Sidmouth; Friday, 31 May, 2019

I had a meeting in Exeter the following Monday so I was heading down on the Friday evening rather than the Sunday to make sure I was down in Devon well in advance of the meeting. I headed down via the scenic route from Waterloo to Honiton, though I wasn’t able to take in much of the countryside as I was on my work laptop for much of the time.

We arrived into Honiton just after 17:15 and I was preparing myself for the 45 minute wait for the next bus over to Sidmouth. So I was rather surprised when I saw a bus going to Sidmouth stopped in front of the station, in service and ready to accept passengers. The previous bus should have been around 16:30 so this was either spectacularly late, or an additional bus that doesn’t exist in the printed timetable. Either way I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and I quickly boarded, purchased my ticket to Sidmouth – thus insuring the bus was going to where I wanted it to go – and then headed upstairs to the empty top front seat.

It was a glorious ride through the Devon countryside on a sunny summers evening as we headed down the Sid Valley through Sidley, Sidford and down into Sidmouth. I hopped off the bus and walked the short distance to my hotel where I was able to checkin, drop off my stuff and then head out into town to do some exploring.

I had a long wander around town, taking in the area around the river down to the seafront and then up the cliff walks to look over the town before heading back into the centre. I continued to walk along the seafront in the last light of the day before turning inland and finding a very nice Indian restaurant to have dinner in.

Stuffed from a very good meal I wandered back to my hotel and turned in for the night.