Devon continued….A hike, a crime and a sunset

Tuesday 9^th October

So today my Dad and I are completed a 5.5 mile walk along the coastal path, that could, if we had taken a wrong turn,  seen us all the way to Cornwall. Needless to say, we made sure that this wasn’t the case.

We started off in Bucks Mills, where we are staying and were heading for Peppercombe Valley, to come back on a separate in-land route to complete the round-trip walk.

Full details of the walk can be found here.

Off we set at about 10.00am, leaving Mum behind to enjoy some peace and quiet in the sun for a few hours. And the sun was shining! It was a glorious day for a walk along the cliff paths and we were looking forward to lots of pretty views.

Our first challenge was that to get to a coastal path, you need to go up and this involved a set of very steep steps all the way up. They were pretty rocky and un-even steps and though we didn’t count them, by the time we had got to the top, I had 500ish steps registered on my fitbit and they didn’t start that far from the cottage!

Luckily we met this chap on the way to make us smile

After catching our breath we continued upwards, though this time it was just an uphill scramble through woodlands and fields on an un-even path. It was at this point I think we realised that this isn’t the ‘Moderate’ walk we were expecting from the description!

Catching our breath again, we found a signpost confirming we were on the right track and there was 2 miles to our central destination.

Look at this view! We weren’t quite at our highest point, but this is how good it looked half way up! We found bench to take a break on (had been walking about an hour at this point) and sent Mum these photos to show her what she was missing (I don’t think she minded!)

 

More views along the way made me double-check we were still in the UK – the sunshine was beating down on us and it was hard to believe we were in October in the UK too!

 

More woodland walking ahead and we reached our highest point, which gave us another view towards the Northern part of Devon and its beautiful cliff faces.

 

We began to go downhill here (hurrah!) and came to a lovely bridge and National Trust rest area. We didn’t stop here (I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get going again if we sat down!) and carried along, following the directions and also finding a handy NT map to confirm our way.

Now, if you are squeamish, skip over the next photo. It’s the injury I’d sustained by this part of the walk – half-way. I was wearing walking boots I have had for years, but not walking socks. Big mistake. I folded these down to try to create more of a cushion and hobbled on in pain.

We started to go upwards again…..this time past some National Trust volunteers who were burning wood to clear pathways and I got this lovely smoky photo.

I also got 2 plasters! By this point, as we were walking uphill again I didn’t want to tell Dad, as we had 2.5 miles to go yet, that my foot was REALLY sore and I was struggling to walk uphill as it rubbed more when walking that way. Just as I was on the cusp of asking Dad if he could think of any natural remedies, we walked past the volunteers van and there was a FIRST AID BOX! Now readers, please don’t judge me. I took 2 plasters without walking down the hill to ask them. I left them plenty, but as a NT member for over 20 years, I figured they wouldn’t mind right!

BLISS! Plaster on and we were off again, for more walking up hill, this time up a mini waterfall! You can’t see from the photo very well, but it was basically ghyll scrambling!

We were on country roads now so a little easier to walk on and after encountering a big tractor blocking our way (we had to scramble past it) we continued into some beautiful green fields and a downhill walk to our finish point. Just enough time for a quick selfie and we were back at the cottage.

 

Mum had been sunning herself in the garden and we joined her for a spot of lunch. Quick showers and we were off out to take a look at Barnstaple. No photos to share here because it was basically a town and we visited a few shops and came home. Dad and I were pretty tired! Bake off watched, we retired to bed.

Step count today: 19,585, 118 floors and 14,6km

Wednesday 10^th October

Slightly less energetic day today for us today and we headed off to a National Trust property, Arlington Court.

The house and all its content were given to the NT by its last owner, Miss Rosalie Chichester, on her death in 1949 at the age of 85 years old. It had been in her family for over 500 years and as everything was handed over, there are lots to see.

Rosalie Caroline Chichester was born in 1865, the daughter of Sir Bruce Chichester and Rosalie Chamberlayne. Her father died in 1881 leaving the sixteen-year-old Rosalie and her widowed mother with substantial debts which took until 1928 to pay off.

The house wasn’t particularly attractive from the outside, but the room sin side were lovely.

 

The first room we went into was the formal dining room, where unusually there were 2 dumb-waiters either side of the main window. We heard that this was to bring the food up from the kitchen below (as usual) and the other was to send the dirty dishes down again!

This room spread across the whole width of the house and also held a drawing room and informal dining area and had partitions so that certain sections of the room could be closed up for more intimate events. The ceilings in these rooms were beautiful and I could see how this house could feel grand enough to entertain, but cozy enough to live in.

 

The staircase was one of my favourite things! I have always dreamt of owning a symmetrical house (same number of windows either side of the front door for example) and a central staircase, so this really impressed me!

 

There were some lovely old costumes on show and you could walk through bedrooms and dressing rooms. In Rosalie’s bedroom I was looking closely at a photo (see below) and the room guide came to tell me about it.

 

He told me  that the wedding party didn’t look happy as this was taken in 1901, Victorian times, when it took ages to take one shot. So, they would have been stood there for ages and in no mood to smile! The lady to the back, to the right of the man, was Rosalie, and she was being Bridesmaids for one of her friends. You may also notice that they older bridesmaids are wearing rather austere and dark hats, unusual for a wedding. This is because in 1901 when the wedding took place, the whole of Great Britain was in mourning for Queen Victoria, so this was the right thing to do and expected of their class

The final rooms in the house were the Estate rooms, where they first opened the house up to the public and a museum. One of the boards told us that in the early 20^th century, regardless of their age, single ladies were expected to be accompanied when she went out and there were no exceptions to this rule. Miss Chichester had to advertise for a paid companion after her mother passed away and 47 year old Londoner Clara Elizabeth Peters got the job. They travelled extensively together, including post-war Europe in 1919 and two round-the-world trips between 1920 and 1922. Amazing women! Can you imagine having to stick to this rule today – this blog wouldn’t exist or it would be a very different read! What would they have thought of me going off for weeks on my own in a caravan!?

There was also an interesting carriage museum there and beautiful gardens.

 

After a spot of lunch we drove to Ilfracombe and The Tunnels.

The Tunnels were a popular seaside resort, established in 1823. Around 1918 miners carved a tunnel 40m long through the hillside, and this is what eventually became the tunnels, which house three tidal bathing pools, two allocated to Ladies and one for the Gentlemen.

 

There were some interesting facts along the tunnels as we made our way though, including some rules for girls and boys.

 

Once you got out of the tunnels, a beautiful view was ahead of you and a lovely beach. Only one of the ladies bathing pools still exist as the others have been swept away, and you can still swim in this today – if you are a man or a woman!

 

For the rest of the afternoon we drove around a few small villages and towns to take a look and stopped off in Wollacombe to have a cream tea (mum and dad) or a choc chip milkshake (me). We also took in some stunning scenery as you can see from the photos below.

 

Back home to the cottage, fire lit and dinner on. I’m not sure we will be quite so lucky with the weather tomorrow if the weather reports are correct…