North Devon - Christmas

So Peter and I thought we would head to Egypt for Christmas, get a bit of sun and have a relax... however, us being slack we left it to late and it was far too expensive to go, so instead we went to North Devon, Watermouth for those that know the area. Quite a change I know but still a new place and new experience.

We had booked a holiday cottage on a farm and when we phoned up to ask if it was OK for us to bring our bikes they said they would upgrade us for free to the next biggest cottage so that we could keep the bikes inside, very nice of them!

We took the 21st and the 24th off work and made the big drive down in typical English weather (misty, rainy and grey) with the bikes strapped on the back. We got to just past Bristol and I remembered that I had forgotten to bring the thermos, big deal you may think, however, I had convinced myself that I could do winter mountain biking if I had a nice warm thermos of hot chocolate waiting for me at the end, so the thermos was a big deal. Then about 10miles (yes I have been in England too long) I realised that we had both forgotten our bike shorts and we had nothing else that would suffice. Given that I was coming down with a cold I was taking this as a big sign that we just weren't meant to do any mountain biking at all!

Eventually, after a little tour of Illfrcombe to find some food we arrived at the farm...

This is the cottage that we stayed in, plenty bigger then we needed, but can't complain.

This is the main farm house, isn't it lovely?

And finally the view...

This farm was pretty cool really, not a 'working' farm more a place with lots of pets, ducks, geese, chickens, quails, turkeys, guinea pigs, rabbits, goats, pigs, cats, dogs and alpacas. Also in this collection were the two ducks that were raised from duck eggs from the supermarket, much to the disgust of the supermarket!

Some of the residents

The next day we went for a little explore of the area (also a mission to find bike shorts, successful!) and came across this beach, lovely, but I did think the surfers were made, it was less the 10 degrees! A few days later our bike ride took us right to the end of this beach and back again.

Saunton Sands Beach

After Saunton Sands we headed round the point to Woolocombe point and had lunch, doesn't it look like a nice warm place to be? And of course we had scampi and chips, an English favourite.

Most of the rest of our days were spent sleeping in late and relaxing with the exceptions of a walk around Morte Point and a bike ride at Saunton Sands.

The path on the bike ride was full of massive pot holes, probably due to the tanks that use the road. We started off avoiding them or riding round them, but soon gave up and rode through them, great fun!At the end of Saunton Sand Beach we came across a ship wreck (more like ship abandon)
An artistic shot of the bikes by a non artistic person...
And finally me practising jumps, little ones on flat tarmac, but my wrists aren't strong enough to flick the back wheel up, so Peter wasn't so impressed.