Tuesday 11 June 2024

Arlington Court


Tuesday 11th June 2024

This morning we left Lobbs Field Touring Park having dumped the waste water and filled with fresh. 

The morning saw welcome blue skies again and we set off for Arlington Court, a National Trust site.

The house itself is not the main attraction here, although I didn't go inside with having Louis, so I probably shouldn't dismiss it too much.
But it looked fairly ordinary anyway.

The main attraction is the beautiful Devon countryside of rolling hills which looked at it's best in the summer sunshine.

There is also a carriage museum exhibition with examples of almost every type of horse drawn carrige you could think of which was interesting.

There is an attractive formal garden and walled garden for the fruit and vegetables.

We also took the riverside walk through the woodland and across wild flower meadows which were particularly beautiful at this time of year.

After lunch and an afternoon nap, (these naps are becoming a feature lol), we set off for a step towards home, and our destination was Cheddar, just by the Gorge where well explode tomorrow if the weather stays fine.

On that topic, earlier the weather forecaster told us that this day last year was nudging 30c for most of the country, what a contrast.



Arlington Court








Arlington Court carrige museum






















Arlington Court woodland walk












Cheddar Reservoir



Tonights parkup in Cheddar





Monday 10 June 2024

Tarka Trail to Barnstaple

 


Monday 10th June 2024

After another walk around Ilfracombe harbour this morning we left town for Braunton, a small village about 20 minutes south from here.

After an extremely busy weekend for the town with tourists, it was noticibly quieter this morning.
Just overflowing bins a reminder of the busy weekend that awaited the council workers on emptying duty. 

The reason for coming to Braunton is it's the start of the Tarka Trail, an off road walking and cycling trail that goes to Bideford and then onto Okehampton.

We won't be going that far, Barnstaple will be far enough for us today at about 6 miles each way.

So I got the doggy trailer hitched up and we set off with blue skies and sunshine.
It's quite warm in the sun, but the wind is cool if in the shade.

It rained a little overnight but was dry by this morning.

It was a lovely cycle ride along the Taw River tidal estuary.

We had a walk around Barnstaple, there's not a lot to report there, just a fairly ordinary town with the usual chain stores and no buildings of any architectural interest that I could see.

I've booked a night at a campsite for tonight so I can fill up the fresh water and dump the waste.

So we're at Lobbs Field Touring Park.


The sea was quite choppy at Ilfracombe beach on our morning walk

Some quite big breakers coming in

Tarka Trail on the River Taw estuary










Home driver !