Last full day here today. Jo’s thumb is getting better, she was able to take the strapping off and leave it off this morning. We headed off to Ilfracombe this morning about 10. It was a late start this morning; everyone except me slept in. We got parked at about 11:15, but the ticket machine was eating money and not giving tickets, so I had to ring the number on the machine to pay for parking using my credit card. You had to give the registration and make and colour of the car and then your credit card details, all to an automated system, so that was painful, then it took payment and sent you a text confirming you had paid.
We walked a few hundred yards to Tunnel Beaches. In the 1820’s tunnels were hand carved through the
cliff to access the beach and rock pools. The cliff is slate and so is the grey ‘sand’ which is quite strange under foot, not like any normal pebble beach. Also, it sticks really well to your legs and feet as the flat little pieces don’t easily brush off like sand. By the time we arrived on the beach it was about 3 hours after high tide and the tidal pool was just becoming visible. I went scrambling round the rock pools with the kids, with my jeans rolled up to my knees as I hadn’t thought to wear shorts. Many pebbles and shells were collected. As we were getting ready to go for lunch, I sent the kids to wash the sand off their hands in a rock pool by us. This was when P slid into the pool and was soaked to the chest. If it was going to happen to anyone it would be him. I went back to the car to collect the spare clothes and then once he was changed we went for lunch. We looked at the cafe at the entrance to the tunnels, but ended up walking along the front and eating in the Dedes Hotel & Wheel Room. I had the all day breakfast, Jo had the cumberland sausage, P had the Cornish Pasty and A had the burger in bun. All the food was delicious and worth walking a little further for.
After we had eaten we carried on walking along the front until we got to the aquarium. We had a look around in there and the kids did the quizzes and got all the questions right. We stopped off in one of the many fudge shops and treated ourselves. After a few more shops we were out of cash, so it was time to head back to the car. Jo did find a couple of nice leather bags in a leather shop, but they went on plastic.
We stopped off at Sainsbury’s on the way back to grab some food for tonight. We needed something to go with the abundance of cream we bought earlier in the week.