Tunnels Beaches Ilfracombe

Here's a couple more photos from Tunnels Beaches.  These posters are hilarious.

 

Tunnels beaches

We visited Tunnels Beaches, hand carved in the 1820's.  There are four tunnels leading to the beach and enclosed bathing pools. On the way in there are copies of hilarious guides to Victorian etiquette for boys, girls and for when boating with ladies! 

Exiting the tunnels you come out to a beautiful rugged beach and the protected bathing pools.  There were different tunnels for men and women.  They did not swim together.

It was a beautiful sunny day when we visited and we were amazed at how beautiful the beach is.

Here's a few photos. We were with Colin's cousin John.

Dartmoor

Here's a few more photos of Dartmoor scenery and the beautiful wild ponies.

 

Whilst we were out on Dartmoor we went on the lovely little train, the Southern Railway from Woody Bay to Killerton.  It is a little narrow gauge line that travels through some very picturesque countryside.  They are hoping to extend the line but need lots of money, so by riding the train it contributes to raising the funds.

 

Dartmoor

We visited Castle Drogo on the edge of Dartmoor.  The castle, a National Trust property is currently undergoing major roof repairs and was covered in scaffolding.  The scaffolding is huge and it was explained that the reason there is so much scaffolding is the high winds that are common in the area.  They can reach 80 to 100 mile per hour, so the scaffolding had to be re-inforced to withstand the winds.
After visiting the castle we went across Dartmoor in search of wild ponies and other animals.

The moors are beautiful.  The landscape is rolling green hills covered in pink and yellow heather with rivers and streams meandering through.  There are several pretty stone bridges crossing the rivers.

Dartmoor was where they filmed the Speilberg movie Warhorse.

The photos are gardens of Castle Drogo, Colin and his cousin John, views over Dartmoor and the white blob is the scaffolding surrounding the castle and a couple of the bridges we saw on our drive over the moor.

 

Ifracombe

Ilfracombe is just a few minutes drive from Nethercott where we were staying.  Our first visit was the worst day of our holiday.  It was raining heavily and the wind was ferocious.  Down by the harbour is an amazing sculpture by Damien Hirst. 

The 67ft bronze sculpture, called Verity is described by Hirst as a 'modern allegory of truth and justice', She carries the scales of justice and is standing on a plinth of law books.  She is pregnant and one half of her body has no skin.

 

You either love it or hate it.  The locals mostly don't like it and would have preferred the money to be spent on something else to attract visitors to the town.

 

 

Devon

After our week in Hastings we set off to spend a week in Devon.

We stayed in the tiny secluded hamlet of Nethercott, nestled between these velvety green hills with horses and sheep grazing.

The cottage, a Grade 2 listed stone cottage with Inglenook fireplace, country kitchen - with all the mod cons.  We shared the cottage with Colin's cousin John and his wife Jean.

The owners of the cottage live and work on the farm next door and came to meet us when we arrived.  Not a speck of dust anywhere, it was absolutely immaculate.

The road leading to the cottage was a bit of challenge.  Extremely narrow with very high hedges and no passing bays.  it was quite a busy road and we had many encounters with other vehicles and often had to back up a long way to get past each other.

Our first day the weather was beautiful and the next day was terrible and the rest of the week was a mixed bag of good days and bad days but that didn't deter us at all.

 

We spent a week in Hastings exploring the surrounding beaches, countryside and watching amazing sunsets.  We ventured into the Kent countryside spotting oast houses and visitng a haunted pub that featured in the TV series Darling Buds of May.