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Published: June 26th 2016
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The beach that was a riverbed
Budleigh Salterton with Sheila and Jona We were in the UK because it was the most convenient place for flights and because we wanted to catch up with some friends but, basically, the plan was to get to Ireland. There are a few options for travel from London to Ireland. RyanAir is probably the cheapest; the train to Holyhead and then on the Ferry is the next; and hiring a car, driving across to Holyhead and hopping on a ferry is definitely the most expensive of those three. We picked option three.
You can see little from a plane and our trip to Morocco meant that we had way too much for poor RyanAir to carry. The train would be OK but you can't stop and get off wherever you want and those rails aren't terribly flexible. A car it was to be.
There are a few things to consider when you hire a car, mostly things that arise from mistakes previously made. Like the time we picked up a rental at Victoria Station having not driven in England – let alone London – before, or the time in the centre of Vancouver, having not been on the wrong side of the road before. Pulling
Forest Gate Station
From the train to Ilford on to a six-lane expressway was so much fun. So we hired a car for pick-up from Barking. You don't know where Barking is? Neither did we but we did know it was walking distance, more or less, from the Rosalee Hotel in Ilford where we had a lot of luggage and we figured that we were so far out of London already that it shouldn't be too hard to make the extra distance to where the roads might be a little simpler.
The bloke on the desk at EuropeCar didn't look terribly happy to see us when we walked through the door. We fronted up to the counter and said we had a booking and he started to run through what he needed. Booking number, copy of the booking, passport, licence, evidence of tickets out of the country where and when. I was able to produce everything he needed. The change in mood of the guy was interesting. We gained some insight into why, as another customer was taken through all of the things he needed before he could hire a car, clearly not for the first time.
After we had done the paper work the guy
Rockclimbing
On a groyne at Poole Beach produced our car: a very neat little Smart car-for-4, quite new and looking very … smart … and (fairly) little.
It took longer than we might have thought to get out of London but it was an easy trip. The GPS did its job well (purchased at a store in Stratford for far less than the hire cost and needed when we get back home), and the navigator and driver cooperated (Ed. Note: the driver actually listened and didn't keep querying!) without too much drama. We had booked a place at Poole the first night for not much other reason than that we should get there around 4 o'clock which, on this trip, is a good time to stop.
Poole is a beach side place very popular with English holiday makers. There weren't many around when we were there. Still a little early in the season. It has a very nice sandy beach lined by many, many beach huts and chalets. Every hundred metres or so groynes had been put in place to try to hold back beach erosion.
We walked the length of the beach, then further back and then back again and a little later
we found the path that led through the bush to our B&B. It was a good walk although just a little longer than we had anticipated.
The next stop was to be Budleigh Salterton in Devon. We had decided to stay off the motorways as much as possible and weave along through the lesser roads so that we could take in more of the country. We worked along the coast trying to convince the GPS to accept that we really didn't want to go the fastest possible way if it meant tearing off down the motorways. The navigator handled it all well but we did end up in some interesting places and when the roads started getting so skinny that even the Smart car was having to suck in its breath, I was pleased to arrive at Budleigh Salterton and at the abode of Sheila and Jona.
Some of the readers of this blog may know this couple or know of them. Let us tell you they are nicely set up down here in the depths of England, have developed their cooking skills since Africa and are still able to enjoy a drink even if they live in
Holyhead
Behind the seawall a place that is decidedly damp a lot of the time.
The 'beach' at Budleigh Salterton is one of the rocky ones we chortle about in Australia. For the first time, though, I have been given a reason – a proper one – for the rocks. Turns out it that the entire place is an ancient river bed. I won't go into to it all because I simply won't get it right. Have a chat to Mr Google and you will get the information. It is interesting stuff and means I won't be able to laugh at the Poms having rocky beaches any more, at least not for the ones in this part of Devon, aka the Jurassic Coast.
It was a great night in Devon and lovely to reminisce about the great truck trip through Africa, and talk almost non-stop about myriad other topics, but we needed to be in Holyhead in two days so we had to move on next morning. It was up the M5 towards Gloucester where we turned off and headed for the Welsh coast, hopefully, through the Wye Valley, which is reputed to be a lovely drive. We turned off in the
appropriate place and then found ourselves spat all over the country trying to avoid a cycle race being run along some of the main road. There were strange detours, double-backs and by the end of it we were simply going with the flow, seeing more of the country than we ever imagined was there but, eventually, rolling along down the Wye Valley which has to rate as one of the really beautiful drives to take in this part of the world. The weather, which had cleared to a beautiful day, helped.
Aberystwyth in Wales is said to be a remote town. It goes to show that 'remote' is a relative term. The Welsh coast here does have that sort of feel to it. Things could probably become a little lively when a storm rolls in across the sea from Ireland but, when we were there, the sun was shining and the weather was benign. The town is all dressed up with the houses along the waterfront painted brightly in different colours. We wondered how they worded the town ordinance that enforced that but concluded that you probably couldn't enforce it, rather people would likely follow it because it would
be interesting and fun to do so.
We liked the way that Aberystwyth dealt with its ancient monuments and buildings. They were there and they were given appropriate respect, but the rest of the town infrastructure was built in and around them. A child care centre and play ground were incorporated around the ruins of an old, and apparently important, church. The old castle was there and incorporated into a public park. No special rules for entry and everything nicely cared for.
The next day we held very much to the smaller roads that hugged the coast. We had made good time the day before and would easily make Holyhead this evening to catch the ferry the next day. It was a good day of poking along narrow roads, stopping at an out of the way cafe where we met a lady who had left Blacktown in Western Sydney many years ago and never gone back (not a bad move considering where she ended up), wandering down roads that we had to reverse out of and eventually coming to Holyhead on Anglesey in northern Wales.
Holyhead is a ferry terminal. It also has a massive breakwater which
Our Smart Rental
Note to self: check the photos soon after you take them and you might spot the dirty filter took years and many pounds to build. Forty people died in the construction of this breakwater and, at least for a time, it was the largest in the world. It also used to have a very large hill. It is not quite so large now given that much of it is the breakwater.
We had a good night at Holyhead in a delightful place called Crossroads, run by a man who brought efficiency and effectiveness to the keeping of a guest house and ended up with a very comfortable place.
Next morning, on to the ferry and out of the UK and into Ireland.
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Sarah
non-member comment
Baby swans!
That is all. ps Ma your hair is looking fabulous!