Up the Lazy River

Sunday 12 July 2015

Allotment
(Click to enlarge)

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

Kenneth Grahame was spot-on in Ratty’s words of wisdom to Mole in ‘The Wind in the Willows’.  The only way in which his words could be possibly improved on would be to add “followed by a decent lunch”.

Which is exactly what we did on Friday.  Thursday had seen us driving to Devon beyond Exeter then up the hilly lanes  which lead to Dartmouth at the mouth of the river Dart (oddly enough!) to spend a few days with some friends.

Which is how on Friday we came to board their little boat and make our way upriver to the delightful village of Dittisham (pronounced Ditsum).  We disembarked on the little jetty there and soon found ourselves in the wonderful Anchorstone Café, an eclectic assortment of sheds, lean-tos and a large marquee, which overlooks the river and Agatha Christie’s summer retreat Greenways, serving the most magnificent food and excellent wines (including the local, very good Sharpham variety).

I partook of their prawn cocktail which, unlike most sitting tidily in a bowl or glass, sprawls inelegantly all over a large dinner plate and somehow tastes the better for it; followed by their take on a moûles frites (mussels in cider with cream with some skinny chips in a tin mug on the side).

Suitably refreshed, we reboarded the little boat and wended our weary way back to Dartmouth, whence we had come.

There’s just something special about boats and lunch!

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