The summation of the day is an otterly brilliant train trip.
We wanted to include a steam train ride as part of this holiday and initially we’d planned to do the Dartmouth line from Paighton to Kingswear, but after looking at the attractions for the kids we decided that the South Devon Railway from Totnes to Buckfastleigh would be a better option. Writing this blog now back at our Airbnb in Plymouth, I think we made the right choice.
Today we decided to let the train fully take the strain so made our way to the station from where our accommodation is located close to Plymouth Hoe. It was about a half an hour walk through the centre of the main shopping area, with a minor detour to visit House of Pretzel to get some snacks for later in the day. Avid readers of the blog will recall that back in May 2023 we had to stay overnight in Plymouth on our way back from Par due to the rail strikes and Paloma had discovered this pretzel shop then, so she had requested that we visited again on this trip!
After the 25 minute journey to Totnes and a short walk to the South Devon Railway’s Riverside Station, we boarded our train for Buckfastleigh. This was the agreed cue for eating our pretzels with Amber going for poppy seed, myself salty cheese and Paloma the super healthy ‘chocolate delight’ that was covered in chocolate with sprinkles and mini-marshmallows! Forrest, who isn’t a fan of pretzels, had some gingernut biscuits from the trusty bag of snacks.
It was a scenic 7 mile journey along the River Dart to Buckfastleigh with a lot of wildlife along the way. At one point a majestic bird of prey flew alongside the train before landing in a tree. We are fairly certain that it was a Hobby, a bird common for this area, but not always this time of year.
Once at Buckfastleigh we had a quick look around the small station museum before heading to the adjacent Butterfly Farm and Otter Sanctuary. We didn’t really know what to expect from this attraction, other than it was quite small and that there were some butterflies and otters that get their lunch at 2pm. Compared to other butterfly houses we have been to there were certainly less butterflies, but this was a good thing with more room for them to explore and roam. There was a hatching station where you could see butterflies eclosing from their chrysalises and plenty of space for the kids to also explore. With it being less crowded there were less landings on visitors but a few brave butterflies did briefly perch on them much to Paloma's delight.
And a few more selected photos from all cameras...
We ended up spending around an hour in with the butterflies before heading outside to see the otters. We'd been told that they'd likely be asleep after eating previously at 11am, but there was some signs of life from the 18 otters that they currently have at the sanctuary on view to the public. The sanctuary has two main aims; the first is to return rescued or injured otters back to the wild after a period of convalescence, the second to provide a lifetime home for those where a return to the wild wouldn't be possible.
First up were Mr Brook and Mr Burn, a pair of Eurasian otters that moved to the sanctuary from a different collection. Due to the success of the reintroduction of otters to waterways in the UK, it's no longer allowed for otters bred in captivity to be released into the wild, so these two otters live a life of luxury eating food 3-times per day and spend the majority of the rest of their time sleeping. They do however get up to some mischief overnight and will go after any bird that mistakes their enclosure for somewhere to rest, giving them the nickname of 'the hunters'. These guys lived up to their reputation and were asleep right up until two minutes before feeding time when they emerged from their holt right on cue.
Next up was Peggy, a North American River Otter. She was originally part of a bigger family group at the sanctuary, including both her mother and grandmother, but today only Peggy survives. She has outlived her life expectancy two-fold and whilst her sight has deteriorated, she makes good use of her smell to find and enjoy her meals. She is now the only remaining otter of her species in the UK.
The final otters on display were the Asian Short Clawed Otters, as we saw at the zoo yesterday, and they had two family groups in their own separate compounds. One group consisted of 11 otters who seemed to work very well together as a team and were great fun to watch cavorting around and playing with their stones...
... And the second just three otters with a mum (Pepper), dad (Hercules) and cheeky daughter (Halloumi)! Halloumi seemed to take great pride in frustrating her parents, including taking sticks into their holt and just being a general nuisance. She was of course the kids' favourite!
After another quick look at the butterflies we headed to the station for the journey back to Totnes.
We had originally planned to eat at a recommended Italian once back in Plymouth, but with it not opening until 6pm the timings didn't really work. Earlier in the day I'd found a nice looking restaurant in Totnes that served food all day so we decided to give that a go. Unfortunately, after walking up the hill from the station to the town centre, we discovered that in fact their kitchen would also be closed until 6pm and with it being only 4:30pm it was too long to wait.
Not wanting to cook, we used the journey from Totnes to
Plymouth to hunt for somewhere that would please both kids and be open and we
found Wet Wok, a Chinese restaurant located on a barge next to The Hoe. Not
having a booking did cause a little alarm, but they squeezed us in as long as
we'd be quick, but with two tired kids that was music to our ears!
Blogged by Matt & Amber.
