To The Turf

At Fiona's suggestion (and my encouragement), the Saturday after the wedding was an outing to the Turf Lock on the opposite side of the Exe estuary from Topsham. There is a great pub here, and it is one of the few pubs in the country that cannot be accessed by road. But you can walk, cycle, or get a boat from Topsham. We took the ferry from Topsham. The ferry leaves Topsham roughly every hour and takes about 15 minutes to get to the Turf Lock ferry landing. The return trip is £4.50 (http://www.topshamtoturfferry.co.uk/). Although there were 17 in our party, the ferry can take 60 passengers, so there was no real problem going out. On the return, however, we got the last boat back with a load of Marine commandos on a stag do. That was an "interesting" experience, in a "at least I only have to put up with sitting this close to these very drunk men for more than 15 minutes" sort of way. It is on occasions like these that it is useful to have an "old person" like Rosemary to hand. It didn't really stop them swearing, but at least they did apologise when they did.
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The Turf

Turf Hotel

The Turf Hotel is next to the Turf Lock - the entrance lock to the Exeter Ship Canal from the Exe estuary. I'm not sure why it is called "Turf Lock", since it is clearly not a turf lock (and I have seen one of the few remaining turf locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal). But it is a great location on a tongue of land in the Exe estuary. The pub has great food and beer and loads of outside seating - both by the lock and along the estuary. When we were there - a warm sunny Saturday in July - it was pretty busy, but the bar was well managed, and the food we ordered arrived within 15 minutes of ordering, which I thought was quite impressive.