2012 - Day Out 15: Plymouth and Torquay

Date: Saturday 01 September 2012

It is the second day of our break in Torquay, and we continue with the success of the first day with the weather already looking good and today will also see us cross into another county.

I wake up early and decide to get some fresh air to fully wake me up and have a walk around the back streets of Torquay arriving back at the hotel in time for Mr UKBuses waking up and meeting at the breakfast room ready for our first cooked breakfast in our hotel accommodation for this weekend. We are shown to our seats and coffee is served before our order is taken. Mr UKBuses decides to do an "Mr D9" when, at the moment he pours his coffee, background music in the breakfast room is started, at least he didn't start it off with a burp. The waitress takes our order and after a few minutes, she returns with a couple of plates in hand, Mr UKBuses gets his cutlery ready to tuck in, but alas it is the breakfasts for the people sitting at the table behind us, we don't have to wait too much longer and after a further few minutes our breakfast arrives. Brown sauce is ordered and Mr UKBuses has trouble pouring it, giving it a few slaps and I was hoping that a big dollop would fall out of the bottle covering his breakfast. We both tuck in and soon we have finished and give it a few minutes before we move to let our breakfasts go down and have a final preparation before we get our first (actually operated by FIRST Devon and Cornwall) to our first destination of the day. We have about twenty minutes to wait but we go to the bus stop opposite The Corbyn Head Hotel and get a bit of fresh air and also a chance for me to have a "fresh air" break before our long journey ahead.

At approximately 09:10 our First Devon and Cornwall bus arrives and we board Service X80 which will take us on a journey lasting just under and hour and fifty minutes to get us to our first destination. Our first point of call on the journey is Paignton, where we pick up a few passengers and start our journey to the next point of call, but the driver has read his running board wrong and when we arrive by Paignton Zoo, we make a U-turn and head back to Paignton Bus Station to wait for the proper time before leaving and getting to our next point, making me dizzy in the process by going round in circles. We shortly arrive at Totnes where the bus driver has a break, giving me a chance to have a sneaky "fresh air" break before the driver takes us to our final destination of Plymouth. Just before 11:00 we arrive in Plymouth, alighting at the bus station and whilst I have a "fresh air" break Mr UKBuses gets his photograph count started. From the bus station we make our way down to the Royal Parade and at the end of the road is stop A8 where our next bus turns up at 11:24, First Devon and Cornwall's Service 2 which takes us to the Sugar Hill district of the city.

After we alight our bus we have a short walk to the First Plymouth Depot, but we are not close enough to take any good photographs of the vehicles parked up, so we make our way back to the bus stop which is based just outside of The Morley Arms Public House, and as we arrive we just miss the bus, so we decide to pop into the hostelry and sample a pint of "Doom Bar", see picture right, being served by a friendly landlord. We spend a few minutes to sample our drinks and make our way out to the bus stop, where First Devon and Cornwall's Service 7 turns up to take us back to The Royal Parade in the City Centre. We make our way along the Royal Parade to stop A1 taking a number of photographs along the way, as we arrive at the stop so does our next bus, First Devon and Cornwall's Service 81 which will take us across the county into Cornwall. After fifteen minutes we arrive to catch the Torpoint Ferry and as we cross we are officially over the border crossing from Devon into Cornwall. We arrive in Torpoint passing both The Kings Arms and The Queens Arms along the way before alighting at The First Deport in Torpoint. We take a few photographs of the depot, which is similar in build and looks of First's depot in Hereford. We spot a bus coming and we run across the road and get there just as the returning Service 81 pulls up and we board, taking the short journey back to the Torpoint Ferry and return from Cornwall back into the County of Devon.

Who is this mysterious person (who has a bald spot forming) always getting in the way!

We arrive in the Plymouth district of Milhouse where we alight and cross the road to see another depot, Go-Ahead's Plymouth Citybus Depot. After asking a security guard he refers us to the main reception where we gain permission to have a look around the depot and take a few photographs of the vehicles parked up at the garage. After fifteen minutes walking around the depot, we return to reception to say thanks and also to inform them that we are leaving the site and as we pass the security guard we say thanks again and return to the bus stop opposite. After a few minutes wait we board service 81 which takes us back into Plymouth where we alight at the bus station taking a few photographs before having a walk down to the Hoe where we have a break and a couple of pints of "Butcombe Bitter" in The Admiral McBride, see picture left, before returning to the Plymouth bus station to take a few more photographs before boarding the returning service X81 back to Torquay at 16:10, where after having another "fresh air" break in Totnes, we pass through Paington and arrive back at our bus stop outside The Corbyn Head Hotel just before 17:50, where we decide to have a bit of rest before our night out in Torquay.

At 19:15, we meet up again and have a pint of "Tetley's Smoothpour" at the hotel bar, showing Mr UKBuses my find of "The Interceptor's" (click here it is about 05:20 in) appearance on Grange Hill on YouTube ("Who put this ball in my bottle bin? You're in trouble Pal!"), before making our way back to the bus stop to catch our Stagecoach South West's service 12 bus into Torquay for a bite to eat and to sample a few public houses in the town. After purchasing our "NightRider" ticket we alight in Torquay town centre and have a little walk up to The Strand where we enter J D Wetherspoons "The London Inn", where we have our first pint in Torquay Town and after perusing the menu we order our food, Mr UKBuses opts for the Chicken Tikka Masala which includes his poppadoms this year and I opt for Scampi and Chips, but when it arrives at the table it turns out to be Fish and Chips, but I opt to eat it rather than sending it back but realise I should have, as I get halfway through my fish and come across a few bones. We have a few minutes after our food and finish our drinks off and move on to the next public house.

We have a walk around by the harbour and visit a pub that we sampled last year, "Seamus O'Donnell's", an Irish Bar, and as we walk in we decide to opt for a Guinness (Well it is an Irish pub), but we quickly change our mind when we see something on tap which has not been seen for years, and opt for a pint of Caffrey's. The refurbished back room is full so we head outside where I can take advantage and have some "fresh air" and enjoy the cool summer night overlooking the harbour. With our drinks finished we decide to visit another old favourite from last year but as we head up the little alleyway leading to the pub we hear what is on next door and without much decision making we head  into "The Devon Arms" ready for a bit of Karaoke. Starting off with Robbie Williams "Angels", I put a few more requests in and just before 10pm Mr UKBuses decides that he has had enough of all these X-Factor wannabes and heads back to the hotel. I end the night off belting off a few more classics such as Boomtown Rats, Bon Jovi and Metallica. Just before 11.30pm the Karaoke finishes and I make my way to the bus stop only to see it pull off without me, so I enjoy a nice brisk walk along the seafront and back to the hotel to get some well deserved rest.

An amazing and enjoyable second day even though I did end up with a bit of a sore throat at the end of the night, rest is needed for tomorrow for the day at the Torquay Vintage Bus Running Day.