The M5, A30, A39, B3266 and Roundabouts!

Yesterday we drove to the Jurassic Coast via Dartmoor National Park. We've been driving several hours each day in order to be stationed at Snappers each night, and be able to see all the wondrous things in Cornwall.

 Driving here is a little but like those car commercials where it says at the bottom "closed road, do not attempt". Every road is windy, and about one and a half lanes wide.  There are hedgerows that have grown tall with trees so that you can't see around the next corner.

Driving here is also like being inside a packet of IKEA directions. You know how you buy something awesome at IKEA and get it home, and there's and entire booklet of directions that contain no words? None of the road signs here have words! Well, that's not true. We saw one yesterday that said, "Sheep Lying on Road".  😂 And it was true!

Driving here is also an exercise in circular driving. No kidding, the highways here do not have exits as much as they have roundabouts. I think the longest we have gone without a roundabout is about 12 miles.

'

And finally, driving here is so...friendly! It is common practice to come around a corner, and slam on your brakes when you find a tractor, or another car in front of you. You end up playing chicken with the oncoming car backing up and maneuvering around each other. There is swerving around in the roundabouts and passing on small lanes. And everyone you pass, no matter what you have done with your car, smiles and waves. There is no horn blaring our angry looks; there is no road rage.  If only it worked like that everywhere!

Dartmoor National Park is quite unlike Exmoor. True, it is moorland, but it does not contain the type of private farming that Exmoor does. We were there on Saturday, and observed gobs of people in their hiking gear enjoying the park. There are many tors to be climbed, and ancient ruins to explore. There are remains of the Bronze and Iron ages in Dartmoor. We're talking BC!  We discovered this "house" on our way up one of the tors. 

At the top of the tor were these beautiful  rock formations. The view was amazing, and we could see the circular enclosures of several pre-historic communities. Plus, it was just fun climbing around!

If there is one thing this country has a lot of, it's sheep! And all different kinds! I'm sure some of you already knew that, but my sheepdom is limited. :) Even cuter than all these sheepies are their babies! It's lamb season and they are are so adorable.  

If you were impressed with the BC part of the Bronze Age, then the Jurassic Coast will knock your socks of.  It's about 100 miles of coastline that has rocks and fossils from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. We chose Charmouth Beach as our destination because it is common to find fossils there. The cliffs are high, and fossils apparently just fall off with erosion and are commonly found on the beach.

We didn't find any fossils, but we did find imprints of them. 

Upon arriving at the beach, this beach girl popped off her shoes and socks, because that is what one does at the beach, right?   Apparently this is why all the other beachgoers had wellies on! It wasn't sand, but tiny, pokey, pebbles. It was not long before the shoes went back on!

And then back in Camelford we had our first real English dinner, the dinner I had been worried about. You know, the one where I read the menu (twice) and wasn't sure what I would eat.  As you well know, I am an insanely picky eater.  The English eat a lot of meats that are in my "no" category, and this menu was full of them! I survived dinner, as did Louise (barely -- her scallops had extra parts 😳), and we were rewarded handsomely with amazing desserts. I had belgian waffles with toffee-nut sauce. Delicious! Mom and an extremely awesome berry crumble. And while the food was weird, the people were, again, so awesome. The patrons and the wait staff could not have been more friendly. That alone has made this trip so enjoyable. 

Tomorrow: St. Ives!

Underwear in the Oven

No, it's not just a catchy title. There are, in fact, underwear in the oven. Our cottage amenities included "laundry" but it did not occur to us to check for a dryer.  John mentioned this about England when we were touring his apartment. I heard it, but I didn't really internalize it. My great-grandparents (from Yorkshire, England) hung their laundry out to dry in their yard in Portland, but I thought it was just quaint. Apparently it was a habit. So here we are with a definite need (um, underwear!) for clean clothes, and no dryer. We have one of those umbrella-tree clotheslines in the yard, and we hung it all up this morning. But it's March, in England.  The weather has been glorious, but it's still chilly! And so was our underwear upon return this evening. I cannot be the first person to come up with this solution... For my fire safety friends, the ovens here in England have a setting wherein you can run the fan without heat. :) Safety first. 

Even given the laundry gaffe, our cottage is so adorable. The cluster of them are called Penrose Burden Cottages, and our cottage is specifically named "Snappers". The English name everything. There are five or so cottages on the property, and they are all restored barns.  There are all these details where you can see the original rafters on the ceiling, and the original stone work on the walls. Neither of us wants to ever leave.

We spent today on the Northern Cliffs. It's an Area of Natural Beauty (AONB). Seriously, that's a real acronym. :) We have several nice maps, and a sat nav in the car, and our iPhones, but getting places is hard! Plus, whatever you're trying to find (cliffs, lets say), are unseeable from the car. So we pulled off in a small parking lot, and followed some people and their dogs along a path. Sidebar: All dogs  here are wildly well behaved.  Knock on wood... Anyway, we were having a nice stroll and then veered off the path to see what else there was besides a nice walking path. 

Turns out Basset's Cove WAS an Area of Natural Beauty! We really, really wanted to go down on the beach. There were little caves, and so many climbing spots. There isn't a way down, and really no way to bring a boat in from the sea.  Totally untouched. 

Afterwards we hopped by in the car and headed south to Navax Point where we could already see the lighthouse from Basset's Cove.  It's also part of the North Cliffs and designated an AONB.

The lighthouse is Godrevy Lighthouse, built on Godrevy Island. It's a story similar to that of Tilly, but the island is bigger, it's closer in, and somehow, this ocean is much calmer. Interestingly enough, after several shipwrecks on the reefs (all of which are named...), the town still wouldn't fund a lighthouse, so one of the local churches did. They still run the beacon which replaced the lighthouse in 2012.

And honestly this ocean is so calm. Even on a nice calm summer day when the Pacific is "flat" off Cannon Beach, it rarely (or ever?) looks like this. 

And then, guess what we did? Went to the theater!! Minack Theater is located near Penzance off the southwestern tip of England. I grabbed this photo from Mincak.com because we didn't get a daylight pic:

Isn't it gorgeous? Guess what was playing?

:) Can you even believe that? Fun fact, Kenneth Grahame began his epic story in Falmouth, which is also in Cornwall. We have seen so many places where it is easy to imagine little Rat and Moley off on their adventures. I think I mentioned earlier that Mists of Avalon was my all time favorite book. It might be a tie with Wind in the Willows. Mists makes me feel strong and invincible, and I fist pump at every turn with those powerful women. Willows is so different, and possibly holds a larger part of my heart for various reasons. It's a simple story, but speaks strongly to the human need for friendship and hope. Chapter 7 always makes me tear up a little.

 Anywho...we got tickets to see it at Minack. As you saw from the picture above, the theater sits right on the ocean. The sound system was great, and you could hear the actors clearly, but you could also hear the ocean slip in and out against the rocks. So lovely.  Also, really cold!! We were not the only ones who left at intermission. It was 40 degrees without the wind chill, and though we had jackets on, we were not even close to warm enough! Luckily, we know how the story ends. 😉

Whelp, it's time to rotate the contents of the oven. Vacationing is so swanky!

In Search of Wild Ponies

Yesterday, yes I'm a day behind, we left Dunster in...Minehead (?), and headed toward Cornwall. The place we stayed last night was situated right next the Yarn Market. In the Middle Ages, Dunster was a sort of a hub of wool trade. The Yarn Market building was built in 1609 by the family that lived in the local castle to promote and continue that trade in Dunster. It's sort of hard to understand looking at something from 400 years ago. It is stone and wood, and has held up remarkably well. We easily  were able to imagine tradesman in the different "stalls" with their yarn and products ready to trade.

This morning, the day of writing, I am exceedingly grateful to not be looking at "bacon".  Please, no lessons on piggery. I'm just saying, I'm a scone and clotted cream girl. 

We left the Minehead area and headed towards Exmoor National Park. Can you believe we found a park here, in another country? Of course you can. :) We did the same last year in Edmonton. #findyourpark

Anywho, Exmoor (pronounced Ex-mer), is situated on the Bristol Channel, and was a perfect day trip for us heading in the westerly direction towards Devon and Cornwall. Entering the park we were surrounded by moorland. Just so you don't have to look it up, a moorland is a habitat in the upland area, with lots of shrubs and grasses. We headed straight for Dunkery Beacon which is the highest point in Exmoor, about 1,700ft. I have no idea why it's a beacon. There was a stick, and a case on the ground with a solar panel, but honestly nothing else! There were great views of the surrounding land, although none of our pictures really show it. We did find evidence of the wild ponies though! 

Off in the distance we could see sheep, and then possibly a herd of ponies. Or cows. We weren't sure, but we decided to go see for ourselves. What's interesting about this National Park, and maybe others in the UK, is that it is not nationally owned. About 75% of the park land is privately owned, and 50% of that is agriculture. But you, as a visitor, are allowed access to the land.  Isn't that contrary to what we experience sometimes in the states where owning land is  big deal?  The park wasn't a park until the 1950s, and of course people had already settled by then, so there may have been concessions on both the part of the country and the private citizen, but it just seems nice and respectful now. I tell you all this because of the following: 

Sorry if the video is sketchy -- the WiFi is not real strong here...

We had quite a long discussion at the gate about what to do. Mom was sure, and she was right, that we could open the gate, drive through, and close the gate. I think she was also sure that she wasn't backing this English car back up the one land road. :)  Opening the gate seemed so wrong! We had the same experience 20 years ago biking a Roman road in central England. Opening a gate to someone's property and driving through... I'm sure you're thinking the same thing I was. And then I saw the dog. Deal breaker! We sat at the gate for a long time, but I did indeed open it, and none of the THREE dogs ate my ankles, and I closed it without issue. Whew!

And so on to the ponies. We had seen fur tufts, and plenty of pony poop, but had yet to see the ponies.  Luckily Mom spotted one out her window. It wasn't like Misty of Chincoteague or anything (I'm such a book nerd), but it was special to see these animals. They are a specific breed to the British Isle, and are classified as endangered, and semi-feral. I guess they are technically owned, but are allowed to roam free, and are not tagged and such.  They are very stocky, built like a donkey, but looked more like a horse, though not quite as tall.

Then we went on towards the Valley of the Rocks, which is the geological wonder of the park. On the way, we had very English type scenery. 

We stopped for lunch in Porlock -- sausage rolls and chutney. Yum!

And then, can  you believe it, more ponies!! Yay! These ones were right off the side of the road, so we pulled over, and sat and watched them for a while like tourists in Cannon Beach gawking at bunnies. ;) But, truly, there are apparently only about 800 of these left, and we saw about 15 of them today. 

Up until this point, we had enjoyed beautiful pastoral views, but had not experience the typical National Park awe. You know the one where you drive around the next corner, and then BAM!

This was a footpath that wound around tall sea cliffs, and ended with this amazing view. 

💕

And then we were on to Cornwall...almost. It's not a true National Park unless there is a stressful driving experience.   :) The road out was a one lane, two way road, with hairpin turns. Thank you Sir Robert.

The road did afford us one of the best views of the day, though our camera didn't come close to capturing the beauty.

And then we were off to Cornwall! Tomorrow I shall show you pictures of our Penrose Burden cottage.