Two go mad in Dorset and Devon

---

14 July - well here we are in a wee village called Litton Cheney, at a very traditional YHA. Arrived here in the dark after getting back from Jersey and extracting our car from the long term car park, this proved challenging with the pay machines not working and a long queue of very patient people! Spent the next 2 days exploring the start of the Jurassic Coast, famous for its towering stratified cliffs and where they filmed the TV series "Broadchurch". Blu had a go at impersonating Danny's body on the beach but don't think he will win any awards for it! Spent a night at Torquay and visited Agatha Christie's holiday home at Greenway on the Dart River the next day. This was a particular highlight or me, being a Christie fan since my teenage years or earlier. You can take the steam train there on the same route she would have taken years ago, and the house (now with the National Trust) was almost exactly as the family left it, very much a family home. from here we headed to Elmscott YHA on the North Devon coast, a tiny village near the North Devon Heritage Coast. We loved it there, it was so quiet and peaceful, very few tourists, and a fantastic area for walking. Did a day out on the SW Coastal path, the scenery is breathtaking and the layers of rock strata are amazing. The YHA was great, we were the only ones there the first night apart from the wardens, who were very friendly.

Our next port of call was to visit Clovelly, which is famous for its very steep cobbled narrow streets only accessible by foot or sled. Must be an odd place to live really! It was quite quiet on the day we visited which was nice, we had been with Mum and Dad in the 70s and it was very touristy. Avoided the charge to enter the village (yes, really!) by walking in from a nearby village! Starting to realise why some call Britain ROB - Rip Off Britain! Rounded off our Dorset/Devon phase by driving through some lovely north coast scenery to reach our next destination - Cheddar Gorge.

---