A little more adventure than we had anticipated!

Wurtlefkey loaded and ready to go
as the darkness starts to fall

This weekend saw us Woolacombe bound again, only this time instead of camping in a tent we were taking Wurtlefkey to spend a luxurious weekend in the warmth and comfort of our motorhome.  We got away later than planned, the problem with living on the coast is everyone that doesn't live on the coast wants to head that way on a Friday night and so for the summer months there appears to be a mass migration southwards which clogs up the one freeway that goes south and is essentially our way home from anywhere!  It was already dark when we left so we knew it would be a long journey, however hope glistened when quite by accident we discovered the road to Barnstaple is a well lit main road and a good way into Woolacombe.....but that joy was short lived and so we experienced for the first time what I'm sure seasoned motor homers experience often....the dreaded re-route through unsuitable roads.  It was with disappointment we found the main road had been closed due to an accident, so we took the next turning available and hoped that the satnav would pick up a new route....success!  She did!  Except we got through a housing estate only to look at the width of the road and decide...no....we won't fit down here...so out I jumped, held up the traffic and directed Wolf to backup, round the corner and turn around.  A great feature I found on our satnav was to avoid roadblocks - it worked, but this time our reroute instructed us to go down a road with 6'6' width restriction, which is a bit of a problem when we are 7' wide!  We carried on up the only road that was available to us and eventually the satnav rerouted us - what followed was about 30 minutes of nail biting, white knuckle driving down single track dirt paths, as close to off-roading as a motorhome could be and praying to anyone that would listen for no other vehicles to be going in the opposite direction.  Wurtlefkey is exactly 7'6' - the road was approximately 7'59'... There was catching and scraping, pot holes, sharp bends, steep hills, it was the road from hell, so you can imagine our joy when we appeared back on the open road, and suddenly I recognised where we were.  BUT I knew this road we were on (or one thereabouts) suddenly got really narrow again and wasn't going to be appropriate for a motorhome, and I have to admit about 100 yards from our final destination (although that little fact had at the time eluded me) in a moment of panic I made wolf turn around and go back in the opposite direction, having got my bearings I then sent us back from whence we came and finally, three hours later we arrived at Damage Barton.

I can't speak highly enough of the site here, amazing views, great pitches, such a peaceful place to be, and as if all that wasn't enough,  the people here are genuinely lovely, so friendly and helpful.

Waking up to this view made the antics of the night before absolutely worthwhile.....

 

 

It rained all night, absolutely torrential, so we were once again beyond grateful for the warmth and comfort of our climate controlled, completely waterproof motorhome!  It did however scupper our plans for a day at the beach, so waking up at 7am we looked out the window, and decided to go back to bed. 

Later in the morning when we did finally surface, the weather had eased, so our usual veggie bacon sandwiches consumed (yes I have a bit of a veggie bacon addiction) we decided to set off for a bit of a walk into the nearest village - Mortehoe.  It was a lovely walk, we did of course head off in completely the wrong direction, but did find a really pretty little waterfall/pond along the way.

We stopped for a cream tea - no visit to Devon is complete without a cream tea - and then decided as the weather was so lovely we would walk all the way in to Woolacombe (gotta burn off all that clotted cream!!) spend an hour or so around Woolacombe before catching the bus back.  Woolacombe (as I think I may have mentioned before) is full of flipping hills!  Not just any hills, but steep steep steep hills... the kind of hills that hurt to walk down, do there was no way in heck I was gonna be walking back UP to our campsite... Wolf on the other hand is part mountain goat, so is in his element on a hill.

Whilst in Woolacombe, we decided to play a little 'pitch-n-putt' - not that we are competitive or anything but it was "on like donkey kong"!  The loser has to make tea for the rest of the vacation.  This was the inaugural "Woolacombe Golf Challenge" and I cannot even explain the tension in the air as it came to the last hole, I was two shots down and managed a putt from about 100 yards, without doubt it was the best putt of the day, but sadly it wasn't quite enough and so I was tortured with tea making duties for the rest of our stay. 

Back at the campsite, we took some well deserved time to just sit back, relax and enjoy spending time in our motorhome.  We always tease each other about how much of a nerd the other one is, so this is photographic evidence that Wolf sits with his hat on, feet up, reading "Motorhome Monthly Magazine" to which he has a monthly subscription - it doesn't get much nerdier than that :-)   But he is my nerd after all and I love him! 

We had a fantastic trip to Woolacombe, the difficult journey there was just a distant memory, and so in the torrential rain we unplugged, packed up and drove home feeling relaxed, refreshed and eager to go back again.