Devonshire Tea

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We are in England for a long working holiday from Australia and decided to do a 8 week road trip around the British Isles (after a prolonged period of social isolation and saving). This is our first blog, and we decided to do a 'his perspective'/'her perspective' kind of thing as we see things in very different lights. We are hoping to write about our holiday and give some tips we've picked up on the road...or at least be so boring that you can use it as a cure for insomnia.

- Rhys and Georgia



Day 1: London > Salisbury




His side - For me, doing an extensive holiday of the UK/Ireland is a dream come true, as I am both a medieval history fanatic, and a 60's music snob. So this is the day, where we picked up our caravan, which was a van-cum-sleeping-vehicle, converted from being a small van but now able to sleep a couple (and have room for a fridge and small pantry). We left London in an Uber, with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. This holiday was something a bit different for us, we had only been to London before, and usually our overseas trips were pretty meticulously planned. This had a more relaxed feel. We signed several insurance documents in a haze, and after an explanation of how the car worked we were off. Our plans were to do Stonehenge in the afternoon and then drive to Exeter. Unfortunately when we arrived Stonehenge had closed for the day. So we had a look in Salisbury, which is a beautiful little medieval town with a cathedral (there will be a theme emerging here with towns and cathedrals). We enjoyed dinner at a lovely little Italian restaurant and headed off to our caravan park. I really enjoyed Salisbury, it was quaint, with cobbled streets and a beautiful central market. The cathedral was beautiful, I enjoyed it even more as a drunken female was belting out Mardy Bum by the Arctic Monkeys in the park around the cathedral. It's the small things in life that make it memorable.




Her side: We were finally on our way, we have been lucky enough to travel a lot over the past few years - but this was different. We have a van, a rough idea of where we want to go and no concrete plans. I am a control freak - always have been and probably always will be and this notion of unbridled freedom scares me. I'm usually not one for a laissez-faire attitude but I was determined to give it a shot and maybe let go a little. Our first stop that afternoon was meant to be Stonehenge, it had been a long day already, it took a lot longer then expected to get to the depot to pick up our van and sign all of the waivers (because if my degree is good for one thing it's making sure you read the fine print), we drove through picturesque country side with music blaring, excited for the next fifty odd days of life on the road. We drove up to the gates of Stonehenge but before we got too far we hit our first hiccup... it was closed for the day.... in our quest to be carefree we forgot to look at what time the last entry was... maybe I'm not ready to let go quiet as much as I thought... Plan B meant finding somewhere to stay for the night and starting fresh the next day. We stopped in a cute little town, Salisbury, where we wandered through the square, had dinner and then stopped by a cathedral. One thing you will notice that really differs between the way Rhys and I see the world when we are travelling is our impressions of the places we visit - we notice different things and take different things away from the experience. Rhys takes in the cathedral as a whole and the sounds of people singing in the park - I notice the arches and spires on the building and the trees and flowers in the garden. Although our day didn't go as planned, we discovered a beautiful village that we wouldn't have if things had gone the way we had expected them to... maybe this laid-back approach to our trip might be fun.




Day 2: Salisbury > Exeter




His side - We arrived bright eyed and bushy-tailed for Stonehenge, and were the second group to be let in. A plucky little gentleman from Heritage England sold us on a annual pass, which proved cost-effective as we planned to do a lot of site-seeing over the next 8 weeks! (I will milk this ticket for all it's worth. let me assure you, much to Georgia's chagrin as she sure does love castles). Stonehenge was enjoyable, the audio-guide sucked. Basically, it's a massive structure, monumental even, they've done some repairs (as some rocks fell over years ago). It boils down to this: they know how it was built, when, and what material was used. They have no idea for what, but think it was related to death and a burial structure. I was disappointed in the lack of druids meeting aliens theories, but that's just me.... I love this stuff, I get fascinated by our past, and prehistoric humans. And I love whacky conspiracy theories, so I was hoping for a two for one special. Georgia and I then drove to Exeter; here is a hot tip - if you see this place - keep on driving. There is not much on offer here, we stopped by and bought a couple of necessary items for the car. You might guess, there is a cathedral here, which we saw. Not much else. It reminded me of a place called Wyong back home. Similar in the sense that it would make baby Jesus cry. We then got a tad tipsy at the Pub located in our caravan park, and discussed an array of interesting metaphysical, philosophical, and political themes. Jokes, mostly we talked about cat memes and ate the hottest nachos in existence. It takes some time to adjust driving to the little country lanes, and round-a-bouts. We have round-a-bouts back home, but the English take it to a whole new level. There can be easily three round-a-bouts in a row, with all traffic seemingly unaware of how it functions.




Her side: I love history, I really do... but I'm more intrigued by modern history then that of the ancient variety. I understand the importance and significance of a place such as Stonehenge, and I was in awe of such an interesting structure and the mystery which surrounds it, but I get bored really quickly (another thing which differs between Rhys and I - he loves an audioguide (usually - but this one sucked apparently) and will read every word of every sign in a museum... every. word.) However, he was ready to move on after a few happy snaps and I couldn't be happier. We hit the road again and stopped at Exeter for the night. Here I might mention that we are planning on camping for a large portion of the trip (me?...camping?...the idea itself is hilarious right??), the park we stayed at was really nice and had its own pub which was fun (a lot of Pimms was consumed), and I began to come to terms with the idea of not being able to do my makeup or my hair properly until the end of May. May!???!!!!




Day 3: Exeter > Plymouth > Tavistock




His side - Alright, so I'm a bit more in charge in this holiday, which is a refreshing experience. Also one that makes me nervous. Usually Georgia plans everything to the nth degree. It also meant that I felt a bit of responsibility to get things right. Roughly... like right enough for me, which basically boils down to having a pub I can drink at and a place to sleep in. And castles on the way, did I mention I like castles? I wanted to go to this place called Jurassic Coast near Exeter/Exmouth, and look at a couple of beaches, which were meant to be beautiful. Untouched, pristine heritage. Yada, yada. Thing is, it's like 90 miles of beaches, and I just wanted to look at a few. I found the address of some of the more exotic looking beaches on their website, and punched it in to our GPS. We nearly drove to Wales. After my bad mood subsided (I had a tanty, and got out of the car to do Australian swearing, while Georgia quietly giggled in the car eating a banana), we then drove to Plymouth. Plymouth was nice, and we spent the afternoon walking around and exploring. There are some nice old streets and a gin brewery. Some interesting history about Sir Francis Drake, and where the Pilgrims left on the Mayflower. I wouldn't recommend spending more than a couple of days in Plymouth (sorry Plymouth!). It's nice, but I reckon you can do everything here in a day if you tried. Explore the harbour, go antiquing if you like, and have a beer (or ice cream if that's your thing) and watch the world go by. I'm sure there is a cathedral here, but I didn't see it disappointingly enough. We then drove to Dartmoor National Park and stayed in a lovely caravan park that was placed on a farm. Georgia got chased by some ducks and chickens, which I enjoyed immensely.




Her side: Another day, another drive (one where we somehow ended up on the opposite coast to where we had intended to be... but you know, these things happen... and after another 2 hour drive we were in Plymouth). We wandered around the coast which was really pretty, I had some amazing sea salt fudge, then we headed back out of town to Tavistock to stay the night on a little farm before heading out for a hike the next day. The reality of spending 8 weeks in a van was beginning to set in... there were so many things we hadn't counted on - where were we going to store the guitar Rhys insisted on bringing? Where are we going to charge our laptops etc? Were we actually going to be able to do this? Here we decided that we would need to break up the trip a little more... we had already planned to stay in Airbnb's, hotels and small pubs/bed and breakfasts at a few stops - mainly in major cities, however we may need to take a few more small breaks as well. There is no actual power source in our van, we had thought it could connect to power at a camping ground, but all we have is the cigarette lighter in the car, which is fine for charging our phones and ipods through a USB adapter, but it wasn't going to work for our laptops. After a quick google we managed to find a hardware store that sold a power outlet that could be plugged into a car - we were back in action and able to watch Westworld again, because really god forbid we would actually have to talk to each other or read a book.




Day 4: Tavistock




His side - The next day we did a hike in the Lydford Gorge (I'd thoroughly recommend this, it's a 2 hour walk through a river, waterfalls, and a forrest). We ate some scones and drank tea (a peace offering to Georgia, as she does not like hikes). We then saw some castle on the outskirts of the park (it's massive) and drove to Okehampton to see another castle (well the ruins of one, I was on a mission to milk my heritage annual pass). I'm pretty sure Georgia sat in the car playing Pokemon when we got to Okehampton castle. Saying something along the lines of - "I'm not going to see another f**king castle after walking for two hours." I began to realise people of Devon where quite chatty, and it was a requirement on my behalf to answer politely the much expected question - "where are you from?", with "Australia... a place north of Sydney" (like a little game, that they were clever enough to guess my accent). This usually was followed by a discussion of a relative of theirs who went to Australia, lived in Australia at some point, defecated in Australia at some point, or had relatives sent to Australia as convicts. I really liked the people of Devon I met. Extremely friendly, I'm just adjusting to my accent being a conversation point that needs to last longer than 5minutes. By the way, Okehampton castle is just ruins. I enjoyed the walk, and the view was beautiful, the audioguide insisted on having some female act as a lady de courtenay for the castle to explain the place. This apparently was designed to add to the authenticity of the experience. It just felt like a posh bird talking about latrines in my ear for 30minutes.




Her side: Tavistock was such a pretty place to wake up - the sun rising over the paddocks.... it was serene and just beautiful. I did have an encounter where I was chased by an army of chickens and ducks who thought I had food, I'm still a little traumatised but Rhys saw it from afar and is still laughing about it. The hike to the gorge was not my cup of tea, don't get me wrong there were amazing views and beautiful waterfalls, but I'm not the most co-ordinated person on flat ground- hills, rocks and moss are not fun for someone as clumsy as me.

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