Leaving Devon, and Heading North

We are leaving Devon this morning and finishing off the last of our coastal drive.  It has been a great trip around the Devon and Cornwall coast, a trip to remember for sure

It's been Easter weekend and just as we left the campground there was a lovely bunny sitting on the side of the road waving us goodbye

The drive out of Lynmouth along the coast was beautiful, and gave us a great view of both Lynton and Lynmouth from the ridge along the top

Before we made it to Minehead, and started to head inland Mum got a final photo of the coastline

The rest of our trip is motorway travel today, and to be honest I rather enjoyed the wider lanes and faster pace for a change.

By 2.30pm we were in Oxfordshire, of how I love driving through the Cotswolds, it's like being in a Lilliput village.  We are staying in Chipping Norton at the Campground, and it's right next door to Diddly Squat Farm Shop.  Diddly Squat  website said they were closed today, but when we arrived at the campsite they were open, I was pretty excited.  You will have to excuse the unedited video below.  

When we arrived the shop was pretty empty so I was able to get a good look around, as the video shows, but later on I went back and I could hardly move.  The area out the back where the sheep were being born in the first season has now been changed into the bar area for his Hawkestone beer, along with other local food truck people selling their food.  Great place to spend an afternoon for sure.  Later on other people in the campsite were telling me that the queue yesterday went on for miles, and he was at the shop giving autographs for his new book.  The shops is now run by local people, but looking at their facebook page it seems Lisa and Jeremy pop in often, but not while I was there.

Mum and I had a great night at the Chipping Norton campground, really friendly people, and we had a great restful night in the motorhome after all the driving, just what I needed.

A Drive fron Lynton to Barnstaple and Back

We are spending the Easter weekend in a campground just outside Lynton and Lynmouth, after having a rest day yesterday today we need to get some groceries and take a look around Lynmouth.

My morning started with a quick COVID test.  I have been doing these every 3 days, give me some reassurance, and checks I am not making others sick.

I'm glade to report I am still negative.

Time to head off to Barnstaple, Tesco's first for breakfast bacon baps and some jeans for mum.  The store was a larger than others we had been into so we did the walk around, picked up a few things, no peach ice tea here though so lets try ASDA across the way.

Got a bit of food for dinner at ASDA, no ice tea again, seems to be hard to get this weekend, oh well.  

Next we went to a local Car Boot sale, opened at 1pm so off we went in hunt for some bargains. I have been to a couple of these in the past and they can be fun.  You pay for parking, just ₤1.  We had a good look around, but nothing tempted us, I've not experienced anything like this at home, maybe the Saturday morning riverside markets without the food stalls and veggies is as close to it.

On our way back to Lynmouth we stopped off at Arlington Court the land and house was owned by the Chichester family

and Lady Chichester handed it over to the National Trust in the 1940's.  

I love seeing all the bulbs out, for me coming to the UK in April is the best time of year, it's not to hot, the flowers are at their best and the crowds of people are not out yet.

The house is beautiful and I loved having a look around the rooms, and all the trinkets they had collected over the generations.  Getting furniture ideas...watch out Mike. 

They had a lot of boat models throughout the house from all their journeys around the world.  When I entered the house the lady at the door informed he that lady Chichester had been to New Zealand, and I found this beautiful painting of a Kiwi on the wall in the upstair hallway.

Next point of call was Lynmouth, it was getting late in the day so we were able to get some camper parking which was great and we had a good walk around the village.  As we walked into the town, we saw the end of the Glen Lyn Gorge, 

just beautiful with the jets going off over the waterfall, and the afternoon sun.

From there we continued along the main street and took in some of the shops

This photo is of the end of the National Trust Watersmeet just before it meets the sea

it seems like two different waterways meet here and enter the sea at Lynmouth

On the way back to camp we decided to pop into a pub for dinner, unfortunately they were fully booked but I did take a shot of those funny sign they had outside, not far off being true!!

Heading North-West Up the English Coast

Early start this morning, we have around 100 miles and a few places to stop off on the way.  We are really getting into the swing of this motorhoming!!!

First stop is to get Mum a coffee and me a RedBull.  It seems really weird to be stopping in at a BP even here in the UK, not like I can go to a Z or Caltex.  I must say the BP's are really different here, 80% Marks and Spencers food, 5% Wild Bean, 5% cold drinks and 10% till, why not call it a Marks and Spencers!!!....not sure what happened to the price on the photo, but 91 is 157.9 and Diesel is 179.9

We had a drive through Tintagel, there wasn't much to see as the fog was still around.  Next stop was Bude, this town has a carnal running through it down towards the sea with a lock at the end.  Not something I have seen before, really beautiful.

Next we headed towards Clovelly, on the way we had a quick stop of in a little village of Kilkhampton where I took a couple of mins wandering through the church grounds looking at all the spring bulbs, and niced they must have had a funeral during the week as they had a lovely flower arrangement in the grounds entry

Next was the highlight of the day, Clovelly  Mum had been here before but not me.  I hadn't done any research on the location so was pretty surprised by the experience and I will be honest and say I wasn't prepared..at all lol.  

Today we decided to take the dog with us, in her buggy and well lets just say cobble stones, step decline and my knee were not a good combinations, thank goodness for the New Inn and their Cream Tea's, it was a good excuse to stop and take a well earned break.

The lack of vehicular access to the main street has led to deliveries being made by sledge.  This is not done as a tourist attraction, but as a matter of practicality. Goods are delivered by being pulled down on a sledge from the upper car park, and refuse is collected by being pulled down the hill to a vehicle at the harbour., It was interesting seeing people pulling their sledges around with all the tourist around.  They also have donkeys taking loads down, this reminded me of Greece.

The views were amazing of the harbour as we got closer to the bottom.

We had a trip to remember for sure lol...luckily for me and the dog buggy there was a landrover to take us back up to the top where our motorhome was.  I think my face says it all.

Laster on that afternoon after arriving at the campsite, we had a quick bite to eat, its just around the corner from our camping site, even found a couple of New Zealand bottles of wine on the shelf

Once dinner was finished, back to the campsite and take in this amazing view from the motorhome over the Devon hills out to see of a beautiful sunset

We Are On The Move North

After 3 nights at Lanyon we are now heading north, up the west coast.  We stopped in at Newquay this morning and then moved onto Padstow.  We stopped off at Padstow for a few hours, I managed to get my boots I had seen in Looe, we walked around the Padstow harbour watching all the kids fishing for crabs, they were all so excited to be fishing and it was pretty busy, but good to get out and about.

We grabbed a couple of cornish pasties for dinner tonight, before heading to Rick Stein's restaurant for lunch, only one problem, by the time we got back to the restaurant the queue was over an hour long, dang it, oh well, cornish pasties in the motorhome it is....they were to die for and I recon probably better than fish and chips after an hours wait.

Tonight we are staying in the Tregurrian Camping and Caravanning Club Site, which is in between both Newquay and Padstow.  Mum and I have been talking to the other guests this afternoon, we finished off Bridgerton Season 2, and enjoyed Wood Fired Pizza from the truck that visited the camp site this evening for dinner.  Now I think it will be early night, as we head further north tomorrow, which will be around 3 hours of driving on the B roads, fun.