Clovelly

This morning I joined Gavin on a short run down to the village and back, only 4km but it is so hilly here that parts were so steep. Everything is up or down, nothing flat! We took Xena with us for her first run but as I was stopping at the very steep parts it was not too strenuous for her. Unbelievably we bumped into someone we know who has rented a lovely modern house we have admired every time we walk past it - he recognised Xena before he recognised us!

We planned to set off straight after breakfast to visit Clovelly as it is just under an hour away from where we are, but Adam had a zoom call with his lab and team and that took ages so we left much later than we wanted to. When you factor in the narrow-lane-passing-truck malarkey it always takes much longer to get anywhere than you expect.

We last visited Clovelly 27 years ago on our honeymoon (!) and of course the village is exactly as I remember although there is a large car park and visitor centre at the top of the town before you start the steep walk down the cobble stones to the harbour at the bottom of the village. It was not too crowded, we managed to find a spot to sit on the wall where we ate lunch. Of course there were many other visitors but I find people tend to keep apart from others and sit in their groups. We ordered a take away lunch from the Red Lion at the harbour, and unfortunately it took an hour for them to make it - but it was good when we got it. The boys had fish and chips, Inka had calamari and I had fish of the day which was not in a batter (and therefore gluten free). Xena had a doggy ice cream - low in sugar, lactose free and she loved it!

It was cloudy all day but there was a moment of blue sky looking towards Hartland, in extras. After lunch we left Clovelly and drove to Hartland to visit the town and the quay. We also planned to visit Saunton on the way home but by now it was getting late and we thought we would rather do that another day.