Best of the West

Devon: Jeremy Gates is still struck by the sights and tastes to be discovered out of season in South Hams.

It was the first time I had ever sat in an outdoor hot tub, supported by a raft of bubbles, and listened to a chorus of happy moos from cows munching their breakfast across the other side of the valley. As the sunlight slowly pierced the autumnal mists in South Hams, I could see some animals craftily using a back leg to prop themselves up on the hillside.

After a swim in the largest (certainly the warmest) indoor pool I have had entirely to myself, I strolled back to my barn-style holiday home for breakfast. Self-catering holidays in Britain have gone up in the world. I hadn’t realised just how luxurious they had become until the sat-nav drew us to the near-deserted village of East Allington, and then down a single track road for a mile to a complex of nine cottages and three lodges in the centre of a 45-acre estate in the middle of nowhere.

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Our first stop was the beach, five miles away along muddy country lanes. Blackpool Sands, a wide, open beach flanked by high trees on steep, wooded cliffs, must look terrific under a hot sun.

This is also a handy spot to join the South West Coastal Path, great for walkers. My son took his time to enthuse about a yomp along Start Bay and beyond a hamlet of whitewashed homes called Torcross. Nearly as famous is Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve almost alongside, where the marshes, reed beds and woodland provide a natural magnet for numerous species of birds, mammals, butterflies and moths.

Beyond there, we were buffeted by coastal breezes along Slapton Sands, beneath the Stars and Stripes which mark a massacre here in 1944. When German E-boats attacked US infantry divisions rehearsing for the Normandy landings, more than 600 men were lost in the darkness.

Some days, it was a bit chilly to walk, so what could be better than a visit to Totnes, beloved among elderly hippies and anybody else determined to escape modern Britain? It helps, of course, that Totnes was probably designed by John of Gaunt rather than Tesco, on a gradient which gets steeper after you pass beneath the splendid medieval arch..

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On a day when the drizzle was a bit harder we went west, to the Georgian town of Modbury and then to Bigbury-on-Sea, where the tide rolls back each day to reveal a sandy causeway leading to Burgh Island and an award-winning art deco hotel. I recommend a pint and pie in The Pilchard Inn next door, before dashing back to the mainland without getting your feet wet.

Wherever you go in this corner of Devon the food is terrific, but in Dartmouth, a self-proclaimed gourmet town, your credit card must be in fine fettle. One evening, we drove down the hill into the town, while the lights twinkled on the steep hillside of Kingswear across the river, to grab the last table at The Seahorse, famous for the roasted monkfish signature dish by celebrity chef Mitch Tonks.

Orchard Lodge, our base for the week, boasts a Gold Award from tourism body Enjoy England, and is set on slope with a massive open-plan oak-beamed living area above and sleeping quarters downstairs. Beside the pool is a large indoor play area, including trampoline, climbing frames, wendy house and indoor footy.

For older children and creaky dads, an outdoor play area lower down the hillside includes a hard tennis court, three holes of pitch and putt, and space beside a babbling country stream where you can kick a ball around.

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The weather cleared just in time for us to tackle the day trip voted one of Britain’s best. It’s the brainwave of Dartmouth Steam Railway, which took on the line between Kingswear and Paignton when British Rail gave up in the 1960s, and today carries more than 200,000 passengers a year. The line itself, climbing the hillside to give panoramic views through the trees across the River Dart, was built by the one-and-only Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the engine gasps a shriek of relief when it gets to the peak.

Since the 1990s, this train ride has been teamed, on a family day out ticket, with an open top bus ride between Paignton and Totnes and a riverboat journey on the Dart from Totnes back to Kingswear.

All services run to a timetable, so you make the journey as fast or as slowly as you like.

The boat ride back along the Dart to Kingswear in the evening light, past the Dimbleby family pub in Dittisham and Agatha Christie’s former home high on the hill, convinced me the glorious South Hams merits an early return visit.

Getting there

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Jeremy Gates was a guest of Premier Cottages, which currently offers seven nights’ self-catering breaks at Flear Cottages, East Allington, South Devon from £373. Orchard Cottage from £1058, March prices. 01548 521227 www.premiercottages.co.uk. Flear belongs to Premier Cottages, which has nearly 1,000 properties with four/five star facilities.

Visit South Devon for Totnes, Teignbridge, Salcombe, Dartmouth, South Hams – a free guide is available on 01803 864894 or by email to [email protected]. Dartmouth Steam Railway & River Boat Co (01803 555872/www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk).

Walks Along The South West Coast Path: Dartmoor To Plymouth by Ruth Luckhurst (£4.95, Coastal Publishing).

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