Dartmoor and Dartmouth

Dartmoor-had intended to only go here for an hour or so, but ended up going for about 3 1/2 hours. Got a little lost in the moor whihc had very bad signage (Clair guesses maybe because there's a huge maximum security prison in the middle and if one escapes, it's better they get lost in the moor)! Basically, the land is owned by the National Trust and just has wild animals roaming around and some farm land too.

Ponies! We walked right up to them. Obviously not scared of people...

Dartmouth, Devon



Town you could see from Darmouth Bay, but not sure what it was exactly. Very pretty though!

Beautiful buildings in Dartmouth!

Dartington Studio-It had 8 or 9 different buildings each dedicated to something different-perfumes and soaps, fashion, jewelry, ceramics, glass, homewares, toys, and a few more. All the items are made locally by various artists.

Sky candle we lit on our last night in Devon-the wind took it so fast that this was the only image I could manage!


It was our last full day in Devon, so we decided to go and see a few Southern Devon towns to get me an overview like we did with Cornwall. Our intent was to go through Dartmoor and go to the towns of Salcombe and Dartmouth (lots of towns/areas start with "Dart" in this region because they are all near the River Dart-kind of like Exeter and Exmouth being near the River Exe closer to Budleigh Salterton). However, once we started driving through the moor, we realized that about an hour and a half into it, we were only halfway through and going nowhere fast. The signage wasn't real great in there and the roads were mainly made for only one car to go through! We had to constantly stop for sheep, cows, and horses that were in the road/maybe looking to cross right in front of the car. Apparently Bob says that many people a year will be in the moor and get lost, especially if there's a heavy fog, and die. Crazy! They also apparently train British Army troops here as it can be quite daunting. In Princeton, near the center of the moor, there is a maximum security prison that dates back to the Victorian times. All this being said, I panicked just a few times thinking, we will never make it out! Although our conditions were not exactly foggy or that daunting. There were hundreds of buses with toursists-mainly Belguim and German that we saw. They all loved going to pet the wild animals. We also saw a handful of old ladies in different areas just parked with their cars on a hill to have a cup of tea. Strange.

About 3 and a half hours later, we finally made it out. However, where we made it out was not exactly where we had thought, and not really en-route to Salcombe. By this point it was 2ish, so we decided just to head to Dartmouth.

We only stayed in Dartmouth for a few hours, but it was very pretty. Plus, the beautiful weather we had had for the past few days (every day they had forecast rain), was about to break and so we headed back to Budleigh around 5 or so. That night, Clair cooked us bangers and mash and Henry and Ken (owner of the house) even joined us! Once the sun went down, we went onto the beach to light a sky candle. We had some major issues with the wind, but finally got it lit and in seconds it had flown (quite violently) away towards town.haha. Great trip!

Lazy day in Devon!

Liked the writing on this boat along the beach

Red cliffs of Devon!

So, Clair and I had no idea that the beach we were walking on turned into a nude beach. We noticed a rather large unpleasant lady lying nude on the beach before we noticed this sign. Very disturbing. This is where we turned around...

Houses next to Fourways-All looking out on the beach!

Seemed like every town in Devon and Cornwall had one of thes crosses-the ones in Cornwall were Celtic crosses as the area dates back to Celtic times

View of Budleigh Salterton from the top of the hill-where the cross is

Pebble beach at Budleigh

Clair and her new love-Mr. Bumbles!

So we decided after our long journey through Cornwall the day before, that we would sleep in past 7 and take it easy just taking advantage of the good weather in Budleigh. We walked around taking photos, then layed on the balcony which overlooks the beach. I went in and took a long nap to the soudn of the ocean. We even visited Henry at the cafe he works at ont he beahc for a hot chocolate (yes, we laid int he sun and drank hot chocolate ont he same day--it was still cold on the beach where the wind was blowing!) It was a great recovery day!

Stonehenge & Devon

On our way from Hampshire (Hampshire is the county Petersfield is in), we stopped by Stonehenge (funny fact-always thought it was called StoneheDge until I just now googled this...what an architecture student I am).

It was gated off, so we couldn't get in, but it was fine to see from the gate (and as it was freezing, we stayed for like 5 minutes). Clair says they only open it twice a year on the winter and summer solstice when they have a festival and the Druids have a ceremony to celebrate the sun's birthday. Although, while we were there, a man in a suit walked in right up to the stones (the security gaurd let him in), so he must have been a Stonehenge v.i.p.)

Rolling plains of Devon

Budleigh Salterton (in the county of Devon) along the Southern Coast of England-the cliffs and ground are actually made of dark red clay, and with the big storm last night, the sea looks red!

Budleigh Salterton Beach

Budleigh Salterton-funny name, beautiful seaside town. We also rode through a town called Newton Poppleford and saw one on the way to Devon called Harcombe Bottom. These Brits are creative with their naming...

Where Jeanie is house sitting, and we are staying. It sits on the beach. Not too shabby!

Budleigh Beach again

View from the gate of Connaught Garden in Sidmouth

Inside Connaught Garden

Had the most beautiful hydrangeas

Connaught Garden

Neat little fact about the Garden...

View of Sidmouth from Peak Cottage

Peak Cottage overlooking Sidmouth-Clair and I plan to buy this house! Well maybe not, but how lovely would it be to live here!

LOVE the little beach huts...

Told you I love them...

So Jeanie, Clair's mom's friend invited Clair and I down for a long weekend in Devon. Clair picked me up on Wednesday night from London. She went to work Thursday, so I just laid around the house mostly and stayed in the garden during the day. We woke up around 6 or so Friday morning and drove the 3 hour journey to Budleigh Salterton where Jeanie is house sitting for some friends. As we drove through the town, we noticed that there seems to be quite a lot of elderly people on scooters, and Jeanie explained that it's somewhat a posh retirement community like the Florida Keys, but with more young families buying into the market now.

Jeanie is effectively looking after the 4 new chickens, 4 turtles, 4 fish, 2 gerbals, one rather chunky Yorkshire Terrier (Mr. Bumbles) who has stolen all our hearts, and Henry, the 16 year old son of the couple. The house sits just along the beach (pebbles) and is three stories with 7 bedrooms and 3 restrooms. There is a lovely conservatory on the first floor that overlooks the front garden and ocean front (where we end up spending most of our mornings and evenings eating breakfast and dinner and watching the boats on the horizon once it's gone dark after 10) and also a second floor balcony which has gorgeous views down the main street.

As beautiful as the hosue is, it needs some T.L.C. It seems that projects have been started and not finished. The second floor-where Clair and I are staying in Haley's room (18 year old daughter on holiday with her mother and friend in Gibraltor), has a restroom with a huge bathtub with exposed plumbing, non working shower, and a toilet, but no sink. This seems to breed bad habits to me (not washing your hands after using the restroom??). The floor to the restroom is unfinished and in some areas has been taken up to expose dirt (on the second floor?). The light pull (not many places in England have switches-more pulls), is pulled out of the ceiling so the wires are exposed, and I'm fairly sure that if I pull just ever so slightly, I will pull the whole thing out of the ceiling (so I rarely turn on the light). We found out on our first night, that in one of the two closets in Haley's room, she actually has a sink (strange) as does the master bedroom (also on the second floor). This restroom really paints a picture of the house which is really quite grim (Clair's word), but I suppose when you wake up every morning and see the ocean, there are better things to do than fixing up your house!

We spent most of the day around Budleigh, walking through the town and along the beach and driving through places like Newton Poppleford (hahaha), Otterton (otters?), East Budleigh, and Sidmouth which are all fairly near to Budleigh Slaterton (amazing how easy it is now for me to write and say this town whereas before I couldn't think of the name for the life of me!). It was a great introduction to Devon!