Full Metal Wheelbarrow

So on Friday I twoodled off at half past six in the morning to collect Rob in the Cornish town of Bude. I managed not to get lost or any similar silliness and at twelve he called me and I found somewhere safe to pull over and call him back and not long thereafter we were reunited in the car park near the RNLI shop in Bude. Hurray!



And Bude has a proper sandy beach - bring on the buckets and spades!





Rob's hat had got a bit damp during his week in a tent, so he bought a new shiny one from the RNLI folk.





We had some chips at the little cafe on the beach, which were nice, but not as nice as the ones we had in Dawlish the week before, despite being more expensive, and then we pootled about on the beach for a bit after which we set off for the B&B I'd booked earlier in the week. Since I hadn't been entirely sure where I'd be meeting him at that point, the B&B was near Ilfracombe, at Mullacott Farm. I'm pleased to say that, like Sandays in Dawlish, I can recommend the place unreservedly. Despite being quite near a busy A road it was beautifully quiet and I can't recall when I've slept so well in a B&B.

This is the view we had from the bedroom window :-





Having planned carefully, I'd already sussed out a nearby pub to have dinner at. Alas, it turned out to be an uninspired choice. The food was acceptable but nothing to write home about and Rob was not impressed with the pub's idea of a steak and ale pie, which he described as "a bowl of stew with a hat on".

Breakfast at the B&B the following morning was much more like it. Rob was that impressed with the place that he paid an extra fiver over the asking price for the room…

As we were planning to visit my mum in hospital in Taunton on the way home and visiting hours don't start until 2pm, we then went off for a pootle round Ilfracombe in the meantime.

The weather had deteriorated somewhat since the previous day and as a result, Ilfracombe beach was rather less inviting than Bude had been ….





We ducked into a cafe for a cup of tea to warm up after only a few minutes. Thus fortified, we scurried down to the harbour, and had a quick look at the Damien Hirst sculpture "Verity". I don't think much of Hirst, as a rule, but that's an impressive piece of bronze-casting. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd designed it and got someone with actual talent and skill to make it though.

There should be a picture of it below, provided Imageshack don't decide it's rude.





Rather than pay motorway food prices, we bought pasties and Eccles cakes in a bakery in town and some coconut ice for mum at a fudge shop.

Then we set off for Taunton.

Unwisely, we took Brian the satnav's advice and ended up on the A399, which is a nasty, twisty, precipitous road with rubbish visibility. Note to self - next time, ignore Brian and take the A361, which is a bit hilly but is nice and wide, not to twisty and has good sightlines for the most part.

Second mistake of the day was stopping at a cafe at Moortown Cross on the 361 when we finally got back to it - the seats were liberally sprinkled with sugar where they weren't slashed to pieces, the lady behind the counter ignored me completely when we first came in, took about ten minutes to produce two cups of coffee when she finally deigned to serve me and then was obviously displeased when I explained that I'd wanted black coffee, not the milky ones she presented us with (I'm used to places where black coffee is the default and hadn't specified). The replacement cup were plonked down with decidedly bad grace.

After we'd drunk as much of the overpriced brew as we could stomach, we set off again to Taunton and visited Mum, who seemed much more herself than on our previous visit. we didn't stay too long though, as she understandably tires easily at the moment and we still had a long trip to get home.

We arrived in due course though and had a nice quiet evening unpacking and eating toasted teacakes.

Rob took a road atlas with him on his tour. It seems to have got a bit damp….