A long weekend brings opportunity
Ah, May… with your gloriously long bank holiday weekends, when spring is in full swing. It is probably my favourite month, not in the least because the long weekends provide great opportunity for some travels further afield.
This year, we’ve decided on the North Devon coast; Ilfracombe and Woolacombe. The North Devon coast is absolutely stunning, with gorgeous beaches, cliff tops and of course a coastal path to walk, although I wouldn’t recommend trying to walk it in Flip-Flops, like we did… But even in Flip-Flops, it’s absolutely stunning.
We fell into the usual trap of “oh, it’s not that far” and “our campsite is just after this hill”…. Well, it was far, and there were a lot more hills than we thought. But we had fun and we certainly deserved our drink that evening! But the excitement for the day wasn’t over yet, as that night there was a terrific thunderstorm! It was constant, incessant sheet lightning; the whole sky was lit up, not quite as it was day, but as if there were thousands of neon lights on. It was amazing.
The lightning came with very strong winds, and as the site is on the top of the cliffs it’s very exposed, so any campers in tents had a very rough night.
We stayed at Damage Barton campsite, which was a great site, and we would thoroughly recommend. From there we walked to Mortehoe and Woolacombe, which was lovely. We learned about a ‘curry hut’ down on the beach which is apparently amazing, but we didn’t get to it this time, so we will have to go back to try that one.
We also took the bus to Ilfracombe. On a bank holiday weekend, on the narrow Devon lanes, that is quite an experience. There were loads of motorhomes and caravans trying to get to their sites, and we were on this bus going the opposite direction. It was mayhem, gridlock, madness. Our bus driver got our for a smoking break, he clearly had experience with this crazy traffic. Seriously, driving around the hart of London would be easier!
Once in Ilfracombe, we explored the old victorian tidal pools and St Nicholas church, as well as meeting Verity, the huge statue by Damian First. We met up with friends who live nearby, and let the dogs run around in the harbour. And of course we went on a boat trip to try to see seals… (I love a boat trip, you’ll probably find there is a boat trip theme to our trips…). We didn’t see any seals but it was lovely nonetheless.