Devon Holiday 2003

Friday 23^rd May 2003
  This morning Kevin went to school, and he then came home at lunchtime.
After lunch we left for our holiday, weather was sunny and showery.
Journey was OK, until Birmingham, when it was terrible, we were virtually at a standstill.
We continued very slowly until we got to our hotel, The Holiday Inn at Gloucester, where we had a room booked.  We arrived at about 6pm, we had a nice room, with a double bed and a bed settee for Kevin.
After settling in we went to the pub next door called ‘The Bumble Bee’ for a lovely meal.
Then we went back to our room and watched TV and went to bed, nothing else to do.

Saturday 24^th May
Another day of sun and showers.
We got up and had breakfast of cereal, toast and croissants.  Then continued on the journey.   We had a nice hour of motorway travel, then the traffic started building up, and was really bad around Bristol, we went and looked around Western-Super-Mare, then decided to continue without going on the motorway, we went on the A39 over Exmoor and had some spectacular views, we had lunch in a little pub, and arrived at Meadow Cottage about 3pm.  It is a little place in Devon called Lichardon, which was not on the road map, luckily I had purchased an Ordance Survey Map, and it was on there, or I don’t think we would have found our way.
It is a lovely cottage, very small, but very pretty in a converted barn, it was plenty big enough for us.  After settling in, we went to Barnstaple, the closest town, and had a walk round, then went to Sainsburys for a drink and did some shopping.
We were getting pretty overtired by now.

Sunday 25^th May
We got up and had a good breakfast, then we set off for a walk called ‘Codden Sips’ from Country Walking April 2002.
It started at Bishops Tawnton and took us over the top of Codden Beacon where there was some spectacular views, we went wrong somewhere and missed a turning, then we had to go down a very deep descent for quite away, it was very soft underfoot.
Just after Bob said be careful you don’t slip, I went down on my backside, got up and down I went again, then Bob went down, and we slid and skithered all the way down the hill, with Kevin joining us occasionally, this led to a lovely woodland walk.
At the end we had lunch at a lovely pub called ‘The Three Pigeons’ in Bishops Tawnton.
Then Bob and Kevin played pool while I read my book in the beer garden.
Then we went back to the cottage, Bob and Kevin did some modelling while I read.
Then we went to see ‘Kangaroo Jack’ at Barnstaple Central Cinema.
There was chicanes on the way into Barnstaple, Bob said ‘these are meant to slow you down but they are really fun woo hoo’.

Monday 26^th May 2003
Overcast but fine.
Today we went to Tintagel in Cornwall, we arrived at 11.30am had some sandwiches at a teashop, then went down to the castle, which is supposedly King Arthur’s Castle.  First we went down to the beach and visited ‘Merlin’s Cave’ we thought to do that first as the sea was coming in and we may not get a chance later, we went in the cave.
Then we went upto the castle it was a very steep climb, we listened to a man telling stories from King Arthur’s time, then we explored the island, when we went down we had a Cornish cream tea and looked round the shops.

Tuesday 27^th May 2003
A lovely day, but misty near the coast.
Today we went to Ilfracombe,  we looked around the town, and I checked my bank on the library internet.
Then we climbed the head and looked over the scenery.

Wednesday 28^th May 2003
Weather lovely but misty on coast.
I got up and decided to go for a walk into Barnstaple, that was 5 miles away, and I made it,  Bob picked me up at the bridge and we went to Looe in Cornwall to visit Peter and Linda, on the way we stopped at a lovely Pub and had lunch outside. Looe is a lovely little town we visited Peter and Linda but they were busy, so we took the ferry over to East Looe and looked round the shops then went back to West Looe to have a drink with Peter and Linda.   I saw a lovely Dragon coffee table I would have loved.
Then we went to Polperro, which I have been to before and absolutely loved, a lovely fishing village, we looked round a model village.  And had fish and chips in a café which was not brilliant though.

Thursday 29^th May 2003
Weather wonderful and hot
Today we went to Clovelly, a privately owned fishing village, very pretty, cars are not allowed down there,  it is very steep cobbled road,  Kevin did a quiz,  when we got to the bottom we had dinner in ‘The Red Lion’pub overlooking the quay.
Then we struggled upto the top, and went and had a look around Bideford.

Friday 30^th May 2003
Weather wonderful and hot
Today we went to Pecorama, which is in Beer in South Devon, this is a theme park based on the Peco model railway stuff.  There is a model railway exhibition and some wonderful spectacular gardens with lovely views and a miniature steam train going through the gardens.  We missed a turning on the way home and had a meal at Notcutts Chef which was lovely.
Kevin and Bob had a great time.

Saturday 31^st May.
Weather fantastic.
We packed up and left for home, we had breakfast off the M4 when we had put the bottleneck Bristol behind us.  We made good time and was home about 3pm even after a couple of breaks, we were both very tired.