Month: July 2013

After a nice catered breakfast, as we are staying in a B&B for the few days in Cornwall, we headed south to Tintagel. Day was already getting rather warm by the time we were walking down to the castle at 10:30.

Had a good wander around the headland in the heat, with barely a breath of air to cool us off. If it wasn’t for all the steps down, the water at Merlins cave looked inviting.

Walked up to church and back with us slowly cooking and Nerida in particular not happy. On getting back to the village, went straight into the pub and got some drinks and food, in that order of importance.

More photos from Tintagel.

Once refreshed had a wander around the shops, before heading back to Boscastle. Had a wander through the shops as well as down to the harbour, even though the water was well and truly out.

After a cream tea, we hopped back in the car and headed for Widemouth Bay, where there is that rare beast of a British beach with sand.

Tide was well out and very slowly starting to come in. Had a nice paddle in the water which cooled us all off. At one point I felt something tickling my toes and noticed that I had a fair sized shrimp having a nimble at my foot.

Had some ice cream cones at the beach before heading back to freshen up before going out to dinner.

Tomorrow we head north for Hartland point and round the corner to Clovelly.

Another travel day as we move between bases. Goodbye to Laurel Farm and hello Lower Tesmore.

After a mixed breakfast as we finished all the bits and pieces, and a quick clean of the place, we headed off for the trip south to Lyme Regis. A good mixture of A and B roads and about 5 miles on a motorway. Got to Lyme Regis just before 12, so had a quick wander and Nerida brought a beautiful ammonite pendant from one of the many fossil shops.
Walked towards the harbour and stopped at the Bay Leaf restaurant for lunch. Nice view out over the bay and towards the harbour.

Some really nice modern food, I had seared scallops hand picked from the bay that morning, Nerida had a pint of prawns and Dana a really good pasta with chicken and pancetta. Turns out a pint glass full of sweet small prawns is actually a large number of prawns and took a bit of effort to get through.
From here continued walking down to the harbour and around the breakwall. Seas were dead calm under blue skies which was very different to when Nerida and I visited many years back in winter under grey skies and howling winds.

More photos from Lyme Regis.

After some icecreams, we hopped back into the car and headed west to Cornwall. Trip was mostly major A roads and quite uneventful. Got to Tresmore around 5pm, and had the fun of following the instructions from the note tapped to the front door as our hosts were out. Got all our stuff up to the room easily enough, then Nerida and I went for a short walk while Dana stayed reading in the room.

Decided to head back to Bude for dinner and see what was available. The TomTom took us a very scenic, though narrow and difficult to drive route along the coastal path. There were places where we were scrapping both side mirrors at the same time the road was so narrow between the hedges.
After a quick wander around Bude decided on pizza which we took down to the beach and ate looking out over the water with a cricket game going on beside us.

Returned to the farm along the same roads and meet our hosts when we came in.

Plan for tomorrow is Tintagel and Boscastle.

Let Dana have a sleep in again after getting back late from Ledbury. Got away late morning and headed cross country for Lacock via Bradford upon Avon. Had a nice wander around the historic town doing some shopping.
Photo gallery of Lacock.

We then headed south down to Stourhead where we had some lunch in the cafe. Dana’s pork and apricot sausage roll was the pick and damn good.
We then headed into the gardens for a walk around. The gardens are well worth the visit and we spent almost 3 hours getting around. Nerida was very happy with seeing the sights from Pride and Prejudice and now wants to watch the movie again, though she has already found the bits she wanted on YouTube.

Photo gallery of Stourhead.

We then took a quick drive out to King Alfred’s Tower, though only to look from a distance as it is only open on weekends.

From here back cross country towards Bath thanks to the GPS and home. Packing this evening to head off for Cornwall tomorrow. Plan is to head south first for Lyme Regis for a quick fossil hunt, then west across the top of Dartmoor to our next stay at Lower Tresmore just south of Bude.

Off to Herefordshire today with a trip to Goodrich castle first. GPS took us across into Wales then north up the A40/A449 through Monmouth.
Goodrich is a small castle in reasonable state and very accessible in terms of climbing through most of it.

More photos of Goodrich Castle.

From here we kept north on the A449 to Ledbury and lunch with Andy, Marjorie and Kate. They are currently renting in Ledbury while they find a home in the area after selling Holmfirth up in Yorkshire. They showed us details on a home they’ve put an offer on in Hereford.

Sat and talked with Andy while Marjorie finished getting lunch together. We had a lovely lamb casserole, potatoes and chard. Dana polished off her lamb even eating the carrot in it, but not the mushroom.
Desert was a cheese cake and a mountain of mixed berries and creme fraiche, followed by coffee and chocolate.

We sat out in the sun for a while talking further, before moving back inside when Andy wanted to show some of the family tree details to us. He also got out the Bewick family silver to show us that was given to (if I get this right) my great great grandfather.

In the end we talked through most of the afternoon and didn’t leave until about 8pm when Dana was starting to look a bit tired.

Was really good to have a quiet day just talking with family and the chance to see Kate, as she is about to head off for six months in Spain having packed in her job and wanting a break.

A quiet day today. In the end we had to give Dana a bit of a push to wake up by opening the blinds at 10am. Nerida and I had a relaxing morning reading – finished The Road. Really enjoyed it for the first two thirds, but then got annoyed as it felt like we were in a loop doing the same thing once to often.

Once we finally got moving decided to head to Cheddar Gorge and see the limestone caves. Went into the Gough cave first and while it was pretty it certainly is not in the same league as Jenolan. We managed to catch up with a guided tour and the guide was saying that they found a new cave that has a single the size of the current whole complex with massive pillars, but it is not readily accessible, so not available to the public.

Stopped for some lunch in one of the tea rooms, before going through the smaller Cox cave. Off the end of this is the Crystal Quest a tacky themed walk through.

Had a look through the shops, with Nerida getting some jewellery including some ammonite earrings.

Photo gallery of Cheddar Gorge