On my quest to explore every single little coastal town near Exeter, the next stop was Topsham. Famous among students for the 'Topsham Ten', a crawl of ten pubs, I'd always admired from afar Instagram pictures of the quay and the little pathways weaving their way through the town.
Aside from the whole picturesque coastal town vibe, another reason I'd been keen on finally exploring Topsham was because a local friend of mine has been nagging me for weeks (though it feels like years) to go and check out The Turf, a pub overlooking the Exe Estuary and at the end of Exeter Canal.
So, on the first day of coolness following the crazy heatwave (and by coolness, I mean it was still about twenty degrees), my housemate Katie and I set off on the twenty minute train journey down the tracks to Topsham. We planned to visit The Turf for lunch, sandwiching it in the middle of wandering around the town and exploring the shops. The cool thing about The Turf is that it's not accessible by car - you have to either walk from a car park two and a half miles away, cycle your way there, or catch a boat across the estuary. Of course, we opted for the boat.
The little boat, Sea Dream II, journeys for fifteen minutes down the
estuary a few times a day from Topsham Quay to The Turf and back, and
costs £5 for a return trip. It was really lovely to do something a bit different, and the boat ride gave us perfect opportunity to admire all the dogs that were also on their way to The Turf.
We were both pretty hungry when we arrived at - must have been all that fresh country air - so we headed straight inside to get hold of a menu and order some food. The lunch menu had a fab selection of toasties and sandwiches, as well as some more sizeable mains like fish and chips or lasagne - and some great veggie options too which always makes me happy.
I opted for a Devon crab, rocket and lemon mayo sandwich which was served with Burt's crisps, and Katie had a venison steak sandwich with salad and chips. I'd never actually had crab before which is surprising since I'm pescetarian, but I thought this was a good opportunity to try something new. I really liked the sound of it with lemon mayo, and I've said before that I always love having food that's been locally produced, so the fact that it was Devon crab definitely appealed to me as well.
We both really enjoyed our meals and the crab was very much a success, which gives me another seafood option for the future! Result. I also ordered a glass of Pimm's to enjoy with my lunch - it's just the perfect summery drink.
After we'd had lunch and taken a satisfactory amount of photos of the surrounding canal and boats, we headed back to the landing stage to catch the return boat to Topsham Quay.
Once back in Topsham, we wandered around and found an amazing bookshop on the main street, which was a dream come true for Katie. We spent about an hour in the bookshop, which spanned three floors, exploring the shelves and flicking through different paperbacks. I managed to find a second-hand copy of The Time Traveller's Wife, which I've been wanting to read for a while after having it recommended to me by a friend (hopefully there'll be a review of it at some point in the future).
The streets themselves were really small and quaint, and we particularly loved this little alleyway adorned with flowers and bunting. I was so glad to have finally visited Topsham, and The Turf really made our trip what it was, so I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who visits the town. Hopefully I'll be back soon enough!
