Delightful Devon

It was a busy morning - last minute laundry, clearing and cleaning the fridges, walk Xena and finish packing. In the process I stubbed my toe very badly against my suitcase, and I was convinced it is broken - it is swollen and has turned blue to match my trendy new nail polish that I used when I gave myself a pedicure yesterday. Hopefully it is only sprained but it is painful when I walk, not good for a walking holiday in Devon...

We set off before lunch in two cars - I remember the days when we used to drive to Switzerland every summer when the boys were little, in one car - with five people in the car and a dog (Murdoch) and all the luggage. Today we barely fitted all our stuff into two cars - to be fair the golf clubs took all of the space in the pod on the roof and the dog crate takes all of the boot space. 

We had quite a bit of traffic around the Stonehenge area but I did not mind the slow driving as I enjoyed the scenery of the beautiful countryside. The wild flowers and hedge rows are at their best right now, nothing more beautiful than England in the summer. We finally arrived at the house in Ilfracombe at about 5.30pm.

The house is a large Victorian house set above the town. The back garden slopes up the hillside from the house and at the top of the garden there is a gate which leads directly on to the South West Coastal Path. We unloaded the car and then went for a little walk along the path, dropping down to the beach below. At some point the rocks were too steep and jagged for Xena so the boys had to carry her over the rocks. This image is the view from the path from the house.

We will have fun exploring this area, it certainly is very beautiful and there seem to be many walks directly from the house