Devon, Cornwall and now back in Devon

Well, I missed a few days of blogging.  No excuses, just didn't get to it.  

We have been lucky with the weather. I probably shouldn't have said this. Tomorrow is the last day on the bike and the forecast is for rain :-(    We are currently staying in a restored stable on a farm in South eastern Devon.  We are about 7 miles from Seaton and Lyme Regis, both located on the coast.  We have been trying to stay at each location for 2 nights and do some sight seeing day trips. 

After leaving Cardiff we jumped onto the M4 and boogied back to England. We had researched a couple of places where we could rent some bicycles and try out one of the bike trails. We settled on the town of Barnstable in north western Devon. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate.  

Also we were discovering that is was not easy to find good and reasonably priced accommodation so we started looking ahead and booked a couple of places using airbnb.  The first was in Wadebridge in Cornwall.  Wadebridge in located at the end of a long inlet on the Camel Trail, one of the longest bicycle trails in Cornwall. 

The following day in Barnstable we woke up to sunshine and took all day working our way down the coast. We stopped at several towns and villages.  First was Bude, a popular surf town. The next was Boscastle. A very scenic village on a very narrow inlet. Then on to Port Issac, the village popularized in "Doc Martin".  The finally to Wadebridge.   Of the places we visited, Boscastle was the most interesting... Very scenic and some interesting walking path in the steep and rocky hills around the village. 

     Here are a couple of photos of Boscastle harbour.  Very cool. 

I must say that Port Issac looks better on TV than in real life. Even so, it was extremely crowded. We didn't stay long. We both thought that most of the residents of Port Issac would have preferred that Doc Martin was filmed some where else.  We didn't ask anyone, but we did see a big sign in someone's window that said... " please don't sit on my wall, I live here!"

  

     This is Port Issac as we approached on the back road. 

 Below are a few photo of a very nice bub in Wadebridge.  We were given directions to find it. 

  It is located on a narrow lane in a residential area. Tucked in behind a church. 

  

We had a bit of trouble finding our airbnb home stay in Wadebridge but once again the cell phone came in handy.   Using the GPS here works well on the main roads and in cities but in more rural areas the GPS takes you down some interesting lanes.   Even on these lanes, only wide enough for a one car, Garmin believes that the speed limit is 60 Mph?  With navigation options set to " fastest route" it takes you down these roads that you can't drive safely over 30 Mph and often down to 10 Mph around blind corners.