Laid by the girls living on Dartmoor!

Devon used to be ever Englishman's dream place for his retirement, a tranquil county with pretty villages and lots of green countryside. The south-west (Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) is still a beautiful part of England and certainly worthy of a visit. There were many tourists here on Dartmoor - mainly British, German and a few Chinese a long way from home. We only encountered a couple of North Americans - and they were Canadian! So, choose your time of year and come on over. I see it won't be next year - you're going somewhere that's "fun with warm weather" and the latter is not something we always have here!

Castle Drogo
It was a five-year, £13Million project and has been beset with problems, including the company which was carrying out the second phase going into administration and bringing work to a halt until a new contractor was found. It became a six-year project, but I think it's still hoped to finish work late this summer or in the autumn. Check the National Trust website for up-to-date news. When I visited way back in 2014, I climbed the scaffolding for a birds-eye view of the work but doubt there'll be enough scaffolding still in place by the time of your visit for you to do that. If it's not completed, they may have some hard-hat guided tours of the site though. It's worth a visit - not outstanding as it's really just a rich man's folly but, as the last castle to have been built in England (albeit in the 20th century!), it's an historic place with great views of the countryside.