Bank Holiday Weekend + Decent Weather = Devon. The English Riviera has just about everything a family could want plus loads of wildlife, especially along the shoreline.
Goodrington Sands, just west of Paignton has some excellent rock pools. Go at low tide when the rocks are exposed and you'll find starfish, prawns, crabs, we even found a dogfish once (go to sea fish section).
Shore Crab, 03/05/14, Goodrington Sands, Paignton, Devon.
And if your kids like crabbing, you must take them here. Just 10 minutes from Paignton lies the sleepy village of Stoke Gabriel, arguably the best place in Britain to go crabbing. Watch them haul em out, one after the other. With a £1 crab line and bit of bacon rind, you can't go wrong...
Shore Crab, 04/05/14, Stoke Gabriel, Devon, modeled by Holly in a pink rabbit balaclava. It was a bit nippy. Geddit? Nippy? Oh never mind...
But what's in it for the serious naturalist I here you ask? Honestly, this area is wildlife heaven. On Sunday morning I drove for just 7 minutes from our hotel in Paignton to a favourite destination of mine: Broadsands Beach. This is one of the few places in Britain where you are likely to see a Cirl Bunting. From Paignton head towards Brixham and turn left into Broadsands Lane, park your car at the end of this road (where the road meets the farm track: Elderberry Lane). Get there early, before the dog walkers, and you wont be disappointed.
Cirl Bunting, 04/05/14, Broadsands, Devon.
And to round it all off, there's nothing quite like a bit of terrorism. Don your finest pirate outfit and get ye down to Brixham Pirate Festival. Take the water-taxi from Torquay or Paignton, stay the whole day and get as drunk as ye like with hundreds of other pirates. Aaaaargh!
What?! Kidnap my children?! OK then.
Oh dear, someone's had a few too many.
Should have gone to Specsavers.
RSS Feed
