Touring The South West of England
Touring The South West of England
In March 2021, I shall be leading my own tour through this beautiful region of England. With the use of small minibuses, I’m going to take an intrepid band of travelers into some of the remotest parts of England.
I was born in the north west corner of Devonshire and later into my youth moved to Bath and Bristol. My family come from Plymouth in Southern Devon, and Barnstaple to the north. I have friends in Cornwall, Dorset and Hampshire..... and love this area !
I start my tours in Clifton in Bristol, the largest city in the area. It has great transportation links to London and also an airport that receives flights from the US. I’ve chosen Bristol as a starting point because of transportation but also because, historically, it’s always been tied to the America’s through trade and fishing. We know the John Cabot was fishing in the waters of North America, and trading with Native American communities at the same time as Columbus was ‘discovering’ Central America. It also became an important slave port during the 1700s.
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After a lovely evening touring, eating and sightseeing from the famous suspension bridge in Clifton, we head across Exmoor, to our next destination overlooking the sea, in North Devon. This is a beautiful place and we’ll spend 3 nights, walking the cliffs and exploring the moors, visiting wild horses and chatting to the locals in some of their unique ‘pannier’ markets and fishing villages.
Eventually we head into Cornwall... yes, Poldark and Doc Martin territory. We do in fact spend 3 nights in Mawgan Porth, where many of the beach, cliff and mining scenes were filmed for Poldark. One of our activities, is to visit Port Isaac the home of Doc Martin. In between, we’ll visit some wonderfully unknown prehistoric sites... tombs and standing stones, dot the landscape. What about fish and chips in a Michelin starred restaurant !?
Our next destination is the naval port city of Plymouth. A city very important to Americans, I’ll take you to the Mayflower Steps... also known as Pilgrims Fathers steps, where some of the first American settlers sailed from. ... we know that they enjoyed a glass of gin before sailing, and I’ll give you all a tour of the oldest gin distillery in the world, once owned by Sir Francis Drake, himself.
Whilst in Plymouth, we’ll have a little adventure, deeper into the county of Devon, and visit a cheesery and vineyard. This activity is complimented by a trip on a steam loco to the old seaport of Dartmouth, with its pretty and brightly coloured houses overlooking the estuary.
From Plymouth we head to our final destination of Portsmouth. Yes, another port city, but with a difference. It’s the home of the ‘Historic Dockyards’. This is a wonderful place where you can visit the Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and other important ships of Royal Naval history.
We’ll also walk in the steps of Admiral Lord Nelson... his last steps on dry land before defeating the Combined naval forces of Spain and France at Trafalgar.
A splendid last meal together ends the tour, but the memories will last a lifetime ❤️
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