Combe Martin and Lynton - 2nd Sept ‘20

Normal August weather resumed today - grey and cool all day with regular drizzle highlights in the afternoon and evening. It didn’t stop us having a nice day though!

It started, as all our nice days do, with a splendid breakfast. The croissants from the site shop really are lovely. You need to remember to order them the night before but they are certainly worth that bit of extra effort. Of course they would have been even better eaten outside enjoying the wonderful sea view but hey, it’s August!?

After a bit of debate we decided to set off for Combe Martin - one of the places we hadn’t yet visited in the local area. We went via Ilfracombe and the coast road so we had a very pleasant 1/2 hour drive to our destination. We parked at a small car park overlooking the bay / harbour. They call it a harbour but there is a distinct lack of boats - one to be precise!

Combe Martin is one of those seaside places that changes totally dependent on the tide. The sea was virtually at low tide so there was acres of sand, shells, rock pools, caves and walkways to explore. At high tide it would have been totally different - just as pretty but probably not as interesting.

Before we started exploring we went to the Harbour Deli to stock up for a picnic lunch. And it was rather splendid. We shared a nice tuna salad and a very eatable flapjack. The flapjack was particularly pleasing ... I’m a bit of a fan but about 95% of bought flapjacks are inedible, like a slap of sawdust. This was perfect- chewy and moist!

The constant drizzle necessitated the finding of a cave. The one we found had a lovely view across the bay so we could eat our lunch as we watched the tide begin to come back in. Indeed if we had still been sitting there about 4 hours later it may well have been a little scary as it would have been very easy to get trapped.

The English summer weather means that caves are at a premium so, eventually we were forced to share. And when one of the said sharers lighted up a fag we knew it was time to go. A lovely 45 mins while it lasted though.

It was about 2.30 do we decided that the drizzle would be manageable if we went to Lynton for a poke around. When we were there earlier with the boys we had noted some interesting shops but when you have Twinnies in tow you tend to avoid closed spaces with nice things!

Ok, so it wasn’t Oxford Street but there was enough of interest to browse to keep us going for an hour so. Of course, being us, we had worked up a thirst / appetite so we found an open coffee shop called Laceys - a number were closed - for a  cuppa.

We decided to go home a different way - a good decision. We followed the coast route back through The Valley Of Rocks and Hedden Valley. It took some time but it was stunning - even in the drizzle! That said, we collectively didn’t fully appreciate the views- I had one eye on the road, which was narrow and scary for most (the road not my eye!) and Kim had 2 eyes on my 1 eye that wasn’t on the road!

Home via The Depot for an early tea. It was busy but very enjoyable. Kim had pizza (well to be fair about 1/4 of pizza) I had Veggie Nachos. By now it was raining properly!

As soon as we pulled up to Brunnehilda I realised I had left my bag in the coffee shop. Nothing really to morn except my glasses! We watched a Tom Hanks film - A Beautiful Day in The Neighbourhood. Feedback from the one word critic was “slow”. I would add “harmless”. I’ll give it a 6.5 out of 10.

It feels weird going to bed tonight ... we leave Brunnehilda on her own in the morning. She is due to be put into storage on the farm here for a month - it feels like leaving the dogs in the kennels but worse as she hasn’t got company! And, for the first time since we’ve had her (I think?), we are leaving her with no plans to use her as we currently have no Autumn bookings made. We definitely need to get this sorted and keep Travelling with Brunnehilda!

Back to Woolacombe (3rd time!) - 1st Sept ‘ 20

We left it at the height of Storm Francis but we returned to Damage Barton, for the 3rd time this summer, under blue skies and 18 degrees sunshine. 

Kim and I stayed overnight at a Premier inn at Exeter. We popped into Darts Farm (we knew from last year) for breakfast and then drove the 70 miles up to Woolacombe. The breakfast was Ok but nothing special - although my strange choice of Eggs Royale probably didn’t help. I’m sorry but Smoked salmon really doesn’t go with Hollandaise sauce!

We arrived at Damage Barton at about 12.30. It was lovely to see them all. We caught up sitting in Isabella before heading out to Barricane Beach. They had done a good spring clean on Brunnehilda removing all evidence of a week of Twinnie / Charlie abuse! There were a couple of little “breakages” appeared over the week but, to be fair, both were borderline warranty issues. The usb connector has become dislodged and can’t now be accessed and the front window blind is split so is hard to keep down.

The sea was really rough so the planned kayak launch didn’t happen. The whole beach visit didn’t happen at one stage ... I managed to lose my keys when parking up! We knew they were somewhere in the car as it would still start! 30 mins later we found them on the roof!! Needless to say I received lots of helpful feedback from my wife and daughter on how I might avoid repeating my faux pas!!

We spent a lovely couple of hours on the beach - clambering over rocks, paddling in rock pools and, of course, taking the opportunity for a swim. Although it was so rough, we couldn’t get out very far.

We wandered up to Woolacombe for an ice cream, a wee shop and a quick blast on the mini racing cars, before Laura, George and boys said goodbye and started the long journey home.

Kim and I headed to the sunny upstairs balcony of The Captain’s Table. The view was splendid as we caught the last rays of the afternoon sun. The food was ok although we did manage to over order on the chips!!

Back to Damage Barton via a petrol film up. During which we bumped into an old Volvo colleague! Small world eh?

It seemed to take ages to strip the inside and then take down Isabella. By the time we had finished it was pitch black! For some reason (I guess old age might be the best guess!?) we were both very tired so after reading and snacking it was time for bed!

South to North Devon & More Weather Related Stress - 24th August ‘20

Normally we have glorious weather for our moving days - this one wasn’t. A bit of sun but mostly grey and cold. By the time we got to North Devon we were faced with very low cloud and drizzle.

The journey, especially at the North Devon end was extremely busy. It should have taken us 1 3/4 hours but ending up taking over 2 1/2. So we arrived at about 2pm to the Damage Barton Club site at Woolacombe. Our 2nd visit this summer and 3rd overall - we like it.

The purpose of today’s visit is to set up Brunnehilda and Isabella for Laura, George and the boys to have a weeks holiday in her.

So, having arrived in plenty of time to get set up, it then all started going a bit astray. Firstly, when we arrived there was a big sign up advising against putting up awnings! We had just survived Storm Ellen on the south coast and now we had Storm Francis on its way in. It’ll be Storm Gobsh*** next week no doubt! What bloody weather. Problem is , we didn’t have any choice - no awning, no holiday for Laura et al!

The second problem was the almighty mess I made of levelling her. The pitch was heavily sloped from back to front so I needed to get the jockey wheel as low down as possible to enable her to be wound up to maximum height. Im not sure how I did it but in messing around, the jockey wheel came apart and went so low I could neither raise her or lower her - I was stuck. I grabbed one of the wardens, a very helpful chap called Phil and with the help of a very powerful drill (to raise the front stays) and huge dollopings of experience and common sense - he got us sorted!

Then straight onto the Isabella erection. You could almost feel the Storm brewing in the air so we had no time to waste. As it happened she went up fairly easily - not much over an hour. We also put on a storm strap - we got it last summer when we where on this same bloody hillside in the wind, but hadn’t yet used it.

It was quite ironic though, as we were putting our awning up, the bloke opposite us was taking his down in preparation of the brewing storm?!

Into Woolacombe then for a bite to eat. We went to our favourite- The Red Barn. The service is excellent, the food good and fantastic value - especially as it’s a Monday and another chance to eat out to help out!

Back to Brunnehilda and to bed. The rain is lashing down outside now. Although, according to the forecast, the worst of the wind won’t hit until tomorrow evening! So it’ll be Laura and George not us lying awake cursing the British summer weather tomorrow night!

Smallcombe Farm CL:

Pros:

1) Very friendly and pleasant owner

2) Nice views across Dartmoor

3) Handy placed between Salcombe, Dartmouth and Totnes

4) Good facilities - nice shower and ok toilets (unusual for a CL)

Cons:

1) All those Devon Lanes - with and without Brunnehilda

2) Noisy - could hear the A38 over the fields 

3) No where easily to walk from the site

4) Poor 4G. 

Walking to Lee - 2nd Aug ‘20

Much of the same today as yesterday - and just as nice! 

A leisurely morning but instead of omelette, we had freshly baked croissants from the camp shop - not quite so good but darn close.

We left the site at about midday, walking down the hill, this time not turning left to Mortehoe but kept on walking down all the way to the gorgeous little village of Lee.

It was about a 30 minute walk literally all down hill. We had hoped that the little coffee stall would be open but it wasn’t! What a missed opportunity for someone as it was quite busy.

The beach at Lee is about the complete opposite to Woolacombe - very rocky, very few people and very sheltered (no waves). We found a nice spot on the rocks and watched the world go by. As with yesterday the urge to swim grew - especially when the sun came out and the water seemed to be calling out to me!

I have to say it’s one of the nicest swims I’ve had in some time. It was like a mill pond, very warm (once in) and lots of rocks to explore. It was so pleasant that Kim even said she might have been tempted - if she had had her cossie with her!

We walked back up the hill at about 1.45, taking our time with a couple of stops to catch our breath. We went straight out when we got to Brunnehilda and were in Ilfracombe by 3 o’clock.

As this was our last day we went for “blow out” ... a shared fish and chips from Lynbay and a Kelly’s ice cream - in my case topped with clotted cream! Here’s a question where does the clotted cream end and the Cornish vanilla begin??

Back to Damage Barton by 4.15 for a shower and final pack up of Brunnehilda. As we are trying to minimise the amount of stuff in Brunnehilda for her upcoming service we put a lot more equipment in the car- in fact she’s full to bursting!

I was tempted to try and back her out but hey, why have a dog and bark yourself? Why have a motor-mover and make an idiot of yourself in front of all these judgemental caravan types? We hitched her up perfectly - which was nice compared to last weeks fiasco and were heading out the gates by 5.45.

We arrived at Blackmore Vale at Shaftesbury by 8.15 having had a splendid trip over. We hitched up and had a simple tea, watched a couple of episodes of The Wire and “crashed out”.

Tomorrow we leave Brunnehilda behind for the week as she has her first service.

These post COVID days means they have to have her for a week as they aren’t allowed to step foot inside her for 3 days - unclean unclean!! I plan to leave them with a list of small warranty jobs to be sorted as well.

So here ends a smashing week. Lots of fun with the boys and a couple of days of rest and relaxation (although lots of walking!) to finish up.

Damage Barton Caravan Club Site, Woolacombe:

Pros:

1) Fabulous (hard to beat) views

2) Good location for fabulous footpaths

3) Good location for Woolacombe and Ilfracombe

4) Nice shop

5) Laid back staff

6) Nice big pitch

7) Toilet block open all morning (until 1.30) so you never have to worry about it being shut 

Cons:

1) A long walk up the hill to the facilities 

2) Sizeist wash rooms

Walking to Woolacombe - 1st Aug ‘20

Let me start of with a bit of a moan - best to get it out the way and off my chest. My skin crawls when I come across any sort of ‘ism. Racism and Sexism are rightly becoming more and more rivalled - thank goodness. In fact the only sort of ism left that seems to be left unchecked is heightism. I could go on about aircraft seats but that’s not the issue that’s exercising my sense of injustice this week. This is such a nice site in so many ways so why oh why do they think sizeist washrooms are acceptable? 

When the person put this mirror up they had a choice to make - they could make it work for 4 ft 9 inch to 5ft 9 inch people or 5 ft 2 inch to 6 ft 2 inch people. They choose the former when all the laws of decency, statistics and average male heights where screaming out for then to chose the later! There is no acceptable reason for this - and I don’t believe it’s ignorance- other than a bias hatred towards any one over 5ft 9 inches! And before you bleat on about things being put up high on supermarket shelves, imagine a shelf system with nothing down below than a purposely left 3 ft gap with shelving extending up to 8 foot - there would be a bloody outcry.

You’d think with this being such a big issue for me that we had a bad day today? Nothing could be farther from the truth - we had a splendid day.

It started with a cheese and mushroom omelette which is the only way to start a good day. A lot of lazing about and reading while the weather improved from grey to sunny spells. 

We were locking up the van at about 1pm. We had decided to walk into Woolacombe - via Mortehoe -  about 3 miles each way?

We knew the way very well by now as we had walked across the fields to Mortehoe twice already this week and made the drive in between Mortehoe and Woolacombe more times than that. The walk along the road, which is fabulous by car, is even more impressive by foot. You see so much more when you are not driving - there were some mighty impressive properties all the way in. There isn’t really a gap between the 2 places, they just merge into one.

We bought a coffee from a converted horse box in a lay-by and then found a bench on the cliffs edge and watched the surfers for 30 mins or so. We came to the conclusion that surfing was rather like fishing - 95% waiting and 5% activity / excitement. That said, it would still be really cool to be able to do it!

We finished our walk into Woolacombe and had a quick look round - it was very busy although the beach wasn’t as busy as the 2 days we were on it! We bought a pasty and headed on up the Mortehoe Road to try and find somewhere nice to eat it.

We luckily stumbled on a lovely place - again not visible when in the car - called Barricane Beach. It was a tiny little cove, especially as we were there when the tide was in, with a  shop / takeaway specialising in Sri Lankan curries. The curries where available from 5pm and it was now 1/4 to 4. So we ate our pasties sitting against the rocks on the beach watching the world go by. The sun was more out than in at this stage so it was very pleasant.

Now I can resist most things but a swim in the sea is a hard one for me. Luckily I had my trunks with me so my craving was fulfilled. 

It was soon 5pm and we joined the queue for the curry. It was clearly a popular place as within 10 mins there was queue of 20 people all the way up the slipway down to the beach. I have to say it was lovely - I succumbed and had chicken. We shared a portion between us. Unlike me, Kim avoided the flesh and stuck to the Dahl, sauce and rice. 

We went a different way home. Walking up a very steep National Trust path, through a beautiful little glade and then into another campsite. We walked through the site and then were only about 1/2 mile away (along the main road) to our campsite. 

A smashing circular walk, a swim, a curry, a laze on the beach, a coffee watching the surfers ... what’s not to like?!

We had a cup of tea and watched a DVD - First Man with Ryan Gosling playing Neil Armstrong. It was good - 7 out of 10 probably.

In between 2 film watching sessions we took down Isabella and loaded her up in the car. There is always a touch of sadness taking her down as it normally means the trip is over.

The smashing day was finished off with a late night call from my old Volvo buddy, Barrie Collins. So the world was put to right by two 61 year old codgers before the blog was finished and the light turned out on the first day of August.

A Day at Lynmouth / Lynton & More Woolacombe Beach - 29th July ‘20

Little sun but no rain today. A pleasant enough 18 degrees from early on until evening so no real complaints on the weather front. If only the same could be said for kicking the crap out of your elderly grandparents front?! I finally had enough at 6.30 and, some would say rather cruelly, put the full weight of my legs over my 5 year old grandsons legs to keep them as still as possible. It worked, to a fashion, but the “fight” had woken me fully and that was it for my nights sleep. Finners woke up fully refreshed and ready to go at about 8.30. 

We had a pleasant leisurely morning. Breakfasting, reading, gaming and playing a bit of football. The wind break remains up but the wind has now virtually gone.

At 1pm we headed off to Lynmouth / Lynton - arriving around 1/4 to 2. Amazingly we stumbled across a perfect (and free) parking spot - the village was very busy and the pay and display car parks crammed full so that was a considerable bonus!

Lynmouth is such a pretty place - it’s hard to believe the devastation caused from the 1952 flood! As it happened we went on quite a special day in Lynmouth’s history ... the wonderful old gothic looking hotel perched right up on the top of the cliffs was being bulldozed to make way for some other development! Kim and I had first come to Lynmouth on our honeymoon - 40 years ago!! Apart from the disappearing  hotel, not a lot had changed.

In typical fashion, as soon as we arrived we wanted something to eat. We bought a rather splendid takeaway (I had homemade crab pasty) from a wee cafe / deli right by the harbour. Harry said it was the best lunch ever! A little over dramatic but it was good! We ate it on the stoney beach.

We decided to wander up to the LLCR (Lynmouth & Lynton Cliff Railway) and get a return trip on the old Victorian funicular. The queue was huge - the chap estimated over 45 mins!  Not something that any of us fancied, so we decided the best plan would be to drive up to Lynton and see what the queue was like up there. It seemed rude not to buy an ice cream on the way back to the car. Guess what flavour the Twinnies had?

I had forgotten how steep the road hill was up to Lynton? The sign said 18% which, I think, in old money is about a 1 in 5 gradient! I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be towing Brunnehilda up there!

We parked up and found the top of the railway. The queue was indeed tiny so we were soon enjoying the view as we headed back down to Lynmouth.

Once at the bottom we visited the toy and beer shop- yep, there is a shop in Lynmouth that sells toys and local beers and ciders - what’s not to like about that?! So toys and beer were bought!

We also had time for a 10 minute rest by the river and the boys and I paddled our feet - it was blimin’ freezing! The plan fell apart then ... there was still a 45 minutes queue for the Cliff railway to get back up. After a brief discussion about options - including walking up the steep steps to the top - we decided to sit it out in the queue.

By the time we got to the top it was gone 5 and we just headed for the car and pointed her back to Woolacombe.

We literally threw all the beach stuff in the car and headed for Woolacombe beach car park and the cheap parking -after 6pm.

There was no sun but it was pleasant enough and the sea was very warm. Charlie enjoyed body boarding and the Twinnies just raced around lapping up every moment - as only 5 year olds can do! Once the water fun was done with there was a lot of sand based activity before we trudged back to the car.

They say there is no gain without pain and the gain of a nice session on the beach is an equal match for the pain of sand bloody everywhere and that horrible job of getting 3 wet / sandy boys “car ready”!

We decided to head for the Thai takeaway in Braunton. It looked nice and it must be - there was a 1 hour wait for food. We might have waited but the kids wouldn’t last out so we found an empty Chinese takeaway down the road. We discovered that there was a good reason why it was empty - it was poo!

Anyway we drove home and none of us really ate much. Partly because it was late and folks were tired and partly because it was poo!

The boys were too tired to watch a DVD. We went through the motion so of putting it on but all 3 were asleep by the time the adverts were over!

Harry joins us in bed tonight. Laura is due down tomorrow and it’s due to be hot!

Off to Woolacombe - 25th July ‘20

Back on the road after 4 months of COVID lockdown. As we’ve all had the dreaded virus we feel more than happy to be out and about in this horrible new post pandemic world.

Although what a bloody day. Lots of mistakes (maybe the 4 months break had coddled my brain), a huge long journey and plenty of weather!

George brought the boys around at 9.15 and that’s when the troubles started - although this time nothing to do with the terrible Twinnies! Yesterday I had put (with Bobby’s help) Brunnehilda out of the front garden and into the church car park. So my plan was just to hook her up and go ... yeh sure?!

It took an age to hook her up - don’t know why - but once we had I couldn’t get her through the church gates very easily. So we un-hitched again and man handled her around the corner. Hitched her back up, or so I thought, and started up Brington Road. And then it happened... crash bang, and all I saw in the rear view mirror was Brunnehilda getting further away! I had not hitched her on properly and she had slipped off. In doing so the emergency brake had come on (which is a good thing) but of course this meant the emergency brake cable had broken!

So we hitched her back up (correctly this tine) and headed of to Venture Caravans to buy a new one. It wasn’t easy to fit (well for me it wasn’t!) but 30 mins and lots of rude words later we were off. So the departure time, which should have been 9.15 was gone 10.30!

We arrived at Damage Barton Caravan Club site, Woolacombe at nearly 7 o'clock - over 8 hours travelling time. 240 miles in 8 hours with 2 short stops - you can do the maths! The Saturday traffic was awful. We stupidly went on the A303 which for about 50 miles was traffic jam after traffic jam. We got a nice view of Stonehenge though - in the pouring rain.

And by this time it was raining! I don’t think I’ve every seen rain like that outside of the US. We struggled to go over 30 for several miles - which was ironic as 10 mins before and 10 mins after we were stuck fast in a jam!

We stopped at MacDonalds at Newbury and Taunton Dene services. Both stops were a little depressing as the world of queuing to get in, one way traffic inside buildings and face masks is well and truly with us ... uck!

I have to say, the boys were brilliantly behaved. Considering they had been in the car for nearly 10 hours, there wasn’t even a cross word let alone any fisty cuffs!

When we arrived at Damage Barton we took on water and then went to our pitch. It has a lovely sea view but has an alarming slope to contend with. After a lot of fiddling around we got her level - although pitching on a slope like this is going to make getting Isabella up a bit of a challenge in the morning!? One of our neighbours was so alarmed by the angle we were pitching at, he came over to see if we were OK?

Once I got all the services sent up the boys and I went for a stroll while Kim sorted out the inside of Brunnehilda.

A bite to eat (purchased from the onsite shop), some gaming, and then off to bed to watch a DVD (Rio 2).

We are due rain tomorrow but we’re hoping for a better day than today. That said, it felt nice to be snuggling down in Brunnehilda’s giant Teutonic bed - although fidgety Finners will be joining us later!!  

Moving from North to East Devon & Sidmouth - 1st Aug ‘19

As Franki Valli so aptly put it ... “Oh what a night?”. Although not for Franki’s reason. Ours was purely Grandchild based. Charlie has a scary habit of sitting bolt up right and talking in tongues. Finners seems to have a central point of balance around his belly button and then, whilst fast asleep seems to go around like a Catherine Wheel - indeed it is so distressing the last time I witnessed anything like it was a scene from The Exorcist. But the most genuinely worrying MacArthur junior evening activity was poor old Harry. He had a massive coughing fit and ended up wheezing quite badly. Kim moved into bed with him and ... you guessed it - broke the Dinette bed again! Needless to say, it was far from a restful night.

Which was unfortunate as today was moving day and involved lots of effort and a small amount of stress. Up at 8am and 2 1/2 hours packing up, taking down and Twinnie herding got us ready to leave with more than enough time to enjoy a coffee and a bacon roll from the camp shop.

A 90 minute journey got us to our next campsite, The Mallards (near Exmouth) at 1.30pm. An altogether smaller affair with just 5 pitches and some very questionable facilities!!

Laura arrived at 4 just as we were putting the finishing touches to Isabella. I’m much happy with the look of her this time- which I guess was due to the fact it was a nice flat pitch. Kim managed to keep we’ll clear of falling poles so all in all it was a bit of a result.

We were all starving by this time - fancy that?? - so we went the 10 miles to Sidmouth. It’s only when we got there that we realised it was the place that my parents went to every year. Indeed we tried to eat at their regular hotel but we were told they were too busy to accommodate us as we wanted to eat outside. As it happens that was quite a lucky break as we walked .next door to Dukes and had a fab meal. I had the Brixham Fish Pie which was excellent.

There is a week long Folk festival going on so the place was buzzing. We watched some Morris Dancers before buying more ice cream and heading for the shingle beach to throw stones for a bit. The Twinnies are in their element with a whole beach of pebbles to lob.

Stocked up at Waitrose on the way home and got settled down for bed before 10. Kim and I are sleeping in Isabella tonight. Leaving Laura to face the horror show that is sleeping with the MacArthur boys!!

As promised, here are my pros and cons of Damage Barton Caravan site:
+ The view was bloody amazing
+ The gorgeous walk from the campsite down to Lee
+ The office and shop staff are super friendly
+ The facilities are spotless
Conns
- Sloped pitch
- Long walk to the chemical toilet disposal point
- Not enough toilet cubicles. Had to queue most times and everyone knows what you are queuing for!
- Other campers not as friendly as a CL site
- The mirrors in the wash rooms are sizeist. Why put s 9” mirror up to cater for 5’ to 5’9” folks - in a gents toilet!? Put it at 5’5” to 6’2” and cover the majority of the male population!