With another impending lockdown, it was time for a few days down in Devon with the Peppers. Staying in Ilfracombe, Amy, Katie and I headed down to meet Mum & Dad at the Air B’n’B after work. Given the time of year (late October), it was pitch black by the time we arrived after the four hour journey. Good views of the harbour from the house though.
Here’s a few pictures of the accommodation. A three-storey town house, the views were pretty decent!
After a fairly chilled start to the day, we drove to Woolacombe for a hike.
The walk would take us to the top of Potter’s Hill for good views along the coastline.
It was fairly steady, although Roker and Myla were constantly pulling to get to each other. In the end, we let the two of them run around for a little while.
It was windy enough that there were paragliders in the sky, must have been chilly up there!
We could then walk along Woolacombe Warren, which was once a golf course, before it was pretty much obliterated during the Second World War for intensive military training!
Before making our way down to the beach.
The dogs weren’t overly keen on the sea.
A panoramic view from the car park after the walk.
Back at the house, we let the dogs have a bit of a mad run around. At this point, they still couldn’t settle in each others company, so this holiday was going to be a real test! This particular play ended in them being separated so they could sleep!
A day-time view of the Ilfracombe harbour from our accommodation.
In the afternoon, we decided to pop out without Dad and Myla – who were undoubtedly napping. The house was within walking distance to Capstone Hill and the harbour.
Passing a little bay to reach the top of Capstone Hill.
The walk was pretty short, here’s a panoramic of the town of Ilfracombe from the top.
On the summit is a statue to a young Russian student who fell to her death from nearby cliffs in 2000.
There were good views along the coast, and we could also see our Air B’n’B in the distance.
You could follow the path back down and round the hill, and peak over the cliff.
The Ilfracombe Harbour. As you could probably tell, the tide was out at the moment.
One of the attractions in the town is the Verity statue. A bronze statue created by Damien Hirst, it depicts a pregnant woman holding a sword. As you’ll see from the photos, on one half you can see the internal anatomy of the woman with the foetus.
Views from the harbour of Hillsborough Hill.
…And the girls taking a seat.
A few pictures from the town, which is a popular tourist spot – although probably not in the last week of October!
That evening, as no one could be bothered to cook, we went with a takeaway – which was delicious!
Of course, we couldn’t start the following day without a full English! We also allowed the dogs to play and tire themselves out ahead of the day.
That day we’d planned a long hike from a village called Lee. The car park was right next to this picturesque bay.
The walk, which took us primarily along the cliff edge, was about 7km in total and was named the Lee Bay to Bull Point walk.
As per the day before, we had to separate the dogs, so Dad marched on ahead. You can see the zig zag path along the cliff here.
It was quite an undulating walk, although not too difficult. Thankfully it wasn’t raining!
Nearing Bull Point, we reached a small stream, which was greatly received by the dogs. A good spot to have a ten minute break and a sit down.
There were some really good views over the side of the cliff. I got as close as possible to take a look – obviously.
Before we reached Bull Point and the lighthouse.
Roker thoroughly enjoying the walk!
We decided to take a slightly different route back to the car, as to mix it up a little. Instead of walking along the coast, we headed up through the valley.
The hope was that it wouldn’t be quite as up and down, and thankfully it wasn’t. Plus a different track makes it more interesting anyway.
The route took us through some fields packed with cows, much to Roker’s delight.
We made it back to Lee after a few hours, a lot more picturesque now the sun had come out.
After travelling back towards Ilfracombe, we stopped into Hele Bay Pub for lunch. In the afternoon we decided to stay fairly local, and headed to a lookout over Broadsands Beach.
The ‘path’ down to the beach had pretty much collapsed, so we decided to stay up top, and just walk along to the view point. Safe to say we weren’t disappointed! It’s a pretty idyllic looking beach, just a shame it wasn’t the middle of summer and we could enjoy it.
It was then back to the accommodation for some tea and coffee cake.
That evening, a few of us decided to head back to Capstone Hill to watch the sunset. It never quite reached it’s potential unfortunately.
For dinner, we decided on an Indian takeaway! The plan had been to go out, but a lot of places were closed due to the season – safe to say it was delicious.
On our final full day, we were rudely awoken by Mum tumbling head first down the stairs – safe to say it was a bit of a shock! The bruise was quite something, luckily she didn’t seriously hurt herself!
We then decided to head about an hour further West, down to Speke’s Mill Mouth Waterfall. The forecast didn’t look too favourable, but we ploughed on anyway.
The circular walk through the Hartland valley wasn’t too intense and had good views of different waterfalls.
It was getting chilly!
It probably only took us 45 minutes to reach the main event – Speke’s Mill Mouth Waterfall.
With the weather looking pretty ominous, we decided to continue the walk. Similar to yesterday, we wanted to mix up the route back to the car park. This time it was through the woods and alongside streams.
The route took us through some quaint villages.
Until we reached the pretty emphatic St Nectan’s Church. Which was bloody massive considering the size of the village it sat in!
Amazingly, we’d missed all of the rain, and managed to get back to the car fairly dry – although the dogs were soaked and muddy. We stopped in at the Farmer’s Arms in Woolfardisworthy for lunch. The food was brilliant, particularly the mussels.
As we had the two cars, after lunch, Dad headed back to the house with Myla, while the rest of us drove to Pebble Beach. We’d seen online a really cool rock formation at the end of a nice walk, so thought while we’re this way, why don’t we go and check it out. The walk through the Brownsham Woods provided some shelter, although Roker was drenched.
We reached the aptly named Pebble Beach, only to find that the tide was completely in, so we couldn’t see the famous Blackchurch Rock. This was the best angle we could see. You’ll have to Google it, if you want to see it properly!
A view back along the coast and some shots of the erosion/rock formations.
It was then back to the car, before the drive home.
That evening we had a fairly chilled one, watching the football and Myla kept a look out from the second floor window.
A final view from our house with a rainbow near Capstone Hill.
Our last day, and Mum, Dad and Katie headed off first thing. As we weren’t in a rush to get home, we decided to take one more trip to Hele Bay.
There was a short coastal path that took you to a viewpoint back across Ilfracombe, so we thought we’d have a look. The view back across to Hele Bay.
And a gloomy view back across to Ilfracombe Harbour and the town.
You could see in the distance that rain was incoming, so we kept the stop at the top pretty short.
Pretty sweet view of a double rainbow though! The bottom rainbow was so strong.
It was then back down to the car before the long journey home.
It was a really lovely few days away, and a much needed break just in time for lockdown 3.0 and the start of winter.
Alex and Amy's Travels 