In a desperate attempt at capturing some last minute English sun, we made off to Plymouth, Devon for the weekend at the end of August, in search of a tan, as well as a few extra kgs thanks to the fine host of restaurants renowned in the area. Because of the lengthy drive, we set off at 6am on Saturday morning, with myself snuggled up in the front seat snoozing away under a duvet, and Brad minding the wheel to ensure safe passage – bless him! Thanks to him, I awoke suitable refreshed 3.5 hours later in the midst of the beautiful Dartmoor National Park in time for breakfast!
Dartmoor National Park is absolutely amazing and even in summer (eye roll) the place is chilling, misty, mysterious, yet at the same time just magical. It’s like nowhere we’ve seen. With miles of open road amongst wildlife, wilderness and even an old prison, it’s easy to see how people fall in love with the place. In fact, Sherlock Holmes made it the setting of several books. We drove for hours, stopping every few minutes to take photos, which went down well with the locals… By locals I mean the cute Dartmoor ponies, one of whom came trotting over the car to see what we were up to, nek minute his head is in the car and he’s chewing at the lights and indicator!
Eventually we made it to Plymouth and after dropping off our bags, we set off to explore the mighty city. In true English form, it started absolutely bucketing it down, but despite our hopes of getting a tan utterly dashed, we were happy to get saturated as we explored the waterfront, before nipping into a café on a cliff top, named ‘Café on a Cliptop’ would you believe, for a traditional Devonshire Cream Tea – divine!
Thinking I had a bit of time up my sleeves to check out the shops, Brad had another thing on his mind – checking out the world-famous Plymouth gin distillery which is widely considered to be the home of the best gin in the world. So with a sad look over my shoulder at the department store, I was frog marched to the distillery where we spent an enjoyable hour learning about gin, the history of the place (which housed the Mayflower pilgrims the night before the set off to discover America), as well as more importantly – tasting!
Afterwards, saturated and a little cold, we made our way back to the hotel for a quick lie down before setting off for our reservation at the new River Cottage restaurant – our main reason for heading away for the weekend. We all know Brad is more than a fan of the show, and having experienced their restaurant in Axminster, we were only too keen to try out their new Plymouth haunt. It certainly didn’t disappoint and we had a delicious evening, eating as much as we could, whilst washing it all down with a delicious bottle of red. Tres bien!
We set off the next day with a plan which Brad had pulled together, with our first stop being a return to the beautiful Dartmoor National Park. It is so beautiful that we really needed to see it twice, out of fear we had imagined it. This time it was sunny, which gave us an altogether different perspective and the place was humming with keen explorers, cyclists and even the brave adventurer getting up close and personal to the beautiful Highland Cattle. These little beauties certainly make farming more appealing to a city girl like myself. I wouldn’t mind a few of these gems larking about the garden!
Of course, no weekend trip is complete without a Car Boot sale and much to Brad’s delight, we chanced upon one as we were heading out of the park.
We then set off to the Dorset region, which is home to the famous Jurassic Coastline and in turn, thousands of fossils which can easily be found along the beach. Brad had done his research and decided Lyme Regis was our spot, so we spent the afternoon at a gorgeous town and beach, with me sketching while Brad hunted for fossils. Credit to him, he found quite a fair few. I joined in towards the end and managed to drop a rock on my feet making me nice and grumpy!
We then meandered our way back to London, already making plans for our next visit.
Love to all.
x
Dartmoor National Park is absolutely amazing and even in summer (eye roll) the place is chilling, misty, mysterious, yet at the same time just magical. It’s like nowhere we’ve seen. With miles of open road amongst wildlife, wilderness and even an old prison, it’s easy to see how people fall in love with the place. In fact, Sherlock Holmes made it the setting of several books. We drove for hours, stopping every few minutes to take photos, which went down well with the locals… By locals I mean the cute Dartmoor ponies, one of whom came trotting over the car to see what we were up to, nek minute his head is in the car and he’s chewing at the lights and indicator!
Eventually we made it to Plymouth and after dropping off our bags, we set off to explore the mighty city. In true English form, it started absolutely bucketing it down, but despite our hopes of getting a tan utterly dashed, we were happy to get saturated as we explored the waterfront, before nipping into a café on a cliff top, named ‘Café on a Cliptop’ would you believe, for a traditional Devonshire Cream Tea – divine!
Thinking I had a bit of time up my sleeves to check out the shops, Brad had another thing on his mind – checking out the world-famous Plymouth gin distillery which is widely considered to be the home of the best gin in the world. So with a sad look over my shoulder at the department store, I was frog marched to the distillery where we spent an enjoyable hour learning about gin, the history of the place (which housed the Mayflower pilgrims the night before the set off to discover America), as well as more importantly – tasting!
Afterwards, saturated and a little cold, we made our way back to the hotel for a quick lie down before setting off for our reservation at the new River Cottage restaurant – our main reason for heading away for the weekend. We all know Brad is more than a fan of the show, and having experienced their restaurant in Axminster, we were only too keen to try out their new Plymouth haunt. It certainly didn’t disappoint and we had a delicious evening, eating as much as we could, whilst washing it all down with a delicious bottle of red. Tres bien!
We set off the next day with a plan which Brad had pulled together, with our first stop being a return to the beautiful Dartmoor National Park. It is so beautiful that we really needed to see it twice, out of fear we had imagined it. This time it was sunny, which gave us an altogether different perspective and the place was humming with keen explorers, cyclists and even the brave adventurer getting up close and personal to the beautiful Highland Cattle. These little beauties certainly make farming more appealing to a city girl like myself. I wouldn’t mind a few of these gems larking about the garden!
Of course, no weekend trip is complete without a Car Boot sale and much to Brad’s delight, we chanced upon one as we were heading out of the park.
We then set off to the Dorset region, which is home to the famous Jurassic Coastline and in turn, thousands of fossils which can easily be found along the beach. Brad had done his research and decided Lyme Regis was our spot, so we spent the afternoon at a gorgeous town and beach, with me sketching while Brad hunted for fossils. Credit to him, he found quite a fair few. I joined in towards the end and managed to drop a rock on my feet making me nice and grumpy!
Love to all.
x
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