Blogs from Devon, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 41

Hi! Welcome to the first in hopefully a series of journals as I blog my way around Latin America over the next few months. If you’re here because you were invited, thanks very much for turning up, and I hope you’ll be back! If you’re just passing through then welcome to you, too! So here I am, sat on my single bed in my old room at my Mum and Dad’s, writing lists, reading guide books, making piles of Useful Things; anxiously anticipating the next phase in my life. On Friday I fly out to Ecuador. Three months later I fly back from Guatemala. And the intention right now is to jot down most of what happens in between in this blog, so tune in regularly! Having said that I’ve never managed to finish a single ... read more

Geo: 50.592, -3.68952We were the first ones into the <a href="http://visitbath.co.uk/site/things_to_do/p_25681">Roman Baths</a> at 9:00. Very cool stuff. Seeing the same structures/drains/pools that the Romans built some 2,000 years ago, still functioning just as they were meant to was really amazing. There's so much to see in that seemingly small building! I was the only brave/silly enough to try the Bath water that they sell for 50p per glass in the restaurant. It was warm, so I couldn't really tell if it tasted much different from any other glass of warm water one might drink. I felt a little funky for a short while, but no long-term effects. We then took a walking tour of the city with Denise, a charming resident of Bath. It was quite cold, but we learned quite a lot about Bath and ... read more

Today it rained virtually the whole day. We still walked most of the route, stopping to make a decision before each section. We drove through “Devon lanes”, i.e., hedges close on both sides of the road – close enough to brush the van most of the time. On the moor the wind blew the rain horizontal, over the tops of the hedges and more or less above the van. We stopped at a crossroad and walked for about twenty-five minutes with Andrew. We wore our rain suits. Jane lent me a plastic rain bonnet to tie over my peaked cap, to keep out more rain. Actually, the hedges kept us quite sheltered; nevertheless, we were wet. I was really glad to have poked my head out this morning after breakfast, because the reality check made me ... read more

Today we were closer to populations. We started by walking through and around Croyde to the beach. I met some people from Wales who had visited Western and Central Canada. The flowers were beautiful because it rained heavily this morning. We delayed starting by 45 minutes until it stopped – for the whole day, thank goodness. After watching people playing in the surf (wearing wet suits), we moved on to a National Trust site, Baggy Point . This is where smugglers used to operate. The rocks are murderous, being slate that has risen vertically into the coast line. A lot of families and twenty-somethings were walking on the path. The morning passed in walking along the coastline, on grassy paths, with a spectacular view of url=https://www.visitdevon.co.uk/northdevon/things-to-do/woola... read more

Rain accompanies me on my journey from Exeter to the Dartmoor. First I take a little coastal detour to Dawlish where a cottage pie is devoured for Lunch. The village of Chudleigh, located near the perimeter of the Dartmoor is considered worthy of exploration. Located in southern Devon the Dartmoor covers 950 sq kms. It is noted for tors, which are large hills topped with outcrops of bedrock. Observing from the top of one of these tors the Dartmoor appears to have two types of surface. One surface is wilderness while the another is farming fields which appear to be separated by hedges. On closer inspection the hedges are heath bounded roads. Some have trees with over arching branches which enclose the road. Many villages within the Dartmoor are built of stone. An example is Wildcombe-in-the-Moor. ... read more