Recently, on the weekend before the Bank Holiday, the Archaeologist and I took a break in North Devon. We hadn't intended to go there but found many hotels that appealed to us booked up, so Serendipity took us to Northam, which abuts Bideford on the River Torridge. We stayed in a room with a 4-poster bed and views out over the river....
The Yeolden House Hotel has beautiful gardens and is a well-kept, Victorian building, very dark because of the decor but with beautiful stained-glass windows.
The clouds in the picture give an indication of what the weather was like, although the sun did shine from time to time. We explored briefly and had dinner in the restaurant that evening.
The following morning, it appeared that the weather was going to be better early on, so we set off to walk to Appledore, about 4km away along the coastal path above the Torridge.
This is the view looking towards a village called Westleigh.....
Where the pathway dipped down and the riverbank was more open....
Looking towards Instow....
We thought we were in for a long detour here as, according to the map, there was no way cross this inlet but this part of the path now follows the water's edge as a dyke and backfill had been added, with the stream that occupied it draining through a pipe.
Flag Irises
The view looking back toward the bridge at Bideford.
A further stretch of boardwalk, going inland to get around Babcock's shipyard.
The Archaeologist marching off into the distance (he has longer legs than me!)
Why do people cut their Cypress trees down and dump them on the path?
How far we had walked: this was where the path ended as a path and the bit on the road began....
The charming 'Welcome to Appledore' sign.
The little streets of Appledore behind the quay....
Very quaint and pretty but very lacking in light...I imagine the insides of the little houses must be very dark...
Whilst exploring, we came across The Appledore Crafts Company, which kind of establishment I am drawn to like iron filings to a magnet. Inside, I was delighted to come across Jill Denton, a textile artist I had met about four years ago. We had a catch-up and swapped up-to-date contact details, so I am hoping that it won't be so long before I see her again. http://www.appledorecraftscompany.co.uk/
Can recommend this establishment for a food stop..almost on the quayside...
Beautiful Wisteria...
We saw these all over the place: they were the Coastal Path signs..
It began to rain not long after we started our walk back towards Northam. I spotted this Cuttlefish bone laying on the path and wondered how it got there, in the middle of nowhere....its owner presumably long gone, but with not a Budgerigar cage in sight....
It was considerably wetter crossing back over this bit of riverside...
Lots of colourful flowers enjoying a drink...
...and one of several Badger Setts
I had to look twice when this caught my eye: what was it..? Ah...closer inspection determined it to be a doggie bag...........I thought the idea was to dispose of those in the requisite bin/take it home? Some people!!!!
Nearly back from what turned out to be a rather wet walk...(weather forecast somewhat 'out')...
...but well protected and nice and dry and warm :)
Back to our room for a cup of tea and the view (including the spectacular Clematis on the LHS)
This part of the Coastal Path is pleasant, even if the views are restricted and it isn't particularly hilly. I was pleased I didn't use Nordic walking gear as I don't think the walk is particularly suited to it, although the original reason I didn't was because it was likely to be so wet and muddy.
The rain didn't really let up but as we had decided to go to Barnstable and I wanted to look for a particular shop, that's where we went. It was so busy there....parking was difficult and when we did find somewhere the rain became torrential; we had to sit and wait until it left off a bit before venturing forth.
We made our way to the Pannier Market, which despite it being quite late by then, was still mostly full of traders. It's an interesting place to wander about in and, not for the first time, I wished I was there before going home so that I could buy some of the veg and fruit. Hunger was really beginning to set in, so we found a place to have lunch at the back of the market - have forgotten the name of it. It was the young guy making the food up there who told us where the children's shop was I was looking for, so off we went and I spent an enjoyable time looking at shoes for our Granddaughter, so that I could report back to her Mummy. By then, it was raining again and we just didn't feel like getting wet even once more, so took ourselves off back towards Bideford, calling in on the way to locate the bistro I had selected for our evening meal.
Back at the hotel, having made another cup of tea and dozing (the Archaeologist)/knitting (self), as you do on hols....later, setting off for our evening meal...
I had chosen The Riverbank Bar and Bistro, because I liked the look of it online: http://www.theriverbankbistro.co.uk/ I was hoping it would be as it looked. In fact, the food and the service were very good and we were delighted with our meal, so I can thoroughly recommend it.
Sunday dawned slightly brighter and we made our way to Westward Ho! Having found a car park and obtained instructions from the more enlightened members of the family as to where to find good coffee, we managed to get into Tea on the Green, http://www.teaonthegreen.net/ by the skin of our teeth, as it is a tiny place. The scone I had would have fed both of us and was delicious as was the toasted tea cake, the Archaeologist assured me. People kept coming and trying to get a table but many were booked by people who obviously knew the score....(For the record, you can sit outside but it was too cold that day.)
We had to get onto the beach, so here we go...
The amount of water in the car park is testament to the quantity of rain that had fallen...
The above 3 views are a panorama of the beach and what I saw as I emerged from the hill of stones bordering the car park.
The next thing I noticed was this dog with a huge pebble in its mouth...I just didn't know a dog could open its mouth so wide and still have the strength to hold on to something so heavy......
There were lots of interesting shapes and patterns to consider whilst I wandered along...which I did and brought them home to consider some more....
It was as cold and windy as it looks......
As we left the beach, the tide was coming in fast and I looked again at the pathway and its condition and decided that it might not have been like that before the recent storms.....the power of the sea...
We walked back up to the town and I ventured into a craft shop and came out (predictably) with something, although I could have emerged with far more....I can't track down the shop online and I don't seem to have brought any information back about it, unfortunately.
The afternoon saw us return to Appledore for something to keep us going until our much anticipated fish and chip tea later on there, so having ascertained the shop's 'frying' hours, we had another wander through the old town...
We were fascinated by this doorway and decided that there must be a more 'normal' one on the other side of the house..
It was still quite early in the afternoon, so we headed back towards Westward Ho! to the stretch of land that sticks out into the Torridge estuary, called Northam Burrows Country Park, which is an area of reclaimed land.
We parked and I chose to stay and knit/read whilst the Archaeologist stretched his legs. The picture above looks at Appledore and shows the end of the town we didn't go to this visit with its slipway and the lifeboat moored on the far left-hand side.
There were quite a few others there, considering the soggy conditions but the rain stayed off and I sat enjoying being back by the coast....
Having gone back to the hotel to tidy up we went returned to Appledore to get our fish and chips, only to find a sign outside saying that the shop wasn't going to open that evening...we weren't alone in being unimpressed.....We had a meal in a pub but it definitely wasn't the same..... (We have had fish and chips from Sylvesters before and they are very good but obviously they are a bit of a law unto themselves...)
We left the Yeolden Manor after breakfast. I haven't said a great deal about the hotel so far. It does have a website, which is rather twee and nowadays doesn't reflect the new owners (of just three weeks when we were there). We would probably go back there as the couple learning to run the place can't do enough for their guests but haven't got the hang of running a hotel yet and it feels a bit strange - more like a very big, costly B & B. Service in the dining-room was haphazard, although the food was good and the surroundings congenial but room service was lacking in that each day some staff weren't that good at making the bed and took towels and didn't replace them all. In the end we didn't bother to ask for more. When payment time came, it was put through three times and had to be refunded. If they can stay the course, as it seemed as though they had never done anything like this before and get themselves sorted out, we think it will eventually be a very good place to stay..
We drove via Appledore again intending to just to get some lunch from Johns and perhaps some coffee and take a long route back via Exmoor and Lynton but the weather was so warm and sunny, we had coffee sitting on the quayside (another good eatery: The Quay Bistro http://www.thequayappledore.co.uk/) and just stayed and stayed....
The church in Appledore looks interesting - rather a strange combination of Architectural styles. Next time we visit, I would like to try and find out more about it.
It is very difficult to see this because of the reflections. It is a 3-D map of the part of Appledore nearest the quayside and interesting to look at in detail. It can be found on the side of the toilets in the car park, near to where the buses stop before heading back towards Bideford.
Wandering back to the car, we succumbed (or I did without effort and the Archaeologist, with some persuasion) to one of the local delicious icecreams (Hockings), waved goodbye to Appledore and set off towards home...
It was an enjoyable break, despite the indifferent weather and very good to be back by the sea.
