A Day of Otters

A friend from our Doc Martin group online lives nearby in Exmouth.  We are going to try to meet  with Collette but in the meantime she has given us great tips on places to visit.  Last night we were both suffering from jet lag and decided to turn in early.  It was supposed to rain today so Collette gave us some suggestions of things we could do in the rain.  She knows where we are so she is good at telling us what is close or how long it will take us to get there.

The next city over from us is called Ottery St. Mary.  It is a good size city in that it has a nice grocery store called Sainsbury where we shopped yesterday, a school, lots of housing and several streets in the downtown area that are full of all kinds of shops.  Since it was raining when we woke up this morning, we took our time being lazy then deciding what we wanted to do.  We decided to take Collette's advice and visit the Otterton Mill which is a working mill where they actually grind flour and sell it in the farm shop attached to the mill.  This turned out to be a fun trip and it really was not too far of a drive.  We had lunch in the tea room there then went and saw the mill operation and walked through the gift shop and farm shop. It is also a favorite walking trail around the mill and they have a board where people can write the wildlife they have seen that day.  Otters were leading the sightings...perhaps because there was a stream there.  Kay bought some things she couldn't resist in the farm shop...mostly sweets for us to snack on.  Tomorrow is her birthday so she is already in the "all about me" mood. 

When we left the parking lot, Kay said "which way should we go?" and I said turn left.  So we were off on another adventure.  We wound up in another place Collette had recommended called Budleigh Salterton which is a seaside town.  Very different from the others we have seen in that the surf was much rougher here and the water was muddy near the shoreline.  You could actually see the line in the sea where the color changed.  This town has a very upscale feel to it with beautiful beach front homes. It had lots of shops in the downtown area as well.  After our visit there it was starting to be rush hour so we decided to head home.  Of course we had a couple of George adventures before getting there on the all to familiar one lane road.  I told Kay I believe he is alive and enjoying taking us out of the way on these roads.

Tomorrow is Kay's birthday and her choice for the day is to go to Greenway.  Greenway was the summer home of Agatha Christie.  We have to be up early as we have a timed entry to the car park that we have reserved.  We will have tea and lunch there and Ms. Kay wants to spend some time in the book shop.  Until then, another day is in the books.....well done us!

A Day at Dartmoor

Dartmoor is home to the Royal Navy.  Kay is good with the statistics but it encompasses quite a large area of Devon.  We skirted Exeter on the M5 to get there.  There are little villages scattered throughout but they are remote.  At first the area is typical Devon with beautiful farmland divided by hedgerows on rolling hills as far as you can see.  As we ascend, the topography changes and looks more like what we saw in the Black Mountains of Wales.  It is very cold, windy and stark.  They have wild horses here.  We saw a lot of them and even managed to get close to a few later in the afternoon.  Also they have mountain sheep (we assume) because they are very different than the ones in our backyard.  These are horned and have very long, straight, silky hair.

They also have stone circles, stacks or mounds here as you can find all over the UK.  The roads are single lane with hedgerows so high you can't see what's on the other side.  Kay is doing an awesome job of driving but it is nerve racking and keeps you tense.  It wasn't until we were leaving the last village that we had our only "close encounter".  A local coming in the opposite direction chose not to wait until we could back up to a "turnout" and plowed through...honestly we were in the hedgerows on my side and she missed on Kay's side by an inch!  We were horrified....well Kay had other words for the lady.  We find the drivers here much more aggressive and not as friendly as they were in the Cotswolds.  Maybe the Cotswold people were more used to tourists or maybe they are just more layed back than here.  We are closer to a big city here.

We stopped in the last little village of Widecombe.  We got a drink and chips at the local pub then walked around before leaving.  This little village was a lot like Illmington where we stayed last year.  Little school with the children all in uniforms, a pub, beautiful church and city center. 

We set "George" to go home and he leads us on yet another back one lane road adventure that we have come to expect.  We make it home.  The weather today has been much colder and we had a combination of wind and rain with short periods of sun.

Tiny Roads and King George

We are so lucky to wake up to beautiful weather on this Sunday morning.  It is Mother's Day here in the UK so getting reservations for brunch was a challenge but we found a place in a seaside town of Beer.  Kay sets the GPS (we call him King George as he has a British accent and is very bossy) and we head off to our lunch.  George has us on these one lane roads that are winding and full of blind curves but Kay handles it like a champ!  We find the village of Beer and it is beautiful..nestled on the cliffs and  down into the cove.  We park and walk around taking in this gorgeous place.  The first time today that it will be easy to go down to the sea but an effort to get back up! We went to lunch and enjoyed the restaurant and the food.  We decided since it was a beautiful day we would drive along the coast to Lyme Regis.  Everyone had the same idea since it was Mother's Day and an unusually warm spring day.  To say it was crowded was an understatement.  We drove through and decide we will come back and spend some time here before we leave Devon.  We head down the coast further and stop at West Bay where Broadchurch is filmed.  It was also very crowded there and with difficulty finding a place to park.  This entire coastline is known as the Jurassic Coast and is a World Heritage Site.  We head on down the road and pass a National Trust Site we had been looking for but pass it before Kay can slow down.  Lots of traffic and motorcycles flying by us in both directions on very tiny roads.   We find a place to turn around and it's a tea room called the Eggcup Tearoom.  We stopped and had our first scones and tea!  Then we went back to the Trust property of Cogden which was a beach along that same Jurassic Coast.  It is fascinating that most of the beaches on this coast are pebbled and have no sand.  We managed to get down to the sea but I wasn't sure I would make it back up!  I did but thought I needed a bed by the time I got back to the car!

Beer

 

Lyme Regis

 

West Bay where Broadchurch is filmed

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This is the third turn....that's Kay way down at the bottom
 

 

Kay wanted to find this house where "Emma" was filmed.  As it turns out this house of Mapperton was in the village of Beaminster in Dorset...the very village where Martin Clunes also lives and has a farm.  By the time we found Mapperton it was almost closing time.  We drove through the property and decided we would come back another time.  We set the GPS to home and King George did a number on us.  He obviously likes the indirect routes as we spent most of the hour trip home from there on single lane roads that were frighteningly narrow.  With high hedgerows on both sides of the road, you can't even see where you are or what's on the other side....or who may be coming at you the other way around the next bend.  We made it home and were both "knackered" but we spent some time at the fence when we got back watching our "cheeky" sheep.

Martin Clunes lives here...we really weren't celebrity stalkers

UK Road Kill....they are everywhere

Mapperton House

This morning (Monday) we were both tired and lazy.  We couldn't decide what to do but it was again another beautiful day.  Kay said she saw that this may be our last day of sun for awhile so we drove to the city of Exmouth.  Again this is on the coast but further toward Cornwall than where we were yesterday.  We decided that we needed to get organized and I needed to bring my iPod so we could do Carpool Karaoke.  We laughed a lot and had fun.  This city is beautiful too.  We first went to the Cliffs of Devon where the trip down to the beach was even steeper than yesterday.  It was a beautiful place though and the English are a hardy bunch...out on the beach with kids in bare feet running around in the water.  It warm but down on the beach it was windy and the air was cold.  There was a cute little restaurant at the top with picture perfect views.  From there we went to the other side of the city where there is an esplanade (boardwalk but made of concrete).  We really enjoyed our day there.  We walked the beach and the walk and got ice cream.  People came there to eat lunch in their cars, walk their dogs or get ice cream and enjoy the scenery.  Then we decided to go to Exeter to see the Cathedral and the Quay.  This is a way bigger city than we thought and it was almost 5 by the time we got there.  Way too much traffic when you are unfamiliar with the roads, so we quickly found our way back to the M5 and headed home.  We stopped at the grocery to get some things and George again took us home on road only a pheasant would use.

We fixed some dinner and are trying to finish up the blogs but the internet after the first day here is just awful...worse than on any ship.  It takes forever to upload anything and if we are both trying to do it, its hopeless.  As a result, the number of pictures posted will be drastically reduced to preserve our sanity.

Another two days in the books...well done us and proper job!