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The Viewing platform, sans cafe but with a few viewers.
The local long arm of the law making sure we weren't gettin high. 
While on my daily wander round Torquay I noticed a poster advertising a forthcoming attraction concerning Rock Walk. Or as it is correctly known, The Royal Terrace Gardens. The Royal in this case being on of Victoria's daughters, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. She had an interesting life, click here to find out more. Anyway next Saturday is opening day as you can see from the poster on a nearby bus stop. Not a mention of the time though. Nick Bye will be there but don't let that put you off because Professor Iain Stewart together with a choir and all sorts of other attractions will also be in attendance. We might even get to walk up the steps and admire the view at last.
If you can't make it don't worry, I'll take a few photos and post them here.
This is from the Herald Express which does know what time it all starts.
The one-day festival celebrates the re-opening of the gardens after the three-year project to secure the rock face, restore the popular gardens, and with its flying staircases and viewing platform offering spectacular views and special lighting system, create a new attraction for Torquay
The festivities will start at noon and include street performances and live music by local bands, family workshops, and a spectacular 20-minute after-dark light and sound show. The day is topped by an 8pm concert performance by Seth Lakeman at the Princess Theatre.
It'll be great when it is finished though.
The Blue Wall along Rock Walk has finally come down a couple of years after it went up. I think Torbay Council should have closed the road while it was being demolished and had a big party with a free bar-b-que and a band playing but never mind, it's gone. The blue boards heve been replaced by a see through fence so we can see what's happening. And what's happening is the walkways and viewing platform are almost finished, slight delay during the week due to high winds, the crane, like Mr Bye's balloon doesn't work too well in high winds. Not sure exactly when we will be able to climb up and have a look across the Bay at Brixham and Paignton, nor when the top pathway which was closed for 4 weeks five weeks ago will be open either but it will happen soon.
Weather permitting, it is hoped to have the striking new walkways and their decorative wire railings open by the second week in August and the lower path open from the end of this month.
However, the contractors have been unable to use the crane in very windy weather to lift into place the dozens of custom-designed and built concrete steps which will form Torbay's own 'stairway to heaven'. Two days were lost last week.
Lighting has already been reinstated on the pathway at the top of Rock Walk after reports of the area again being used by drug addicts.
Work is under way to put in the Mediterranean style planting which visitors should be able to enjoy on the lower path from the end of July.
Contractors are busy finishing off the contemporary stairways and will be installing decorative wire panels under the handrails on which extra tests have been carried out to make sure they don't create unwanted sound effects.
The steel wires are to be individually tensioned and will create a shell-like pattern as the 230 steps work their way up the cliff face. The steps are having LED lights, and bespoke coloured and decorated feature glass installed in each riser and the lights will be visible across the Bay at night.
With the first plants, some giant stone obelisks and a smooth stone edging to the borders have been put in place, the gardens have already taken on a contemporary modern Mediterranean feel.
The opened out lower pathway offers views across the top of the traffic to the seafront and Bay.
It is aimed to take down the existing road barriers by the end of July. Some work will have to be carried out to repair and mark the road surface ready for the creation of the new meter controlled parking spaces, install traffic calming and signs.
A temporary fence will be installed while the roadworks are carried out.
When reopened the parking will be for three hours maximum with plans to increase that to four hours.
Some 2,000 plants will be going in, and 60 cubic metres of cockleshell used as a mulch.
Electricity cables have been installed for the light to illuminate the cliffs and trees and some of the metal and wood benches are in place.
The shelter at the Torbay Hotel end has been refurbished and an art work will be installed.
New flower beds will be created at that end.
A spokesman for Torbay Council said that as the testing had been done by the company providing the feature, it had not cost any more money.
She also said the scheme had not been delayed.
However it was stated in May that it was hoped to have the pathways open to the public by the end of July though some work on the rock face might still have to be carried out.
On July 30 the wraps will finally be taken off the controversial scheme to turn the run-down, overgrown but much-loved gardens into the town's newest tourist attraction.
An official opening is planned for the autumn.
Deputy mayor Chris Lewis said the road system would stay as it is this summer.
Parking would be created on the cliff side lane, currently closed off, and the traffic will continue to use the seaside lane.
It had been planned to swap them over.
Cllr Lewis said: "We want to see what is proposed for Princess Gardens and we don't yet know what is happening at the Palm Court Hotel."
Plans to redevelop the Palm Court failed when the development company went into administration earlier this year.
The council has asked the proposed developer of the Pavilion, and buildings along the promenade, to present details to it next month following a public meeting.
Parts of Rock Walk have been closed since 2005 and the reopening has been delayed because of an extra £550,000 piling operation to secure upper pathways in the £3million overhaul.
At the cabinet meeting this week, mayor Nick Bye agreed to set aside £550,000 from its VAT 'windfall' following a successful tax refund appeal, to meet the unplanned extra costs of the project.
Cllr Lewis said they had saved some money on the project until surveys found extra piling was needed for the new pathways and supports because of the ground conditions.
They had kept to within the original £3million budget.
"We didn't want to cut back on the lighting and artwork which is what will make Rock Walk a special experience," he said.
"If we had cut that spending now we would never have finished it, which would have been criminal."
Pathways and a viewing platform have been created up the rock face which will be lit. Art works are also being created.
At night the multi-coloured night-time illuminations will be visible from across Tor Bay.
Parking meters will be installed on the cliff-side lane and it is hoped to create a new coach stop for the theatre.
