A week in Devon

 

After our trip to The Byre in Sussex, we headed back to Wonky Cottage to repack our bags to head off to Devon for the week!

We booked a beautiful thatched cottage in North Bovey, located on the Dartmoor National Park it was a great base to go walking.

The journey down was around 4/5 hours. We stopped off in Arlesford which is a sweet little town so Rosie could stretch her legs and we could have a coffee. We then stopped again at Shaftesbury for another wee and snack stop.

We arrived to our cottage on a rainy Monday afternoon around 5pm. After unloading the car we had a look around and then headed straight to the pub, a mere stone throw from the cottage.

We were both pretty tired so we enjoyed an early sups and then home to bed.

The cottage was SO warm and toasty, they had a lovely red aga in the kitchen and then underfloor heating in the rest of the rooms.

After a good nights sleep and a plentiful breakfast of scrambled eggs, courtesy of the welcome hamper we received. We loaded up the car for a day in Salcombe.

It was beautifully sunny and we were looking forward to a long coastal walk. I had been to Salcombe when I was a teenager and had fond memories of my trip there. It is also the filming location of one of my favourite Miss marple episodes so I was keen to visit!

We parked up and then headed to Snapes point which is a walking loop managed by the National Trust. We found the loop on Alltrails which is such a good app for walks.

It was such a joy to be surrounded by the countryside and then have views of the sparkly seas. There was a nice breeze and we could walk without our coats for the first time in months!

We passed fields of lambs bleating for their mothers, wild flowers and just endless views. The air felt so fresh and the land looked so lush. The loop was around 2 hours and afterwards we had lunch in the Crab Shed and wandered into Salcombe town for ice cream.

We started to feel the chill as the sun started to go down so we got back in the car to go home. Happy and full bellies, isnt it just so magical being by the sea? I could really see myself living in Devon, its the perfect mix of country and seaside. The seaside towns near to where I live are so tacky and not nice at all.

The next day, we walked a loop from North Bovey to Moretonhampshire, another two hour loop but we stopped for coffee halfway. The weather was being a bit iffy, we started off in gorgeous Spring sunshine and then we faced strong winds, rain, hail and then more sunshine!

This walk was so scenic, like something from a film. We must have passed through 20 fields, it started to feel like a storybook and it inspired me to maybe thinking about writing a childrens book - my imagination went into overdrive so watch this space!

The narrow country lanes, the stone lined walls, the rolling hills, the greener than green grass, the thatched cottages, the farm land it was all so lush and delicious.

On our last day to enjoy expliring, we had hoped to do another coastal walk but we woke up to thick snow! I felt like I had skipped Easter and woken up in Winter. We wouldn't have been able to drive anywhere so we had the most chilled out day in the cottage. We cooked breakfast on the aga, watched films, read magazines it was actually really nice to slow down and fully relax. It felt like Christmas.

The house is called 'The Riddle' (we booked in through Unique Homestays) and the reason it is called this, was due to the Sherlock Holmes styled clues for guests to solve and there was a prize locked in a Dartmoor prison lock! 

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit how hard it was, we had been trying to complete it all week but on this last day with nothing to do I was on a mission to figure it out, which thankfully we did in the end but it would have really bothered me to have left and not known what the final code was!

We left early on the Friday to avoid the long weekend traffic. We wanted to visit the Pig in Devon, I have visited/stayed at around 7 of them now so I wanted to pop in for coffee and had rung them in the morning if it was ok to come and bring Rosie, and the girl said it was fine to sit outside but in  the case of rain we could sit in the Folly.

So we arrived around 10am and whilst the rain had stopped, all the chairs were wet and the Folly didnt open until 12pm! This was really irritating as we wouldn't have bothered going but we had a mooch around the gardens but left pretty quickly. Like all Pig hotels, it was a very beautiful building and I should imagine a great place to stay.

The journey home was actually really good, I think most of the traffic was heading in the other direction. I actually dont like going away over bank holidays, I prefer to spend the time at home enjoying the time off and not stuck on a motorway somewhere.

Anyway, a very wonderful trip, not long enough and I really want to go back in the Summer months, perhaps stay somewhere more coastal and eat more ice cream!