On Friday morning we reluctantly packed Murray once again and departed beautiful Boscastle – really hope we will be back one day.
This is our cottage below with the garden on the left
The Lugger cottage
Tonight’s accommodation was in Appledore but en route we stopped firstly in Hartland Quay and the promontory of Hartland Point, where the coast of Devon turns from facing north into the Bristol Channel to face west into the Atlantic Ocean. The coastline is quite different to where we had been but equally stunning.
Hartland Quay
We arrived in the famous village of Clovelly in time for lunch. It is a major tourist attraction notable for its extremely steep pedestrianized cobbled main street, donkeys and views over the Bristol Channel. No vehicles are able to traverse the street and goods are transported down from the top car park via sleds. Donkeys used to be utilised and can still be seen some days but now are more of a tourist attraction.
Clovelly
The dog in the photo left has developed an ingenious skill.
Look carefully on the cobblestones and you will see his tennis ball – hundreds of people pass this spot on a daily basis. Many of them (me included) pick up his ball and return it to his (quite large) yard for him. He fetches it, comes back to the wall and just casually drops it over the wall for the next unsuspecting sucker who comes along.
We watched him do it several times, the funniest thing.
The whole village of a Clovelly is privately owned, it has been owned by only three families in the last 800 years! You have to pay an entrance fee of about £4 but we thought it worthwhile.
The photos don’t do the steepness justice honestly! We stopped for lunch on the way back and eventually made our way back to the top, very proud of ourselves for not resorting to the Land Rover ride back for £2.50! Calves will be feeling it tomorrow though.
Continuing on we arrived late afternoon to the small village of Appledore on the bank of the River Torridge.
We were very warmly welcomed by the owner of the B&B and then set off for a walk along the water – or lack of it. They experience 7m tides here and at this time of the day most boats were high and dry.
The village on the opposite side of the river is called Instow and can be reached at high tide for awhile by a small ferry, otherwise it’s a reasonable drive around and over the bridge in Bideford.
Instow across the river, low tide
The next morning, with the benefit of high tide and under threatening skies we decided to catch the ferry over and kill some time before our lunch date.
(As you know, we are attending an Irish wedding next week and I had been emailing Ali, a friend of the bride who lives in Exmouth, for some months re her local expertise. She was coming up today to meet us for lunch.)
Looking back at Appledore
Coming back before the water ran out we received a message from Ali saying she had had a puncture and we eventually decided to catch up in Barnstaple. Reluctant to lose Murray’s parking spot we decided to catch the bus and settled ourselves into the top deck for what we thought would be a relatively quick trip. Apparently the bus doesn’t go via the most direct route and picks up from many surrounding small enclaves and then ran into what appeared to be “peak hour” 3 o’clock traffic 🙁
Eventually we met Ali, found a pub and enjoyed roast of the day at about 3.30pm and then braved the bus home again. Unfortunately we didn’t see Barnstaple in the best light, it was raining, we were hungry and by the time we finished lunch the shops were shutting. Look forward to catching up with Ali again at the wedding next week.
Found time to wander the tiny winding streets of Appledore in between showers and found this little gem…..
Pastel houses Appledore
Tomorrow we’re on the move again, this time to Lynmouth.
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