Yuletide Wanderlust: A Christmas Trip to Exeter (EXTERNAL BOOKING REQUIRED)

For this festive weekend away, we’ll be travelling down to the Devon city of Exeter, where we’ll be visiting the Cathedral’s Christmas market. We’ll be doing three walks around the Exeter area, with two of them being based around the River Exe estuary. Like with some of the walks we do in Berkshire, these walks will pass other stations along the way, and so there’ll be options to drop out any of the walks if needed.

If you’re interested in coming, please complete this form to secure your place, as well as showing your interest on Meetup, by Saturday 30th November. The trip is limited to 31 places, including the trip leader. Everyone’s welcome to sign up to this trip, regardless of how much walking experience you have or how long you’ve been a Ramblers member. Like with other BW trips, you have to be a member of the Ramblers to take part, but members of other groups are also very welcome to join us.

These details are abbreviated to fit on Meetup – please see our group website for more complete information.

Itinerary:

Friday’s walk: Topsham to Exmouth, 6.5 miles, easy – 14:10 start.

• This walk will take us along the eastern edge of the Exe estuary via Exton and Lympstone.

Friday evening social (venue TBC).

Saturday’s walk: Joint walk with the Devon Bootlegs Ramblers from Exeter St David’s to Dawlish Warren, 12.4 miles, easy/moderate. – 09:30 start.

• This walk will take us along the Exeter Ship canal before taking us along the western edge of the Exe estuary via Powderham and Starcross.

Sunday’s walk: Teignmouth to Dawlish Warren, 5.2 miles, easy – 09:45 start.

• This final walk will take us parallel the railway through Dawlish, which comes with a view of Lyme Bay.

Accommodation:
You’ll need to book your own accommodation for the Friday and Saturday nights. Here are some suggestions for you to book:

• Globe Backpackers, Holloway Road (Near Exeter Quay).
• Premier Inn Exeter Central St Davids (Next to St David’s station).
• Premier Inn Exeter City Centre (Near the Cathedral).

Travel to / from Exeter:
By train:
If you plan to do the walk on Friday afternoon, the recommended service from Reading is the 11:01 GWR departure that arrives at Exeter St David’s at 13:07. For those who live in the Newbury area, this same train will depart from Newbury station at 11:16.

For those who live in South Oxfordshire, it’ll be easier to get the train from Didcot Parkway, which sees regular GWR departures towards Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway. At either of these stations, you then change for a CrossCountry service towards Exeter St David’s, and going this route will take you just over 2 hours. After the walk on Sunday, there’s a regular number of trains departing from St David’s station towards Newbury, Reading, and for those who needed it, Didcot Parkway.

By car:
If you plan to drive, the fastest route from Reading is along the M4 towards Swindon, Bath and Bristol, where you’ll reach junction 20. Here, turn off the M4 to join the M5, and follow this towards Taunton and Exeter. An alternative route to the M5 would be to head towards the M3, where you then travel southbound to junction 8 (just after Basingstoke) to join the A303 to Taunton, and you then join the M5 at junction 25.

These details are abbreviated to fit on Meetup – please see our group website for more complete information.