Well, our ride on Exmoor turned out to be a ride basically on someone's farm but it was a ride nevertheless and Major and Gertie provided us with a pleasant enough hour on Sunday morning.
After a quick shower and change we left the hotel with instructions for the Valley of the Rocks walk which starts in Lynton, our sister village up the hill.
The quaint funicular made short work of the incredibly steep hill and also afforded some terrific views.
Looking down to Lynmouth harbour from Lynton
The walk was easy to find as we left the village proper and a brisk breeze accompanied us along the cliff edge. At various points along the way there are benches, some of which have small 'poetry tins' containing a notebook and pen where you are encouraged to put pen to paper and share your experience of the walk/view. A great idea and quite entertaining to read.
Valley of the Rocks walk
There is also a large wild goat population and we took a breather to watch several youngsters in the group cavorting over the rocks.
Wild goats
We stopped for fortification at Mother Melba's, a pleasant cafe on the way back, named for a supposed witch who lived in the cottage once. The garden was decorated appropriately and Russell thought he could see a family resemblance…..?
Further along the road we came to what must surely be one of the most picturesque cricket ovals around and there was a game in progress.
Not sure if it's the most popular game in town though as we could only count 10 people in total on the ground including the umpire! We watched a few balls until someone hit a six over the fence and into the bracken and all 10 of them left the field to look for the ball!
Just past the oval we came across a small herd of very well conditioned Exmoor ponies who share this part of the moor with the goats. In the background below you can see that there has just been a wicket taken with the new man coming in 🙂
Our walk brought us back through Lynton, down the funicular, and through Lynmouth – by then we were glad to rest our weary legs on the sunny terrace at the hotel with a glass of wine.
Leaving Lynmouth the next morning Pamela directed us along the very beautiful A39 which has stunning views of the coast on the left and the moor on the right but not nearly enough panoramic spots to stop and enjoy it!
Looking out over Bristol Channel with Wales in the distance
We didn't have a lot of time anyway as we had a lunch date in Bath with Georgie who had lived with us for a time in Australia. She and her mum were driving for four hours down from Nottingham to catch up and she had chosen a great little restaurant with the most varied menu we'd seen in England so far, hardly a chip in sight!
After lunch we strolled down into Bath proper and finished the afternoon with coffee in the shadow of the beautiful Bath abbey.
Parting ways with lots of hugs, Russell then successfully navigated to the apartment which will be home for the next three nights and we collected Murray and moved in. Whilst attending to some laundry we booked online for Jamie Oliver's flagship “Jamie's Italian” (about ten minutes away) and promptly at eight were shown to our table.
The menu was quite interesting and we enjoyed a couple of entree serves each and gave Jamie a big tick.
Later, walking home through the shopping area I began salivating for reasons that had nothing to do with food 😉 and I look forward to exploring further tomorrow!
Posted with Blogsy