Damage Barton, Devon, episode three....

Hi de hi campers,


Thought I'd better put you all out of your misery and finish the tale. Not only that, I'm away again on Tuesday. Me and my daughter are going off with my two grandsons for a couple of days, so goodness knows what might happen. Tracy said we can get there for twelve and pop the awning up, then we'll have the rest of the afternoon. HA. I asked her if she'd read my blog.

So where was I? Oh yes, sat on the edge of the bed feeling thoroughly miserable and wanting to go home. I had a fitful nights sleep, little wonder really, and was wondering how I was going to face my knight in shining armour.

What a lovely surprise when we woke up next morning. The wind had dropped and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Lovely. Someone must have taken pity on us. The view from outside the van was spectacular.

Time to get horizontal in the sun, but first I needed to face someone. I could see the little golf type gardening  buggy, parked outside the shower block, so off I went. He was with his wife and they both had the biggest grins on their faces as I approached. I apologised once more and thanked him profusely for coming to our aid, then he showed me his arm. OMG.  It was covered, from wrist to shoulder, in bright red welts and scratches. I was mortified. They were both very sweet about everything and it actually broke the ice, we were all best of buddies for the rest of the holiday. They'll certainly not forget us in a hurry.

So, by the van, with kindle in hand, I settled for a stress free day in the sun. Well I was reading a certain book that everybody is going mad about. Yes, you've got it. Fifty shades of RUDE!!!.  Well I was so disgusted with it, ( ahem)  I just had to carry on reading. It was my duty, my Mary Whitehouse bit. Well you know what they say about mad dogs and English men, don't you?  Well, I lost track of time and consequently...........

What a plonka, didn't even think to kick my shoes off.  Bright red legs, snow white feey. Oooooo, they were sore later that night, as were my shoulders, my chest, my NOSE. Ouch.

The rest of our stay in Devon was ( sorry to disappoint you all ) beautiful.  There were some lovely walks, so I bought a couple of walking poles and off we went. I'd already been off on my own once, to test the water, so to speak. That's why I decided on the poles, easier to cross becks and things, which nobody told us about.  It was about two miles to Morthoe, the next village along the coast and it was a lovely scenic route.



This is the main path leading down to the campsite farm. We turned left here and hopped over our first stile.

A bit further on and we could still see the Bristol Channel. When you count how many field are between us and the cliff edge it makes you realise how far away we were. It didn't feel like that on our first night though.

These next pictures are of Woolacombe, the next town along the coast from Morthoe. We caught the bus to go here. It's about four miles, that would have meant two miles to Morthoe, across the fields, then two more to Woolacombe. Nah.......


The thing that amazed me most were the buses. I worried about driving my camper down these little roads and up the huge, cliff like hills. Some of the buses were doubledeckers. We caught one back to the site. I thought we were all going to have to get off at one stage, it was going so slow. Honest, I was surprised it made it up one hill, we could hear the engine struggling. Bet they go through a few gear boxes down there.

This is the view looking up from the sea front, proper chocolate box houses aren't they? Look at the hills, no wonder Sue struggled for most of them. Can you imaging having to put that scaffolding up. My nephew's a scaffolder, I'll have to ask him.

And here we have 'Woolacombe Sands', which is reputedly the longest and best beach on the North Devon coast. It's quite a popular tourist attraction, ideal for surfing. There were loads of  surfing  dudes, as my sis kept referring to them?!? dreads and all.  Lovely for the kids too, safe and very clean. You don't lose the ruggedness of the coastline though, I just turned a few more degrees and this was the view.

We were even treated to some lovely Devon sunsets too,  I love sunsets. These were both taken from outside the van, different night of course, but no holiday snaps are complete without a few sunsets, what say you? How many sunset snaps do you have? :)

Absolutely breathtaking, the photographer was a bit rubbish though, didn't do them justice. ( I wonder who took them? )

So, several Devon cream teas and a couple or so of PROPER Cornish pasties later, it was time to pack up the awning and go home. Boo hoo. We both thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the holiday, in fact, I would have been quite happy to stay a while longer. Now we had sun I wanted more, I was being greedy. Alas.......

So that's about it guys'. Have all the disasters put me off camping? No way. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. What have I learned? That these things happen when you're camping. All part of campings rich tapestry.  (  oh please......)


Thanks for coming by and sticking it out until the end. Hope you enjoyed my capers and do come again to see what I get up to next. Who knows. 


TTFN.



Jools.   xxxx