Learning new skills

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That is exactly right; we went fly fishing and then hawking in Dartmoor on a quick weekend break in the country. Early doors Saturday morning we head down country to Exeter St David’s, then took a bus to Mortonhampstead, from there a taxi to Bovey Castle. A beautiful estate with a world class golf course set on the out skirts of Dartmoor National Park. We had lunch on the terrace of the castle on a bright sunny day. After that we meet Paul our fly fishing instructor. We learnt the ins and outs of casting, flicking the wrist, making the line lie on the water just so. We practiced with pink wool on the end of the line so we didn’t hurt ourselves or Paul, by hooking ourselves. When we graduated to hooks I believe we had scared all the fish away in the little pond from all our practice ‘casting’. We got the hang of it in the end, it was good fun. Then we set off to find our B&B, Lower Hookner Barn, after a few circles we headed to the North Bovey pub for a cool drink and directions. And then back we went the same way we had come… after about 2.5miles we arrived at our sweet little B&B, the owners were lovely and half way through the tour of our room the lady went screaming out of the room and the next thing we saw was her burning across the paddock with a large broom in her hand … a few issues with a fox killing their chickens. We were very lucky as they dropped us back at the pub - Ring of Bells Inn - we had a extremely nice meal, we were lucky to get a seat as the place was heaving. And there were all types of posh cars parked around the village green, there was some money in North Bovey. The following morning we were off, on foot again, heading towards Dartmoor Hawking School of Falconry, Puddaven Farm. We had a brilliant day, learnt all about birds of pray and then getting to fly a few. By fly I mean they landed on our gloves… it was really exciting! We started with the Owls, which we learnt were very stupid animals, but beautiful and very graceful, the largest just looked amazing swooping in from the other end of the field. Then we flew the little Kesral, which was sweet, its talons / feet where amazing, using them like hands. After that we headed to the Moors to fly the Harris Hawkes, it was really cool strolling along with a couple of Hawkes. Great ending to a fab weekend away

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I have also included a couple of photos from a day walk Jane and I did, from Seaford to Eastbourne, 13miles on the dramatic coast line.

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