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

Isabella Up & An Ilfracombe Fish Supper - 26th July ‘20

Sharing a bed with Finners is hard to put into words. Most of the time he lies at right angles to Kim and I. Imagine a capital letter “H” with Finners the horizontal. Then, every 30 mins or so, the person who wins the lottery of life and has his legs facing you gets a good kicking. This kick resembles an Olympic Back stroke swimmer scrunching his legs up and then thrusting off from the side with all the night he can muster.

We were up and about fairly early this morning. The delight that is a holiday lie isn’t something that’s going to figure this week I’m afraid. By 10.30 we had breakfasted and in a position to start putting up Isabella. This had to wait for gaps in the rain and wind. Luckily there was enough non rainy spells to get her up. And considering the slope, resembling, something you might come across in the Himalayan foothills, she went up amazingly well.

Kim and I scoffed at the description of an awning being a divorce in a bag and worked well together to get her up. I then pegged her out - with a little help from the boys! Yep, fairly pleased with this erection. Not bad on the timing either.

We were out the campsite gates by 1pm, heading for Asda at Barnstaple. We stocked up on food, toys and DVD. Given its size it wasn’t a very impressive Asda - although it might be that this virus has sucked any sort of enjoyment out of any retail experience?

We then headed into Ilfracombe. We parked by Verity (the huge Damien Hurst statue of a naked pregnant woman) and headed for the nice chip shop on the harbour called Lynbay. It didn’t taste quite as nice as last year but was still bloody good.

We sat by the harbour to eat - spending a lot of mental and physical energy trying to ward of a particularly determined and hungry seagull! Kelly’s Ice cream for afters. I had my normal ... Cornish ice cream with clotted cream on top. A fitting meal for a day that the news is full of warnings of the dangers of obesity!

We tried a bit of crabbing but Kim was a little worried about the Twinnies falling in so we left empty handed. Notice her hanging onto them in the pictures below. We headed home via the pretty coastal village of Lee but by the time we got there the rain was belting down so we just headed back to camp.

I finished bringing all the stuff into Isabella so we could have tea and biscuits around the camp table. The boys clearly had a significant amount of energy still needing some place to go, so I took them for a walk while Kim tidied up.

Then it was a DVD and crisps for them and a Zoom quiz for us - finishing 2nd again in Beth and Ben’s weekly quiz. We seem forever to be the Bridesmaids and never the Bride.

We decided to have a funniest moment of the day award this holiday. And the winner today went to Finners falling off his chair in the awning. To be fair to him it is at quite a slope (I don’t know if I have mentioned that??) But he toppled backwards very dramatically then tried to stand up and fell over again. Luckily, Finners thought it was as funny as the rest of us!

Sitting in bed, listening to the wind and rain and contemplating another, even wetter day tomorrow. Never mind, we are sharing a bed with Harry tonight so less likely to get a kicking but more likely to get a bit of a thump.

North Devon (July / Aug ‘19) - Day 4

Perfect weather day today. Sunny cloudless skies and 24 degrees - also, the strong westerly wind seems to have blown itself out!

George, Finners and Charlie didn’t have a great night - turns out the second hand air bed we inherited has a slow puncture! Funny, the only thing we have not bought new for our caravan adventure is a dud!

George cooked a great fry up breakfast on the Cadac and the kids caught up on Jurassic World while we got ready.

Charlie wanted more body boarding so we planned a return trip to Woolacombe. Now, and here’s a funny story with a happy ending ...
I’m not a fan of going back to the same place twice so I looked at the map and found a nice place (with car park and shop) at the other end of the Bay - somewhere called Putsborough Beach. Kim has been caught out by my “risky” geographical decisions before so she was keen to impart the importance of the decision being a good one! Well it turned out the cliff road I was looking at was a dead end - a long car park called Marine Drive where the only way down to Putsborough was a 30 minute walk / climb down the cliffs with Twinnies, body boards, buckets, spades and Grandmas. Oh how we all laughed when we realised!! Anyway, as it turned out, we went as far as we could go with the cars down a track and stumbled across a steep but scalable and short(ish) path down to a perfect part of the beach with hardly anyone there. The weekend hordes were all at either end of the beach and we were in the middle - a classic case of victory bring snatched from the arms of defeat. Unsurprisingly, I modestly didn’t claim any credit for the turnaround in our fortunes!

Anywho.. we passed away a very pleasant afternoon doing all the beachy things but with much less people and more dogs than yesterday - what’s not to like?! Turns our Charlie is a natural at body boarding. The water temp and waves were about perfect. For swimming too.

At the end of the afternoon a clamber up the hot sand dunes and steep path was brightened up for us all by Kim falling flat on her face into the dunes!! Then off to Ilfracombe ...

Laura and George fancied proper seaside fish and chips before they headed home. Kim consulted Trip Advisor and we found s fantastic place called Lynbay Fish and Chips https://www.lynbayfishandchipsilfracombe.co.uk/ Lovely staff, perfect chips, gorgeous fish (I had hake!) and iPads for the kids to play with! Another success for Trip Advisor and defo a recommendation from the Pitts and MacArthur clan.

A Cornish ice cream cone with clotted cream whilst watching the boats in the harbour was a perfect end to the day.

Back to Brunnehilda for goodbyes and then Laura & George hit the road for the long drive home.
The Twinnies and Charlie played while grandma and grandad had an evening cup of tea watching the sun set over the Bristol Channel - or is it the Atlantic?!

Either way, all is quiet on the “Viking” front so we cross our fingers and go again!