Failure is the Key to Success

I was determined not to have another slow start today, so I was up before six and went out on my bike for a short ride to get the day going. I rode down to Landcross and joined the Tarka Trail and then rode up to the Torridge Bridge and back. Only about 6.5 miles, but enough to get the day going, the last bit back up the drive and Hallsannery was a real killer; I ended up in the lowest gear and only just made it.
We went out to the historic fishing village of Clovelly today. This is famous for 3 things, its steep cobbled street, fishing harbour and donkeys.

The kids got to make a fuss of the donkeys and A got to hold a little owl. It was surprising how much time passed as we meandered down the street, looking in the shops and taking photos. About 1 o’clock we had got as far as the Treasure Chest and the Tea Rooms. The lady at the Treasure Chest was busy sticking no photography signs over all the goods in front of the shop. I understand that people taking photographs doesn’t pay the rent, but her trade is going to be tourists who are going to be taking photos. Needless to say, this was probably the only shop we didn’t go in; this photographer and his family voted with their feet.
We stopped at the Tea Rooms for some lunch; I had a ploughman’s lunch, Jo had a fisherman’s lunch, P had a crab sandwich and A had sausages in a roll. After we had eaten, we continued on down to the harbour.

After quite a time at the harbour, we made our way back up via the many shops and eventually got back to the pottery. Jo and the kids all wanted to throw their own pot, very good value for £2.50. OK, the bowls aren’t fired, but we have instructions for doing that when we get home.
We ate in tonight.

Tags:Clovelly,cobbled street,donkey

OK, this morning was a bad morning. Too much sun and not enough water yesterday took its toll. It took a lot of water and time to get going today. Lunch was bacon sandwiches.
We finally got to eat at the Old Barn Inn in Bickington. When we ordered the food, we were told that it was about 25 minutes for it to be cooked. That would have been fine, however, it was at least 50 minutes by the time it finally arrived. By this time, A, who had been fine all day, had a headache and was feeling tired and hungry. The food was nice, but the service let the meal down.

Tags:Old Barn Bickington

Today was The North Devon Show. It was in Umberleigh, which is only 30 minutes or so from Hallsannery. The weather was expected to be good all day, so we set off about 9am. Traffic was good until we got close and then the last mile or two crawled through the country lanes. Organisation for parking was good, with the adjacent 42 acre field being used; we were quickly directed to where they wanted us parked. At least it was easy to find; we were on the end of a row and under the telephone lines. As we were walking down to the entrance, you could hear where the dog show was.
Just as we got in Jo stumbled on the ground and fell over right by the Red Cross point. After being helped back to her feet, no serious injury had occurred, so we headed off into the show.
We watched the dancing dog show and the kids both joined the show, A seems to have got over her fear of strange dogs. Jo got dragged in as their responsible adult/’dog’ trainer.
On the edge of the Tarka ring, where the dancing dogs had been, we looked at the birds of prey. I correctly identified 2 out of the 3, the Golden Eagle and the Harris Hawk; I got the third one wrong, I thought it might be a merlin, but it was an American Kestrel.

We watched what we could see of the monster trucks, but to be honest we got there too late to get a good view. Well, Jo and I didn’t, the kids made their way to the front and saw it anyway.

Then we had a look at some of the cattle and sheep, before watching a bit of the ferret racing; more hype than excitement in my opinion.

We had Cornish Pasties for lunch, ‘freshly crimped in Cornwall that morning’ and they were delicious.
We looked at the poultry and the crafts tent before seeing some of the show jumping. Unfortunately, the show jumping was on right next to the main area, where the monster trucks were just finishing and kept revving their engines, I don’t know how distracting that must have been for the horses and riders, it was for me.
Somewhere during the day we fitted in ice creams a couple of times and then we headed back to the car. Quite a few cars had already left, so there were gaps all over the place in the carpark. Unfortunately, this meant that cars were driving at random through the parked cars. Although there was a main route out, everybody was trying the jump the queue by driving through the parked cars and joining the queue further up. This had the effect of completely gridlocking the carpark, and so it was a very slow exit. Knowing I wanted to turn right at the exit, I had to force my way into the right hand lane, only to find that both lanes were right turn only; it would have been nice if they had signed that earlier.
We picked up some food in Sainsbury’s on the way back and ate in tonight.

Tags:Golden Eagle,monster trucks,North Devon Show

Ate in at lunchtime and went into Barnstaple in the afternoon to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part2 at Scotts Cinema. We were in screen 2, which was a small screen, only about 75 seats, I was glad we had booked our seats online yesterday, as it was sold out. We all enjoyed it and the kids weren’t too scared.
We headed back to the Old Barn Inn in Bickington where we had tried to eat on Sunday only to find the carpark full; it looked like there was a pool match in progress. So we went back up to the Hunters Inn  in Newton Tracey. Rather then my usual coke, I tried a pint of Mainbrace, produced by Jollyboat Brewery in Bideford. Not bad.

Tags:Hunters Inn Newton Tracey,JollyBoat Brewery,Old Barn Bickington

It was raining most of today, which was a shame. We had to go out to get some food this morning and though we had a break in the weather. While we were out I had a look for cameras. I had been contemplating getting a cheap compact camera as an alternate to taking my digital SLR each time. However, what I wanted was one without a long shutter delay, but without paying a fortune. In the end I didn’t get anything; I’ll have to do some more research and decide whether to go that route or not.
This afternoon, the kids got to visit the neighbours’ piglets and later we all went up when it was feeding time and we all helped to feed the pigs, chickens and ducks and a muddy time was had by all. The kids got to collect the hens eggs as well.

OK, there’s a pattern forming here. It was another slow start and about 10:30 we ate yesterday’s flapjacks. We then loaded the bikes onto the car and set out south to Great Torrington. We parked in the Tarka Trail carpark next to The Puffing Billy and then headed south towards East Yarde where we knew there was a cafe.

Heading south was also heading uphill. At Puffing Billy we were at 23m altitude and we climbed to 130m over the next 6.5km. The last 0.7km was downhill to 128.5m at East Yarde. It was harder work than any of us expected. We stopped for bacon sandwiches and cake at the Yarde Orchard cafe and then made our way back. The first climb was a bit of a shock to the body, but it was soon over and the downhill stretch was much easier. Outward took nearly two hours and the return was about 40 minutes.
We went out to find somewhere to eat this evening. We headed out to Instow as we thought there was somewhere there. We did find one, but it was closed on Sunday evenings. So we took a chance and headed for Newton Tracey. We found The Hunters Inn, which had a large easily accessible carpark.
They were able to find a table for us and we all had great meals. I had belly of pork and followed it with the banana and chocolate chip sponge. Jo and P had the goat cheese and caramelised onion tart followed by sticky toffee sponge and panacotta respectively. A had the ham, egg and chips followed by chocolate ice cream. The food and service were great and we’d go there again.

Tags:East Yarde,Hunters Inn Newton Tracey,Tarka Trail