Plymouth - Day 4

Mt Batten Cliff

Today my plan was to walk east along the Coastal Path from where I was staying at the Boringdon Arms.  My first stop was to be Mount Batten and then to walk several miles to a point where there is a bus stop.  My plan was to take a bus if I was tired or as an alternative, walk back to my room cutting across farm land. Unknown to me at the time was that the bus stop was not active during the winter months.



Now for the rest of the story - The beginning section of my walk actually passed through several active boat yards along the waterfront before reaching Mt Batten.  I spent a little time exploring Mt Batten and took a few photographs before heading east.  I came to a point along the path where it was closed apparently due to a land slide and this is where my fun began.

The last point of my walk along the coastal path

A detour was marked directing walkers to take the highway for a distance before returning back to the designated foot path.  Instead of walking back onto the footpath where it was marked I decided to walk a little further to an old fort and then to take a 2ndry road back to the Coastal Path to continue my walk.  The 2ndry road I decided to walk on cut through the middle of a golf course.  I was a little nervous walking through this road with golf balls flying everywhere as it appeared to be ladies day on the golf course and there were several women groups playing golf that morning.  As I passed through the golf course I came to a point where there were signs all over the place warning visitors not to proceed as the road entered a military firing range.  In all honesty I think the signs should have been placed at the edge of the golf course as dodging golf balls was probably more dangerous with all those women golfers on the course that morning.  Needless to say, this was a bit frustrating as I must have walked a good mile to where I planned to join the Coastal Path and was within a few yards of the path and had to turn back which from my rough calculations was going to add a good 3 miles to my walk before I would be able to reach the bus stop and food kiosk I was headed for.  I finally reached the bus stop and as mentioned at the beginning of this saga the bus stop was not in use during the winter months.  (I will know better to check on busses a little more carefully next time).

By the time I reached the bus stop I was exhausted.  The walk was more difficult than I expected as well as being much further than I planned due to the detours I ended up taking.  It was lunch time when I reached this point and there were two vehicles parked near the bus stop.  One car was vacant but I could see the apparent owner walking his dog on the beach as he was the only one in sight.  The other vehicle was a delivery van that was occupied by a driver who was having his lunch.  I approached the driver and explained I was totally exhausted and asked if he was aware of any way I could get a ride back to my room.  He explained that he was not allowed to take passengers for insurance reasons so I thanked him for his help and decided to wait to see if I could hook a ride with the other person who was walking his dog on the beach.  While sitting on a picnic bench waiting, the delivery van driver walked over to me and commented that he could tell I was very tired and agreed to give me a lift close to where I was staying. I have no idea who this person was and there is no way I could ever get in contact with him to thank him for the lift as it would likely mean his job if his company learned he gave me a lift. Hopefully I can do the same for someone else one day.

Plymouth waterfront

 After being dropped off I had a short walk back to my room.  I had some lunch and rested for a while before heading out to explore the Plymouth waterfront.

The heart of Plymouth was just another port city but the waterfront was quite interesting.  Leaving the Inn that afternoon I followed the Coastal Footpath back to Mt Batten where there was a water taxi that took passengers across the bay to downtown Plymouth.  The water taxi departed every half hour and only had to wait a short time to catch the next taxi once I reached the dockside.  It so happened I was the only passenger on the boat and had an opportunity to chat with the boat captain on my way across the bay.  He detected my obvious Yankee accent and wanted to know why I was visiting Portsmouth as it was not common for tourists to visit Portsmouth this time of year.  He wanted to know if I was interested in visiting the dock where the Pilgrims departed for America and I mentioned that it was not in my plans and that furthermore I lived close to where the Pilgrims landed and never visited Plymouth Rock either.  He replied by saying I had no choice in the matter as we would be landing at the dock where the Pilgrims departed so I guess now I will need to visit Plymouth Rock to complete my journey.

Landing where Pilgrims last departed for America

I walked along the Plymouth waterfront taking a few photographs then jumped onto a bus back to the Boringdon Arms where I was staying that evening.

This was my last day in Plymouth as I would be picked up the following morning by Bernard for the drive back to Liverpool.  It was an enjoyable trip even with a some excitement tossed in to keep things interesting for me.