Last Days in England

Mon :  21^st July, 2014.  This morning we drove through the lovely Exmoor National Park to lovely North Devon, travelling through Dunster and along the narrow, winding and often bumpy A396, more suited to small cars and motorbikes than motorhomes, and ignoring our GPS “Kenny’s” constant pleas to turn right onto even narrower roads in order to shorten the journey by a few yards!

We stopped at Tiverton for a lunch break and a viewing of the Great Western Canal

before continuing on to Little Torrington, where we had planned to stay tonight and to cycle the Tarka Trail, or part thereof but the campsite wasn’t terribly inviting and so we moved on, through Bideford, Westward Ho and on to Bude, on the North Cornwall coast where we will stay tonight.

Tues : 22^nd July, 2014.  We travelled south along the A39 from Bude to Wadebridge today, then on to the skinny B3314 to Rock which proved to be a slight mistake as hundreds of others had the same idea, i.e. to catch the passenger ferry across to Padstow but parking was a huge problem.  We became stuck in a queue of cars trying to get into the car park until a gap in the queue presented us with the opportunity to turn around and on the way out of Rock we visited Sharp’s Brewery (brewers of Doombar, Mike’s very favourite English beer) where a couple of souvenir purchases were made.

On the way we spotted the town of "Pityme" Where do they get the names of these towns from?

The next stop was at Lanhydrock Park near Bodmin, Cornwall’s most complete Victorian country home, set in an estate covering 900 acres including gorgeous gardens and is one of the most impressive homes we’ve had the pleasure to visit.

On the way to Lanhydrock we were directed by GPS “Kenny” down a narrow, hedge lined lane, pulled over to allow a couple of oncoming vehicles to pass, one of which being a metallic, soft top mini, driven by a youngish woman who was heard to remark “You have to move over”, whereupon I was compelled to explain to her, in words of one syllable, that we were already as far over as we could possibly be without actually being IN the hedge and that there was a big enough gap between Boris and her mini to ride a bike through, before she realised that her precious car was in no danger of being scratched or damaged in any way and drove off!

We are now in a caravan/camping field on a farm, also near Bodmin, with beautiful views all around and very peaceful.

Wed : 23^rd July, 2014.  On the way to Exeter today, we detoured into Launceston but unfortunately, weren’t able to find a parking space for Boris so that we could visit the castle, so had to move on.   Our intention on reaching Exeter was to go for a ride along the cycle path by the River Exe, but we had difficulty at first in finding the car park and when we eventually did, it was full…no room for Boris, so after a quick trip to the supermarket, we continued on to Salcombe  Regis for what was to be our last night with Boris, in the caravan park where we spent our first night out back in April.

Feeling slightly jaded, we opted to spend the remainder of the day relaxing in the shade and later in the evening, watched the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on TV.

Thurs : 24^th July, 2014.  Last time we were here (at Salcombe Regis) we walked down the big hill into Sidmouth and caught a bus back but today we were able to catch the free shuttle bus (which runs from the caravan park during the season) down and back and enjoyed a couple of hours wandering around this lovely seaside town. 

Our next stop was at nearby Seaton,

another seaside town where we enjoyed a walk along the seafront in the sunshine. 

Several people were in swimming in the calm, blue water which looked very inviting…we didn’t go in but bought pasties from a nearby bakery to eat while sitting on a bench overlooking the wide pebbled beach.  A very large seagull was sitting on a wall a little to my left, I took little notice of him until he swooped and knocked my pasty out of my hand, hitting my shoulder with some force and scattering the pasty all over the bench…I was not happy!

From Seaton we drove through lovely countryside back into Somerset and onto the M5 for a short distance to Highbridge, where a visit to the caravan accessories shop yielded a new tap for the kitchen sink as the old one was leaking and beyond repair.

A little job for Mike for tomorrow!

Mon : 28^th July, 2014.  Today is D for Departure Day.  The last few days have been spent cleaning, packing and preparing Boris for his hibernation, with a visit to the Village Flower Show on Saturday and after leaving Boris at his winter home on Sunday morning,

a barbecue lunch prepared by Marion, cooked by Mike and attended by Sally and Steve, a lovely and enjoyable afternoon in the English sunshine with our English friends.

Shortly, we’ll be on our way to Heathrow for the flight home.  As always, it is sad to be going, but WE’LL BE BACK!