As we made our way east along the south coast of the UK, nearly every local sailor we met gave us recommendations for places to visit on our trip. And nearly every recommendation included the village of Salcombe – our paraphrase of the recommendation is that Salcombe is a very pretty spot, largely full of rich folks from the big city.
Our theory is to take recommendations from others, but also to visit ourselves so that we can have our own impressions and develop our own opinions. So we made the short sail from Yealm to Salcombe, pulled into the estuary, and dropped the anchor at the far end of the harbor.
The area around Salcombe is undeniably beautiful. Gently rolling hills, some forested and some open pastureland, surround the multiple arms of the drowned river valley, and the town itself rises above the western edge of the water. The South West Coast Path extends both east and west from town, and views from the trail atop the cliffs are stunning.
We’re not experts on who is rich and who is not in a new country, but we did see an inordinately high number of Range Rover and Mercedes vehicles driving through the impossibly narrow streets of town. So our guess is that there actually are plenty of rich folks from the big city in Salcombe.
All in all, Salcombe is probably not exactly our kind of place – not quite rough-and-tumble enough around the edges. But we are happy to visit and see for ourselves.
