South Devon, Here We Are

Sitting by the fire, laptop on my knees after a nice warm up walk in perfect weather. Ah, the good life, eh? Rich is entertaining me with some Wurzels playing from his iPad. Only missing thing is a canister of cider, but I'm way too lazy to manoeuvre the car up the narrow steep country lane to pick some up.

Arrived late yesterday afternoon after attending a wedding in Wells, then driving back to Bristol for packing and finally down to Devon. Been here more than a year ago when I was mountain biking in Dartmoor. It's good to be back. It's such a beautiful place!

Rich's parents own a cottage near Slapton and what a cottage that is. Furnished with a good touch of what was en vogue in the 60s and 70s it is a cosy place indeed. Two master bedrooms and a few smaller ones, two lounges and a huge kitchen. Think we'll enjoy our stay here for the week.

Stayed in bed until midday today and when the rain finally stopped we decided to go for a walk. Good decision in the end. The sun came out more and more as we walked small country lanes towards Strete enjoying the views over green fields and the sea in the distance.

Some of the bramble was still with fruit so we picked some here and there. Reminded me of my childhood when we went for raspberries for hours, stuffing our faces.

From Strete we headed towards Blackpool Sands on the South West Coast Path as it was only a mile away. Brilliant views forward and back. Took a very small detour to a sandy beach which we had all to our own. Awesome.

Back to the cottage along more or less quiet country lanes. Had to hug the hedge a few times to let cars past. 

In the end we did 8.5 miles which was not the short warm up walk we intended to do, but the weather was simply too good. 

Somewhat knackered we relaxed on the couch sipping spiced Indian tea, listening to the flutter of a trapped bird in the chimney until we took pity on it. While Rich took the big pipe off I covered the end with a frying pan. Together we carried it out the back door and once I took the pan off, a yellow beak followed by a black head looked out. A few seconds of blinking in the daylight later, a fully grown blackbird emerged and flew off. Cheerio and good riddance to you.

Rich got a fire going and we're about to cook off our marinated chicken wings, yum. Weather forecast's looking bill for the next two days, so we're probably off to the coast again tomorrow.