Sarah McQuaid: Tour Diary

Last day of the tour! Our route took us right across Dartmoor, so we stopped for a quick look at Haytor as well as at another Dartmoor landmark: the Pixieland gift shop at Dartmeet, with its garden populated by dozens of gnomes. Smurf thought he’d made a new friend and went in for a hug, but was nonplussed by the reaction he got – “That's not what I had in mind,” says Smurf ....

One of the many things I love about England is the welcome given to dogs at public houses and other establishments. At The Plume Of Feathers Inn near Princetown, you can even order food for them from the menu! Bless. The whole scene couldn't have been more English: a couple of ex-soldiers exchanging war stories to my left, a tableful of French tourists to my right, Martin enjoying his pint of ale and rabbit pie, and then to top it off a troupe of visiting Morris dancers entertaining the punters. Sadly, instead of proper sticks they were equipped with special little twigs for indoor dancing. Not proper job Morris at all. Down at the bottom of this page is a video of the dancing, at the end of which you’ll see the aforementioned ex-soldiers getting up to go to the bar.

Then on to Peter Tavy Village Hall for the final gig of the tour, where Martin won a Christmas teddy in the raffle! Afterwards, we went out for celebratory drinks with the whole committee, including organiser Dawn Sherrell, our host Sue Way (like me, a Chicagoan transplanted to the West Country), and the lovely Ali and Steve, who kindly presented both me and Martin with jars of delicious homemade chutney.

Since it’s the last night of the tour, I’ll take this opportunity to give a great big thanks to Martin for a wonderful three months on the road, through all of which he’s been great company in addition to working extremely hard and doing a superb job in all his multifarious roles. I’m very much looking forward to my three months at home – and also very much looking forward to going back on tour again at the end of February! Many thanks to everyone who’s been following these diary entries, and I’ll see you back here in the New Year.