Devonshire

Devon

Nat's surprise weekend away!

We left London about 3pm embarking on our weekend adventure, to Devon. It was a surprise location, all Nat knew was that we were off to Devon, which is a huge county in south west of England. We imagined the traffic would be bad, so left London mid afternoon. We couldn’t have got worse traffic. It was stop start a lot of the way. We stopped at Stonehenge for Cam to take some pictures and stretch his legs. Back on the road, it was starting to get dark and we were still on the road!

We pulled off the highway about 9pm and by this time our auto route on the laptop was no help, as all the roads were called ‘local road’! The roads are very narrow with big 6 foot high hedges on the sides. There are little divits in the hedges for you to squeeze your car against for passing cars to get by! All this when it was fairly dark and we had no idea where we were going! Well we eventually made it to the town, well its not really a town, more a village with a pub and that’s about it! We had dinner at the local which was very nice, luckily we made it there at 9.29pm cause they stop serving at 9.30! By then we were absolutely starving and Cam was exhausted after driving for almost 7 hours! We searched for our B&B by the lights from our mobiles, this village had no street lights! Not even mobile reception! I don’t think we have ever been anywhere so isolated! We found our B&B and checked in. the host was lovely, and very nice considering it was after 10.30 by now and we were supposed to arrive by 7!

We wake up and head down for breakfast. Looking out from our stunning breakfast views, the weather was looking pretty crap. It is a very grey and overcast day and Cam wanted to take me somewhere sunny! We enjoyed our breakfast, one of the best we’ve ever had. Everything was home made, bread, muesli, jam, plunger coffee, freshly cut fruit, and the big English breakie! We were spoilt! All this, looking out on the green rolling hills and the ocean in the distance. Very beautiful place! We decided to go hiking out to the ocean and along the coast line. The owner said it would be about 1 hours' walk. I wore jeans, a singlet top and my rain jacket thinking it would rain, it was quite dark and overcast. We walked up to the ocean, about a half hour walk, and the sun started shining! We couldn’t believe our luck! We didn’t really consider the day would get hot and continued our hiking, up green rolling hills, along an amazing coast line. We were up on the cliffs and the views were breathtaking! This is England and we never expected it to be this good! We made it to the top of one of the hills and my phone started beaping, out here in the middle of nowhere, on top of a hill and I get a message from my brother! Very freaky! We keep on walking to the next town and enjoy an icecream. We decide to keep on walking, by now its really getting hot and we have no hats or sunscreen. I have to interchange having my jacket on to shelter my skin or take it off and burn! We dropped in to a nice little craft/jewellery shop and bought a top for Nat. Only one there and a perfect fit! Home made top too! We arrived near Burgh Island and there was a big beach shop. Nat bought a hat, probably a bit late, but better late than never! Cam bought a Frisbee. We walked across to Burgh Island. Its an island when the tide is in and when the tide is out, it creates a massive sand bank over 100 metres wide. When the tide is in there is a big sea tractor to get the residents and tourists across to the island. The beach was packed with families, people swimming, kicking balls, playing Frisbee. It was like being at home in the summer! It was sooo nice! Cam put his swimmers on and attempted going swimming, but even he deemed it far too cold! It must have been cold water for him to turn down a swim! We flew the Frisbee around for a while, which was a bit of fun. Lied in the sun. We sat outside at a café overlooking Burgh Island. For a late lunch, a very enjoyable meal with the sun shining and the smell of fresh ocean air in our lungs! The thought of walking back to our B&B was awful. We had walked so far and we feeling very sunburnt. We walked back to the last town and were given a quicker way to walk home. It was up hill the whole way and we were hurting! Our muscles were hurting from the walking and we were suffering badly from sunburn. Eventually we made it back to our room, had a shower and relaxed for a while. We were stuffed! That night Cam took me for dinner to a restaurant the B&B recommended. It was in a town called California Cross. The middle of nowhere! It had been named this from being at the cross roads of 4 towns in the area. Nat had some lovely fish, very nice, but quite a small meal for what we paid. Cam had a pretty forgettable steak. At least the restaurant was lovely and the company was great!

Sunday we woke up and the sun was shining! We got up, and we were in great pain! Very sore legs and feet, and really bad sunburn. The green rolling hills looked even more spectacular! We enjoyed another great breakfast and chatted to the English couple that were staying in Devon for a break too. Today we decided, no walking! Cam was the chauffeur for the day. We headed to North-East Devon, they call it the English Riviera! The town is called Torquay and it really did remind us of the French Riviera, Nice in particular. We couldn’t find parking anywhere unfortunately, so drove down to the next town called Paington. We had a nice cold drink sitting outside under the beach umbrellas at a pub. We had a platter to share and sat back and relaxed for a bit. On the way, Cam saw a go-kart track and couldn't resist going out for a rap. It was a very average track but still a lot of fun.

Further down the coast, we went to ‘Berry Head’. A gorgeous point overlooking more cliffs. Very nice. From here we headed to Dartmouth. Took the car on the ferry across the river. We really loved it here. A completely different feel to the town. We found a quaint little tea house, sat outside in the shaded courtyard and enjoyed a real ‘Devonshire’ cream tea. We both agree they are probably the best tasting scones we have ever had! They just melted in your mouth and didn’t leave any baking powder after taste like a lot of scones do. From here we looked at the Dartmouth Castle and then headed back through Kingsbridge and Salcombe towns. By now it was getting quite late and we were craving pizza! All the towns were pretty much closed up, the only place open being a pub. Not what we really wanted. Cam had the crazy idea of driving a further 15 miles to Plymouth! We found a pizza place and got it takeaway! A long drive for a pizza, 30 mile round trip! We had a really nice bottle of red waiting for us in the B&B. We bought it a while back at the French Food Fair that was on when the Tour De France started, hence why we wanted some Pizza to go with it!

Monday, my birthday! We had our last delicious breakie. I had poached eggs made for me today. Beautiful fresh strawberries and lots of home made bread and jam. Mmmmmm! We hit the road mid morning, stopped in a little town for lunch. It was a bakehouse. Nat had a piece of quiche with salad and Cam had a big baked potato. Cam disappeared for a bit, saying he forgot something in the car. Cheeky boy bought a stable table as a present! I was getting anxious to move on, but just before I got up to leave, the waitress bought out a piece of apple crumble cake with candles on top and everyone in the bake house sung me happy birthday! I felt very special. Turns out Cam even bought the candles when he ducked out!

The drive back to London wasn’t as bad on the return, thank fully! We arrived home about 7pm after a wonderful weekend away. THANKS CAM for a truly memorable birthday weekend. xxxx