After Bude we traveled north , up the rest of the Cornwall coast and into the top of Devon. Towns visited were Ilfracombe, a rugged landscape along the coast, then the coastal towns of Lynton and Lynmouth which are connected by a vertical cliff railway. A rainy afternoon as we headed to Minehead , our next accommodation, only to experience our worst and scariest driving experience ever. Rain turn to snow as we reached the top of the Exmoor national park, which apparently has its own micro climate. So one minute rain then next snow and then inches of snow and ice covering the road and fields. Cars and a truck had skidded off the road , the conditions becoming really scary , as John drove in 1st gear and avoided touching the brakes which was causing us to slide. Visibility was very bad and by this time there was 6 inches of snow & ice cover on the road. It was a case of “we need to get off this moor or we are going to be stuck here for the night” After 40 minutes and only travelling 9 miles we escaped being caught on the mountain to find the cops closing the road and preventing more cars entering this scary scene.
Ilfracombe
Steam Train trip through Exmoor national park, before the snow storm
Lynton & Lynmouth with cliff railway
Driving through snowstorm in Exmoor national Park
We woke up the next day in Minehead to more rain , We drove through Dunster,
a village we would of loved to explore, but being over getting wet we continued on to the area around the Cheddar Gorge.
This town is set in a gorge with high rock walls, an area of subterranean caves. Hoped to visit the caves , but flooding had caused them to be closed. So off to our accommodation at Redhill (Bristol). Oh dear, what accommodation. turned out to be an average room with paper thin walls in a lodge with shared kitchen. This all sounded good till we got there and found it was situated in a car drop off centre for Bristol airport. So we spent the next two days exploring all areas nearby and afar, only returning early evening to avoid being there.
Visited Bath , the roman baths , Bath abbey , Pluteney bridge and Alexandra park which provided a great view over Bath. Next to Bradford von Avon ,
with quaint tearooms that look like they are going to fall over and its little door barely 5ft tall. Next, Lacock,
which was a quaint town where Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter had scenes filmed here. The yellow stone building and traces of tudor very endearing.
On our last day staying near Bristol we went on a trip to Avebury, and the stone circles and Sidbury hill. The stone circles similiar to stonehenge but less commercial. Again the rain and the mud reduced walking though the area but Ivana ran through the rock circle only to come out very muddy. It is not known why the circles of rocks where formed or the ditches around them. They were erected there 6000 years ago.
Sidbury hill the biggest man-made hill in England and thought to be a burial place but really its intent is unknown. Moved on to Frome, why, well not sure! Dirty and depressed town with cobbled stone streets.
The next day we crossed into Wales on a huge bridge, 6 lanes wide and miles and miles long. Into the Wye valley, beautiful scenery surrounds the area. Stopped at Tintern Abbey ruins,
it is only one of two Cistercian abbeys in England and dates from 1113. Onto our accommodation in Gilwern, close to Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacon National Park. Much to our surprise found the area was full of canals and narrow English canal boats. The english boats are much narrower and lower than most French canal boats. It got us thinking about our own canal boat adventures starting in a few weeks.
Our little stone cottage once a 400 year old barn was cute with a 500 year old oak tree in the front court yard.
John finally got to see caves the following day, Dan yr Ooff, they werent any where near as magnificent as our own Jenolan caves. The rock walls of the cave were 350 million years old. Long before the worlds continents look the way they are today.
The scenery through the national park was glorious even through all the rain showers. The day ended with a beautiful rainbow.
Hello ! Any more updates ?
Just posted a couple more blogs. End of England and first two weeks in France. We have had internet issue which have prevented us posting until now. The post will become more regular now, we had a hacker ripping off our data.