Wooh! I am knackered (tired)! I just got back from a 4-day road-trip in England's South-West with Aussie and Germany. (I am quite happy to sit down and reflect on my trip while enjoying the final of Britain's Got Talent— go 'Twist and Pulse'!) Traveling by car is the way to do it, man!
On Wednesday morning, we packed up my little Clio and headed out on the road. Aussie brought her iPod radio thingy, so we were able to enjoy some of my favourite driving tracks, like Stornoway's 'Fuel Up'.
It was a 3-hr drive to Exeter, so we were very happy to jump out of 'Paul Simon' (my name for my car), stretch our legs, and explore the capital of the county of Devon. We saw the city's Roman wall and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sun beside the city's exquisite Gothic cathedral.
Our next stop was a little seaside town called Dawlish, where we were honoured to make peepee in the 'Loo of the Year'— probably the highlight of our whole trip, bahaha. In Dawlish, we got our first taste of the English seaside and I couldn't wait to get my shoes of and take a stroll in the wet sand. It was a bit hazy, but this quaint little town offers gorgeous views and an atmosphere reminiscent of some southern port.
Just down the coast, we stopped in the town of Teignmouth. At first, I was a bit disappointed, as it seemed very similar to Dawlish. We meandered down the boardwalk and took a look at the closed pier. I was ready to turn around and get in the car when we rounded a corner and beheld a beautiful scene! We came to a small natural harbour filled with boats of all shapes and sizes. We picked our way down the busy beach among teenagers preparing for their rowing training and families washing up after barbeques in their beach-front huts. The setting sun flickered on the water as men and their sons fished off the docks. We were pretty hungry, so we got some traditional cod and chips wrapped in newsprint for our dinner.
The next morning, we woke up in a lovely old THA hostel in the countryside close to the town of Kingswear. After a full English breakfast, we piled into Paul Simon and headed down into town. We rolled onto a little ferry and sailed across the mouth of the River Dart to Dartmouth. Darmouth is a charming town of dollhouse-like buildings gathered around a sparkling harbour that is also the home to the British Royal Naval College. Dartmouth was probably my favourite stop on our tour.
After Dartmouth, we stopped to sit on the beach at Blackpool Sands. This extremely pebbly beach gave us an impression of the typical English beach-day. Families, couples and groups of friends set up their wind screens and sprawled out on their towels to get a bit of colour on their pale English skin. A few brave Brits even descended into the chilly torquoise water!
We drove down to the tip of Devon to a town called 'Bigbury-on-Sea' to walk across the sea bed at low tide and climb up Burgh Island. The island is home to a gorgeous 1920's hotel… unfortunately, the owners of the island no longer allow the average visitor to explore the art-deco interiors— it has become an exclusive escape for the wealthy (aka not for poor au pairs). Regardless, we were gob-smacked by the incredible views from the top of this tiny island. I couldn't believe the colour of the water! It is this extraordinary aqua colour right out of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'. On our way down the hill on the island, we were greeted by a friendly photographer, who turned out to be a proselytizing atheist. He was quite agressive about sharing his disbelief with us, once we revealed that we (3 people from 3 different countries) met at church. We prayed for him.
Finally, we drove to Plymouth to eat some dinner and crash in our hostel. Plymouth is kind of what I pictured when I thought about the English seaside before our trip. It is a very large harbour city with deep, cold water. I didn't like it very much… but it's probably quite different in the sun (it was rainy and windy on our night in Plymouth). There was a massive motorcycle gathering there, too!
Friday was a very relaxing day. We drove straight from Plymouth to Bude, a small town of 9000 on the western coast of Cornwall. To be honest, we didn't see the town much because we spent the whole day lying in the sand, watching surfers and soaking up the sun… Aussie and I soaked up a bit too much sun, in fact. Take a look at this sweet back-leg burn!
Before our burns became apparent, however, we drove to the village of Appeldore for a real Devonshire cream tea. Then, it was off to Ilfracombe to check into our hostel and play some mini-put. Our hostel was pretty nice, actually. It's called the 'Maplewood Backpacker's' hostel, if you are looking for a place to stay, it's great! The only problem was that we were put into a mixed dorm and there was a guy sharing our room! Luckily, he was a very nice young gentleman with a great sense of humour who was very respectful of our privacy.
This morning, we explored Ilfracombe and met a local man who owns 16 dogs!! He was on the large hill in town playing fetch with his extremely well-trained canines. He would call each dog's name before throwing a ball and only that dog would chase it! Unfortunately, today was a bit hazy and cold, so we didn't get a chance to lay on any beaches. On second thought, that's probably a good thing, as we were a bit sore from the day before.
We left Ilfracombe around 13:00, hoping to be home around 16:30…nope. I finally pulled into my driveway around 18:10. (That's 6:10, for my readers at home!) The traffic was a bit ridiculous.
This trip has definitely whet my appetite for English road trips!
