.

With one final ascent completed and another small detour inland, Dawlish finally came into view. We could see the bridge of the railway station ahead, and although it had been a good walk, with the fatigue now really setting in, it was a relief to see our end point.

Dawlish, according to the sign at the station, is the home of the black swans. My heart wanted to go off and find them. It also wondered how feasible it might be to continue walking to Dawlish Warren, a little further along the coast. But my head and my daughter knew that I couldn’t walk another step, and with a train due, we sensibly caught it and soon arrived back in Exeter where we were having our overnight stay.

The walk from the the train station to the town centre was necessarily slow as I struggled to put one foot in front of the other – and there seemed like a lot of uphill too. My daughter had booked us into the Mercure, which was the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in as we usually do budget, youth hostel or fairly basic airbnb. The entrance hall and staircase were very grand. and it was like being in a stately home.

I needed a lie down before I could think about heading out for dinner, and as I wasn’t able to walk far even after that, we managed to get a table at a nearby Bill’s. and enjoyed some halloumi shawarma. We were back at the hotel at 9.30 ready for a good night’s sleep, but to our dismay there was a wedding reception disco going on right below our room – and the music was so loud that we might just as well have been celebrating downstairs with the wedding party. My daughter went down to reception to see if we could be moved, but although the receptionist returned with her, and acknowledged that it was very loud, said that they were fully booked, – but not to worry as it would quieten down at about 11.30!! I could have cried. It had been such a perfect day and this was a very bad ending.

I don’t think we have ever been on holiday and watched television before as we view it as an opportunity to switch off from the screen, but the music was too loud and distracting to read and I wasn’t in a fit state by then to even talk, so she ended up sitting and watching a Spanish film with subtitles that was on BBC4 while I lay and felt sorry for myself.

(We did manage to get some financial recompense when we checked out in the morning, although not before the receptionist on duty moreorless told us that it was our fault for returning so early and asked whether we had made it known that this would be the case!! Sorry, is that actually a thing that happens in hotels? Do you need to tell them that you have CFS and will need to go to bed early after a long and tiring day (not that 9.30 is that early anyway, or at least not for me) just in case there’s a disco going on under your room?)

Well, anyone who has managed to read this far will be relieved to know that I was so exhausted by the previous day’s escapades, and mindful that I didn’t really want to have to phone in sick from work the following day (although I had deliberately not told anyone about my surprise trip just in case I was accused of self induced illness!), our time in Exeter was very slow paced and relaxed and so there isn’t so much to write about!

Despite being centrally located, once the disco had finished, the hotel was very quiet and we both slept well. In the morning, we went out for a small veggie breakfast at the nearby Wetherspoons, (The Imperial) which probably ranks up there with the Tunbridge Wells Opera House as one of my favourite Spoons buildings. It was originally a mansion which then became a hotel, and it still retains a very impressive orangery although we chose to eat in the former ballroom which was very ornate with pilasters, mouldings and decorative cornices.

Whenever I visit a new place, I love following a town trail to ensure that I don’t miss anything important which is always a bit of a cause for contention because my daughter hates them – she is far more spontaneous than me and would much rather wander around and just see where she ends up. Because it was my birthday trip however, she had done a lot of research and printed out a medieval trail and a city walls trail especially for me, which meant a lot.

We slowly explored, stopping off for a bit of browsing round some shops as we went. There were some interesting parts and some parts that we wondered why the creators of the trail had thought it worthwhile taking us there, and some parts where there were beautiful Autumnal colours.

It had rained first thing, and was grey and overcast for much of the morning, but by the time we reached the Quayside, the sun had come out. This was the part of Exeter that I liked best, possibly because, like the Teignmouth river beach, it was so unexpected, but also because, as mentioned earlier, I do love to be by water. We wandered about, looking in the antique shops, eyeing up the little cafes in the arches,

and finally choosing a table to sit and enjoy a refreshing peach iced tea. We were so lucky with the weather and I really appreciated being able to make the most of the unseasonably warm October by continuing to eat and drink al fresco.

The grand finale to our weekend was afternoon tea, which was another wonderful surprise, and which my daughter had booked at a cafe called Eat on the Green. It is situated right on the cathedral green, and it was even better to discover that we had a window table on the first floor reserved for us, which afforded a wonderful view as we ate.

We had egg mayo and mozzarella and sun dried tomato sandwiches,

followed by a delicious array of cakes, including brownies, macarons, brandy snaps and of course scones, and there were strawberries, raspberries and blueberries which made the stand look extra beautiful. It was all absolutely perfect and I felt thoroughly spoiled and very special. There was also a big selection of loose leaf tea – including a delicious berry one, my preferred option as I really don’t like ‘normal’ tea.

Unfortunately, we had to dash off to catch our train home before I was ready to tear myself away, but with leftovers packed in a box, we reluctantly headed to the train station. (Although by the time we reached St Pancras and the final leg of the journey we were ready to finish them off which, accompanied by hot drinks from Pret, slightly helped to alleviate the inevitable downturn in spirits we faced as we headed home.)

It was a wonderful weekend – one that I will never forget – and I feel very blessed to have someone in my life who knows me so well that they can completely nail the perfect trip. I still don’t want to celebrate my birthday in a big way but it turns out that it can actually be nice to make a little more of it than usual, and I have also discovered that sometimes it is good to be spontaneous and visit a place with no preconceived ideas; to see it with absolutely fresh eyes. It has definitely made me want to do more weekend trips away, and although I’m not sure whether I would actually be able to embrace travelling without a bit of fact finding beforehand, maybe that could be a new challenge for me. Watch this space!