Currently away in Devon, but still looking at the forum

[ranworthbreeze]

I am still looking at the forum in the mornings whilst everyone is still in bed.

 

Poor journey down on Friday it rained for most of the 5 hour journey to Hope Cove. The weather has been a lot better than the forecast but that is not unusual in this area.

 

Here a picture of Bolt Tail from the lounge French doors and some of the family on the upstairs veranda, Tan, Joanne (Stuart's wife) and Michael.

 

Regards

Alan

[Gracie]

Hi Alan

 

Still keeping a close eye on us then,  are we ever gonna get rid of you Mods lol

 

Have a lovely time, that view is beautiful by the way

 

Grace

[CooWee]

Hello Alan and family,

 

I googled it, it is a lovely looking place, hope you have a great time in, there Devon.  We used to go to Valley of the Rocks when I were a lad!  There used to be a small caravan site adjacent to a cricket pitch, which I think is still there.  Nice county Devon and I agree with Grace it is a splendid view.

 

Keith

[loribear]

 hi alan , hope you have a nice time down there, we've not been down there for quite some years, we used to go down with our sprite major caravan & neils dads rangerover, very nice lol, we used to stop off at chedder gorge on way down but we used to come all way back non stop, it was a verrry long & tiring journey, but it was worth it, we always used to enjoy it down there. lori 

[Maxwellian]

Looks lovely. Hotel, cottage, camping or have you managed to find a boat?

[ranworthbreeze]

It is classified as a cottage, but it is a four bedroomed house (the last one on the cliff path to Thurlestone out of Hope Cove. It has a walled garden which is great for Stuart's dog Toby and Oscar, Jo's sisters dog. The two dogs that are brothers and go everywhere together.

You can see the Eddistone lighthouse (about 16 miles away) from the beach at low tide and from the house all the time. Great seeing the light at night.

 

For the last two nights there has been a large ship waiting to get into Plymouth. It was lit up like a Christmas tree and two yachts overnighted just outside of the Hope Cove harbour.

 

Here's a picture of Oscar.

 

 

Regards

Alan

[Gracie]

Hi Alan

 

Are you back home from Devon yet? I hope you had a lovely time, any more pics? We have never been but looking at the above photo you posted it's definitely on our to do list, even if only for a long weekend (can't stay away from the Broads for too long)

 

We behaved ourselves, honest lol 

 

Grace

 

 

 

 

 

Grace

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Grace,

 

We arrived back on Friday after a 7 and half hours journey (usually takes 5 hours  with a stop) accidents and road works most of the way.

 

Back in the day (over 40 years ago when the Motorway stopped at Bristol) our first visit to Cornwall took around 16 hours, we set off from our local at 10.30pm and arrived in Newquay in the late afternoon.

 

If you want advice I can suggest some great places to stop at, Tan & I celebrated our 25th anniversary in Devon and spent out anniversary night on Burgh Island. A great but expensive location, but well worth the experience (I will add some pictures of us scrubbed up for the occasion) The is a B & B at Torcross where the front bedrooms are overlooking a small service road/prom and straight onto the pebbled beach (you could cast off into the sea from the bedroom windows) Tan loved it, we stayed for two nights and it was as cheap as chips. The pub just down from it (Start Bay Inn) is well know for all of its fish dishes, sadly because we had good weather this year we did not call in there and kept very local to Hope Cove and its surrounding beaches.

Incidentally a number of the exterior shots on Poirot Series were shot in the South Hams at Salcombe, a apartment block was converted for one of the episodes just up the one way main street. The beach scene on Burgh Island was filmed on one of the Hope Cove beaches.

 

In a weeks time we will be just getting back on the boat.

 

You were being observed for most of the week early in the morning, I couldn't waste valuable beach and hot tub time

 

Regards

Alan

 

   

[Gracie]

Wow Alan, beautiful scenery, you don't look too bad either, you certainly scrub up well lol 

 

Grace

[Mowjo]

Your Right Gracie! but I do think Alan would look better in a Blue Dress not the Black one,,,

[kadensa]

'Incidentally a number of the exterior shots on Poirot Series were shot in the South Hams at Salcombe'

 

Don't mention South Hams - the only place I have come across where you have to pay for disabled parking!

 

Devon, for us, is a weekend getaway or even a day trip.  One of the best things to do is visit 'Greenway', Agatha Christie's house overlooking the River Dart.  Park at Dartmouth 'Park and Ride', and once in the town take the Ferry. It's a steep walk up the hill but well worth it - the gardens are wonderful and the house which is now fully open is interesting (to say the least!) 

 

Another of my favourite places is 'Coleton Fishacre' in Kingswear, which was home to the D'Oyly Carte family - an Arts and Crafts house, but furnished in Art Deco style.  Again, fabulous gardens with a lovely walk down to the beach. And finally, Buckland Abbey in Yelverton, former home of Sir Richard Grenville (of 'Revenge' fame)  and Sir Francis Drake - superb location on the edge of Dartmoor and home to 'Drake's drum'. The latter is a MUST for anyone interested in naval history.

 

(All the above are National Trust properties ). 

 

 

,

[kadensa]

By the way, if you don't mind 'roughing it' a little, there is a fabulous campsite a couple of miles outside Widecombe.  The facilities are fairly basic, although the loos are very clean and a shower costs 20p with plenty of hot water.  There is a lovely walk through the woods and a typical Dartmoor stream rushing by to lull you to sleep.

 

,

[Soundings]

HI Alan,

Looks like a great place and pleased you enjoyed it. We were down in Cornwall on the Lizard during first two weeks of June and the weather was gorgeous - wall to wall sunshine and lovely and warm. It is indeed a beautiful part of the world down there. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to live in Cheddar for 4 years when I worked in Bristol. Regrettably my career brought me back to work in London (The City).

Like you its now back to the boat, although for us it is now the narrowboat, currently on the Great Ouse.

Stay safe

Colin

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Colin,

 

There is nothing wrong with a narrowboat, any vessel be it on a river, canal, broad or on the sea is that skippers pride and joy.

 

If we had been able to find a suitable share scheme on a narrowboat in 1999 with would not now have a share in Ranworth Breeze, we may also have been unfortunate enough to get caught up in the Challenger Syndicate scandal, sadly a few of the Broads Syndicate boats were effected by this in 2007.

 

We did have a RCI swap holiday on a narrowboat that was cancelled (at very short notice) and a substitute boating holiday offered in the mid 2000's which effected over 650 RCI boating holidays.

 

We still like the canals and will be going again in October.

 

Regards

Alan

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Mowjo,

 

You do not know me very well, a blue dress indeed, have you no style?

 

It would have to be green to match my eyes!

 

Regards

Alan

[Soundings]

Hi Alan, we live here in Potter and would not dream of being anywhere else (well, except perhaps the SW). We also did our Broads boating bit as you know. But it was all too crowded for us, especially so being on the Ant with Riccos seemingly ever growing fleet (in size and number) buzzing up and down. So we sold up and went back to narrow boating. This year we will do the Ouse (oh how quiet it is by comparison - indeed working on the boat last Saturday three boats went past our mooring. Grid lock). Next year we will head back to the Canals, probably Crick, but we have much cruising to do on the Ouse first.

The Broads though are lovely and you will still find me cracking a sail on Hickling or walking the marshes and river banks with my pooch. That will be my local fix from now on. In fact it works quite well as I am savouring other Norfolk delights these days and I would have probably missed those as the boat was perhaps too convenient.

None of this is however intended to be a vote against Broads cruising. We all want different things out of life and perhaps for us a Nb always came first as we had one for 20 odd years prior to buying the Broads cruiser. It would be boring if we all wanted the same or saw things in the same light.

 

 

Colin

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Been there, seen there, done there many times.

 

Karen and i live in East Dorset, so Devon is an ideal place for a long weekend.

 

I decided to treat Karen to a weekend away for her Birthday 9 years ago, as she worked very hard helping me get my flat re-decorated to sell, in rediness to buy our cbungalow where we are now. I`d only ever been to Devon once before that, and that was to Totnes to scatter my friends dads ashes on the Tamar, so did`nt know where to go, or what to look at. I phones the Tourist information centre in Paingnton, asking for advice on Hotels for the weekend, and booked up one called "Roundham Lodge" on the Roundham Peninsula.

When we arrived that evening, i noticed a picture of Loddon Staithe on the reception wall. When i asked why it was there, the ;ady (Vivien) told me they used to own and live in Loddon Mill. As a result, we had quite a long conversation in reception, and then discovered they owned the white house on the south bank of the Yare between Reedham ferry and the mouth of the Chet, which when they owned it, was a pub. It eventually turned out they used to run a buisness supplying the boatyards and leisure industries, but got out when hirefleets started to close.

 

We`ve been down there several times since, but have`nt been for a couple of years, but they were trying to sell the hotel and retire, so maybe it`s now under new ownership.

 

We went to Hope Cove last time we were there, and loved the place. We`ve also been to Greenways, (Agatha Christie`s house) and "Colton Fishacre" which was the home of the family who used to own the "Doily Carte Opera Company".

 

The South Hams is a stunning area for a holiday, and i hope you all had a great time, despite the weather and traffic problems.  Which wa did you go Alan, M1 M66 M6 M5?.  If so, that`s one long laborious and sare i say it, tedious drive.

 

 

Sorry Kadensa, i typed this post before i read yours?.

Edited July 9, 2014 by SPEEDTRIPLE

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Neil,

 

The journey is just under 300 miles, M1, M42, M5, A38. With all holiday travel you seen to ignore the time spent getting there, but the return as you say is always tedious.

 

Boating holidays are the worst with regards to traveling home, you will have spent most of your time traveling at 4 or 5 miles an hour and you then get back into the car at speeds with the scenery passing you by so quick and more than likely you will be suffering from the effects of motion sickness.

 

Its funny how some boating holidays are worse than others, the canals seem to effect me more so than some times on the Broads, if you are like me sitting seems to be the worse effect and when this is the case the toilet should have straps

 

Regards

Alan

[jillR]

Don't mention South Hams - the only place I have come across where you have to pay for disabled parking!

 

disabled have to pay to park on the Norfolk coast trust car parks to

[ranworthbreeze]

The car park in Hope Cove was £3.00 for 4 hours or all day for £4.00, we can pay that for a little over a hour in Sheffield for a NPC.

 

Regards

Alan

[CooWee]

Hello Jill_R, nice to see you back on here, hadn't seen you for awhile, wondered where you had got to.

 

Keith