Easter Holiday 2012 - Exmoor

[Please look at the extra posts at the foot of the story for extra photos]

I can’t remember the last time we visited this area – probably as a child, so it was certainly an overdue return!

Sunday, April 8th 2012: Arrival at Exmoor House

We set off from Polesworth at about 1.30pm and after a fairly uneventful journey arrived at Exmoor House at about 5.15pm. After setting everything up, we had tea and sat down for the evening.

Monday, April 9th 2012: Minehead and Watchet

Easter Monday didn’t look promising at all, weather wise. It was rainy and it looked to be set in for the day. We needed to find a supermarket so we chose to go in direction of Minehead, rather than down to Tiverton. Minehead was further away, so we took a risk and hoped that the weather might be a little better. After arriving in Minehead having skipped breakfast, we decided a visit to McDonald’s was in order. Now, I’m not a fan of shopping, so after going in the but the wine and beer, I left them to it, preferring to dog sit in the car. It seemed to take them ages to do the shopping and when they were done it was after midday, so as far as I was concerned, time to find a pub for lunchtime drink. We found a pub near the sea front and they allowed the dog to go into the bar area. Carol enjoyed the pot of tea, Anna had an orange juice, and the pint wasn’t too bad either.

We headed north west of Minehead to find somewhere to eat our sandwiches, and found a little car park just north of Moor Wood. It would have been lovely to sit in the sun overlooking the sea to eat out lunch. Unfortunately it was so misty and drizzly that we couldn’t actually see the sea at all. After lunch we headed back into Minehead and out in the other direction towards Watchet via the coast road and the seemingly unappealing, Blue Anchor. (Well it seemed rather uninviting in the rain!) After Watchet we began to head back to Dulverton. The rain eased off long enough for us to let the dog off her lead for a run at Wimbleball Lake.

Tuesday, April 10th 2012: Ilfracombe and Woolacombe

We awoke to a much nicer day and our traditional breakfast cooked outside on the Cadac and ate in the awning. We headed across to Ilfracombe and parked in the car park at the headof the quay, where we ate our lunch. On to Woolacombe in the afternoon. Woolacombe is a great beach and dogs are allowed south of the stream. There is a very large car park and parking at the very south end of the car park, near to the toilets, gave us easy access to the south part of the beach. We had a good walk and Lizzie (the dog) had a good run and got really wet. The beach is really good for dogs.

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012: Dunster Castle and Lynmouth

After breakfast, we headed off towards Dunster Castle for our National Trust visit. The entrance to the castle was ou of the village, but when we walked up I was surprised how close the village was. After adel;ightful visit we headed off to Lynmouth, driving through Porlock and up the famous Porlock Hill on the way. Lynmouth was lovely. We managed to park the car in the centre of the village had our usual lunchtime drink just across the road (in a section of the Bath Hotel – dog friendly) followed by our sandwiches and a good look around. The weather was kind today and it was really busy – lots of people about. We took some good photos today and I will try and post some of these below.

We headed back to Dulverton across Exmoor, and we followed the river up the valley and the B3234 for some of the way.

Thursday, April 12th, 2012: Knightshayes Court

Another nice day today, so we headed in the opposite direction towards Tiverton. After finding a pub for our lunchtime drink (which was actually quite poor today) we went to Knightshayes Court where we had out sandwiches before going for a look around. The house had good views over Tiverton. The house was built by Sir John Heathcoat Amory the grandson of John Heathcoat, creator of the mechanised bobbin lace making machine, and owner of a lace factory in Tiverton. He made sure he could see the factory from the house.

After our visit around the house and our customary cream tea, we went back to the Caravan via the supermarket at Tiverton.

　
Friday, April 13th, 2012: Wimbleball Lake and Tarr Steps

After a debate about when to take the awning down, we decided early evening might be the best bet, so we headed out for the day. A stop for our lunchtime drink fell to the Exeter Inn on the A396 – another dog friendly pub. We carried on to Wimbleball Lake for lunch. Our second visit here was much nicer as the weather was good today.

It was Rowena who suggested going to Tarr Steps, and we were not disappointed. After parking in the car park, it was a little walk down – as much as I could manage, to be honest, and I was a bit concerned about the journey back, uphill. It was worth the visit though. The Tarr Steps are medieval possibly dating from around 1000BC. It is, effectively, a stone bridge over the river Barle – what is known as a medieval clapper bridge. We spent some time just looking around and the dog even went in the water a little. Right next to the river is a pub – the Tarr Farm Inn. We just couldn’t resist one of their cream teas. They were huge – well worth sampling. The walk back to the car was slow, but as we almost arrived back to the car park it started to rain.

The rain got heavier and when we got back to Exmoor House, it was obvious that taking the awning down was not a realistic option this evening.

Saturday, April 14th, 2012: Pack up and the journey home

After breakfast we started to pack the van, leaving our wet awning to the end, with the hope that it would dry out. Sadly this was not the case, so we packed up wet and left Exmoor House just after midday.

We had a good journey back and we had had a good week in Exmoor and the surrounding area. A really lovely area, well worth a visit.

David