2nd of October 2024 and I set off on a solo trip to South Devon. Owing to some very poor planning I opted to travel south on the A34 - it became apparent that this was a bad decision when it took me an hour to get from Blaydon to Pear Tree, a distance of 5 miles which, according to Google, should take 10 minutes! There was a real danger that I may not reach a Greggs in time for breakfast but I reached Chieveley Services at about 9:30 and "refueled"
Although I've entitled this blog "A Day In Teignmouth" I was actually booked into the Premier Inn in Newton Abbot for two nights and planned to visit the twin seaside resorts of Beer and Seaton on the way. Progress was slow and further exacerbated by a road closure and a very poorly (as in non-existent) signed diversion.
I eventually arrived in Seaton about 5 hours after leaving home to find a massive shingle beach and not much else so I quickly moved on to Beer. Although much smaller this was much more interesting and I spent some time on the beach where there were several fishing boats. Given that I'd spent no time in Seaton I decided to stop off at Exmouth which was interesting but not spectacular so I moved on to Newton Abbott and checked in to the Premier Inn. As the adjacent Grandstand Brewers Fayre was in the process of closing down it was only serving breakfast and drinks so it a was a quick pint and then it was over the road to Tesco for a sandwich.
The next day dawned bright and sunny and following a decent breakfast in The Grandstand I set off for Teignmouth with the top down! I parked near to the beach and paid for a couple of hours and set off with my full camera kit including tripod. I was disappointed to find the tide in limiting access to the beach bit it was "on the turn". I took some images from the promenade but nothing of great interest, I was now able to access the beach but decided to add a another hour to my car parking time. Using my "little stopper" I took (far too) many images of the sea washing in around the groynes. I was having so much fun I decided to extend my parking again but firstly walked into town for some lunch, a coffee and sandwich from Greggs followed by a delicious bun from the Shaldon Bakery. I moved my car to another car park nearer to the estuary. I returned to the beach and continued taking images of the water when I suddenly noticed that the railway ran right next to the beach...cue shots of trains which appeared at pretty regular intervals. Returning to the car I extended the car parking once again and set off to get some images of the boats on the estuary and finally a pint in the Newquay Inn on the water's edge.
I finished up spending the full day in Teignmouth, hence the title of the blog, and returned home the next day in glorious sunshine with "the top down".
When editing the images I made full use of Photoshop Elements to create some nice abstract images of the sea swirling around a broken groyne, one of which I exhibited at the 2024 Banbury Camera Club Annual Exhibition.