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The UK & Ireland experience

April 2018 - May 2024
Travel day has arrived. Off to the airport by train for a 3pm flight. Read more
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  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 21

    Dorset Coast day 21 Sun 13 May 2018

    May 13, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Full breakfast at 8am, Drove to West Bay in Dorset. All day parking for two pounds. Walked west to Eype over the cliff tops and continued on to Golden Cap past the Thorncombe Beacon and through Seatown along the South West Coast path. Ate well traveled chocolate biscuits and fruit enjoying the view from Golden Cap. Returned to Seatown via Langdon Hill for beer at the Anchor pub. Afterwards walked back to West Beach and eastward along the coast path till we overlooked a Freshwater Beach backed by mobile portable holiday buildings near Burton Bradstock. Drove to Chideok and bought dessert items, then had dinner at the George Hotel just down the road from Neitherleigh Bed & Breakfast.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 22

    Dorset Coast day 22 Mon 14 May 2018

    May 14, 2018 in England ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    7.15am breakfast then drove to Lyme Regis. Parked in a long stay car park for two pounds all day. (Just like West Beach yesterday.) Walked along the seafront to reach Monmouth Beach. Looked for fossil ammonites amongst the beach pebbles and Yvonne found two good ammonite fragments. Later we found a limestone ledge exposed at low tide with hundreds of fossilized ammonites. Unfortunately the shale under the limestone is causing the shelf to gradually break up. Haddock and chips for me and scallops for Yvonne in a pub for lunch. Visited the Lyme winery and Axminster before dinner at Netherleigh Bed & Breakfast in Cooks Lane.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 23

    Devon day 23 Tue 15 May 2018

    May 15, 2018 in England ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Washed clothes in a Axminster launderette then drove to Beer Quarry Caves. Informative underground tour for 1 hour describing how the quarry men extracted the Beer Stone which is a very fine grade of chalk by hand, using pick axes and stone saws. Stone was first extracted by the Romans for their villas, later Normans used the stone for cathedrals, castles and manor houses. The stone is soft for some time after it leaves the ground and stonemasons both onsite and at remote locations would carve it before it hardened into a durable rock that lasts for many centuries. A tectonic plate fault passed through the underground quarry and horizontal slippage which occurred about twenty million years ago is visible. The last quarrying in the immediate area ceased in 2003. The quarry we toured last was used around 1920. We drove to the Beer town centre and parked in the headland long stay car park. From there walked along the Coast Path to Branscombe Mouth then on to Branscombe village where there is a National Trust water mill, bakery and iron forge. Returned to Branscombe Mouth and on to Beer a beautiful fishing port. After taking photos drove to Seaton where we purchased groceries and petrol.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 24

    Cornwall day 24 Wed 16 May 2018

    May 16, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    Left Neitherleigh in Cooks Lane Axminster about 9.30am and set the GPS to Trethevy to see the Trethevy Quoit roofed standing stone site. After driving way back into Dorset we followed motorways and rural road to to Tintagel Brewery in North Cornwall in rain and later sea fog as the village of Trethevy is nowhere near the ancient monument with the same name. So we did a brewery tour and Yvonne understood everything. Sampled some craft beers and ate Wagyu pie from the farm cattle who are fed the used brewery grain and liquid wort before becoming our meal. Drove to Tintagel (pronounced TinTagel) visitors centre. Then visited the quirky King Arthur’s Great Halls that we’re built in the 1930’ies by millionaire at enormous cost the building has a large room containing 72 stained glass windows. We then drove to look for the Men-an-tol holed stone and Yvonne spotted two solitary standing stones in different fields before we found the poorly signed lane to Men-an-tol standing holed stone. Walked half a mile to the stone. When driving to our accommodation Yvonne spotted the Lanyon Quoit almost completely hidden from the road, It may be around six thousand years old. Very narrow lanes near in this area. Codna Coath is a small cottage in Sellan Penzance area run by Margaret probably in her eighties. We are upstairs in a 1898 building in a upstairs room with a ceiling following the roof above with a framed picture of Queen Victoria over the bed.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 25

    Cornwall day 25 Thu 17 May 2018

    May 17, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The light rain of yesterday has stopped and we had breakfast at 8am after Margaret had taken the eggs to the Co op market. Left about 10am and drove to the Carn Euny Iron Age village containing a fogou (underground chamber and passage). Then drove to Sennen Beach passing on the way with difficulty a car and truck in a narrow lane. Walked to Lands End along the Coast Path passing a wreck on the way. Yvonne purchased a tea towel from the “First and Last” shop. Returned to the car and drove to Cape Cornwall and parked at the edge of St Just village. Walked downhill to Cape Cornwall then down a track to Porth Ledden cove via a high tide boat access. As it was low tide we crossed the rocks and I took photos of seaweed and mussels before arriving at the Kenidjack area of the Tin Coast. We saw the conserved arsenic works ruin near the catcher pool dam. Followed the Coast Path towards St Just and back to the car. Drove to the the Bowood Park Hotel Lanteglos, Camelford which is in the middle of it’s own golf course. Dinner at the hotel as is not near any urban centre.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 26

    Cornwall & Devon day 26 Fri 18 May 2018

    May 18, 2018 in England ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    High cloud this morning. Huge buffet English breakfast at the Bowood Park Hotel Lanteglos Camelford. Left at 9.30am, drove to Port Quin and parked for two pounds (honesty box). Followed the Coast Path for three miles to Port Issac (Doc Martin land). Wandered around and took photos. A film crew were filming something in the hotel. Yvonne purchased a tea towel with a print of an Atlantic Sea Bass for the growing collection. After returning to the car in Port Quin drove back to the strawberry farm with a pick your own sign only to be told they were not in season. No matter Yvonne purchased farm vegetables and cheese for dinner. Then set the GPS for Clovelly in North Devon and arrived just before 5pm after the visitors centre had closed. Signs directed to a side ramp which could be secured by a serious gate. However staff going home said the gate is open all night. (So arrive late to avoid the GBP 7.50 entry fee). Yvonne’s knees took a pounding down the steep cobblestone sloped roads. Clovelly is car free and everything is transported down the cobbled streets by sled. Dinner and beers in two Clovelly pubs. Drove to Porlock in Somerset passing lambs, sheep and horses on the roadside. However there was no "Hillside" property in the High Street and roughly twenty people in the hotel knew of its location. Spent an hour following people's best guesses and knocking on doors till the owner rang us back and advised the location of the hidden lane we needed to use. We still had to wait till 10.45pm for the owner to get home from performing in a play. All amenities of the house were shared with the owners not just the toilet as described by Booking.com.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 27

    Exmoor NP day 27 Sat 19 May 2018

    May 19, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Left “Hillside” in Porlock Somerset around 9am and drove to Lynmouth in Devon. Looked around and took photos before walking along a path beside the Lyn river to a junction with the Hoar Oak river called Watersmeet. From here followed a path uphill and had lunch with a view over the deep wooded Lyn river valley to farmland, moors and the Bristol Channel. After lunch took a side path to East Lyn (farm) but failed to rejoin the main path. After backtracking to the main path took another side trip to Lynbridge. As there was nothing much there we returned to the main path and continued down to Lynmouth. We drove up to Lynton and wandered around before returning to “Hillside” in Porlock. Dinner of venison at the Ship Inn in High Street round the corner from the lane where “Hillside” is located.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 28

    Bristol & Wales day 28 Sun 20 May 2018

    May 20, 2018 in England ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Left Porlock in Somerset before 9am and drove to Bristol in the county of Bristol. Saw Brunel’s Clifton bridge linking Clifton In Bristol with Leigh Woods in Somerset across the Avon Gorge, as we drove in. Parked the car and walked to the upper inland lock of the floating harbour. The floating harbor separated from the Avon River was constructed to overcome port limitations imposed by a high tidal range. Walked downstream from the inland lock and had a beer in a floating pub. Drove to Caerphilly Castle in South Wales and Yvonne took photos as I had Ieft my cameras in the car. Then drove on to Brecon Beacon Guesthouse which is under new ownership from when I made my booking. Dinner in the George Hotel (Wetherspoon) in Brecon where a member of staff gave us directions to the start of the walk we wanted to do tomorrow.Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 29

    South Wales day 29 Mon 21 May 2018

    May 21, 2018 in Wales

    Another day of beautiful weather. Full English breakfast at Beacons Guest House. I ate everything as usual and Yvonne skipped the baked beans and black pudding. She gives me the mushrooms and hash brown. I should be getting fat. Followed the verbal directions to find the start of our walk but drove seven miles the wrong way as the roundabout sign did not have the welsh named town starting with M the two separate people referred to, but had another town starting with M in another direction. Eventually started the classic Beacons Horseshoe walk from the Storey Arms. Walked up the tourist path to Corm du then across a saddle to Pen y Fan which is only 886 metres high and full of people including school groups on a Monday. Leaving the crowd we descended and over another saddle to reach the Cribyn peak and ridge. At the end of the ridge we had morning tea while deciding where we would walk next. Descended to a road that went down the side of the valley and followed it till we were above a dam wall, then walked cross country through a boggy field to reach the dry dam. We had lunch under pine trees before following a track behind the dam wall across the back of the dam then walked cross country to reach the path ascending Fan y Big. Followed paths all the way to the car. Washed clothes and showered before dinner back at the George Hotel in Brecon (only pub with food on Mondays).Read more

  • TravelerThe UK & Ireland experience
    Day 30

    Wales day 30 Tue 22 May 2018

    May 22, 2018 in Wales

    Sorted out phone number and photo transfer between phones during breakfast. (Use email attachment). Drove to Brithdir in Snowdonia National Park including a couple of miles along a lane so narrow the proximity sensors were sounding constantly.Took a photo of a dam lake Lyn Clywedog on the way. A local at Brithdir kindly directed us to the start of our planned two mile walk which was where we parked the car. The walk was basically an uphill path to the top of a small hill the Foel Caerynwch (175 metre climb) with a wonderful 360 degree view. While we ate some lunch jet fighters were flying past (a bit like Top Gun movie). After the walk we drove to Llanberis also in the Snowdonia National Park. On a narrow section of road I decided there was insufficient room to pass an oncoming bus so reversed over 100 metres to a large wide area to avoid damaging the car. The stairs at Idan Bed & Breakfast in Llanberis were so steep to my booked room on the second floor with the shared toilet and shower on the floor below Yvonne moved us to a better room on the second floor. Maybe we will be billed extra but I am OK with that.Read more

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