Having returned from Florence, we spent a frantic evening and Saturday morning unpacking, washing, ironing and re packing. Around 11 am on the Saturday morning, Robbie packed the car, and off we set. Tricia driving, we made good time down the A3, then the A420 to Swindon where we picked up the M4.  We stopped at a service station for a leg stretch before continuing till we ran into a backlog of traffic on the M5… which held us up a few hours. By the time we arrived at our chalet, it was nearing 5pm… it had taken the best part of 6 hours. After unloading the car, we went off to Combe Martin, where we bought fish and chips, then parked up overlooking the sea. On the Sunday, Tricia and Robbie did a long walk along the coastal path, while I took Ellie to Minehead. The beach was ok, and it was reasonably warm, but quite windy.

We met up with Tricia and Robbie in the evening at a place called Porlock, where we ate at a pub… excellent food, and reasonably priced. Monday and we set off for Woolacombe beach. It was sunny and warm, Robbie dug an almighty great hole in the beach, Ellie put her wet suit on and disappeared into the sea. I followed shortly after and had great fun playing in the waves. Tuesday and the clouds started to gather. We went for a walk on Exmoor and picnicked on the moor. Wednesday brought more cloud and a visit to Barnstaple… where we ended up getting Ellie some school shoes, a new blazer, and shirts etc. Not what I wanted to do on holiday, but there was little else to do in between showers. Rob and I did manae to get to a musuem of mainly WW2 militaria which was quite good though. In the evening we headed back to Porlock for an evening meal.

Thursday, Robbie took Ellie into an adventure park for the day, whilst Tricia and I went off around North Devon, again dodging showers. The adventure park was mainly indoors so Rob and Ellie were ok. We had the same pattern on the Friday, we had planned a walk, which because of the torrential rain turned into a drive. Thank goodness we weren’t camping. Come Friday evening with the forecast for Saturday sounding decidedly pants, we decided to pack and go home. We drove via Porlock for what turned out to be the finest fiah and chips ever before driving home in the torrential rain. Arriving back at around 10:30pm.

The chalet had been clean and comfortable, it was on the site of a large house, where there were loads of ducks and geese, and chickens and peacocks, which Ellie took delight in feeding. They got very excited every time they saw her. It was a pleasant enough place…. but the weather made the stay frustrating as we had wanted to do more then we could. Oh well. Some photo’s from the week…