East Devon: that is Devon
east of the River Exe and Exeter - Devon's capital with superb cathedral
and much else attractive. Here is the most smiling of farmland and most
dramatically hilly, the easiest to see from a car because the lanes
are less narrow, the hedges less high. Domed hills rise abruptly and
steeply, baize-green fields to crowns of woods or sentinel beech trees,
half-way up farmsteads like a children's-book idyll.
There are many places of interest. Woodbury
Common is a small high moor with heather and Scots pine trees and fine
newish golf course.Exmouth is
a resort with lots of sandy beach and boats. The Exe estuary is full
of yachts and has one of Devon's prettiest villages, Lympstone, beside
it. A shore of mainly pebbles keeps the area comparatively quiet, though
the coast is attractive with white and red cliffs, pleasant, civilised
towns like Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton and villages like Beer and
Branscombe. Its inland villages tend to be pretty. Hardly anyone seems
to visit the lovely Blackdown Hills - big beech woods, smart fields
with thoroughbred horses - on its northern border. You can have flying
lessons at Dunkerswell aerodrome and there is an excellent (flat) cycle
track, punctuated by pubs, from Exeter beside the Exe estuary to the
sea. The whole east Devon coast is called a 'World Heritage Coastline'.
