A visit to Agatha Christie Country

On Saturday morning we caught the train down to Paignton - Jayne has friends who own a holiday apartment (motels in terraced housing) and so we went to stay the night with them. Once we learnt there was a steam train that took us to Dartmouth Harry, Jayne and I jumped on board. Just like Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot did many years earlier when he solved the ABC murders. Dartmouth was a pretty little town nearly at the mouth of the river. Lots of boats (which cost about £6000 a year to moor at the marina - apparently only 20% of them leave their moorings for more than 2 weeks in a year) and a captivating little castle situated at the mouth of the river.

Dartmouth Yacht Club was close by where the 'round the world yacht race' leaves from and up the river a boat building yard. Agatha Christie bought 300 acres along the river and built a summer home there - the Greenway Estate was gifted to the National Trust by her daughter a few years ago. We shared the boat going back to the steam train with a group of young men having a great time and singing some song about love and a little girl smothering herself and her Dad with an icecream. Great to see people enjoying themselves. The river was apparently the setting for the 1980's tv programme the Onedin Line (unfortunately I had to admit that I remembered it). As the story goes they were filming a episode on the river (meant to be in South America with natives on the river) when the Dartmouth Steam Train drove past in all its glory and tooted its horn!! Retake?

As though we didn't have enough exercise Harry and I then wandered into Torquay - paddling in the sea, walking over the hill and down into the town. It was 'steam' weekend in Torquay and we enjoyed watching steam trucks go through the town - great for a novelty but not so good for the 'clean air' campaign. Enjoyed watching the sun go down over the fair ground and harbour and wandered through the Agatha Christie Mile. The Grand Hotel, where she honeymooned, the pier where she rollerbladed - oops I mean rollerskated- (it was tranquil with the sun setting and sea so calm), the pavilion where she listened to music. The town was busy, full of people enjoying themselves. We caught the bus back and sat like tourists upstairs right at the front like excited children - something I don't think Agatha would have done. We had dinner at a little bistro with a bill board pointing down a path that said 'cafe 50 yards and a little bit'.