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!

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!