Day 15: Westward Bound: but first, let us find us some wizards

Following overnight rain, the skies cleared in time for the loading of the car and our bidding farewell to our lovely accomodation at Upper Greenscombe Farm. Because of the fridge disaster we were light on for breakfast this morning, and arrived in Wincanton a little early, picking up breakfast at a beautiful boutique bakery, Lovington Bakery.  It filled in the time and mildly suppressed Chris’ boyish excitement at the opportunity to visit his “shrine”, the Discworld Emporium.

For many many years Chris has been a devoted reader of the science fantasy writings of Terry Pritchett. He has read all the books, many many times, has been to a couple of conventions, one where he actually met Terry and is very keen on the movies that people have made on the works. He was saddened when Terry developed dementia and died prematurely. He is a true fan. So when he was planning the holiday he made sure that he could visit the Discworld Emporium, a small gift store in Wincanton, and he was so excited this morning that he was jumping out of his skin. At 10am on the dot he walked through the door and was greeted by Isobella Pearson who had a wealth of knowledge about Terry Pratchett and about the store’s merchandise. It is of course the Consulate for Ank Morpok and functions as its Post Office. After Chris had decided on his purchases Isobella’s husband Bernard came to the store and regaled us with tales of his work with Terry Pratchett as his model designer. He and Isobella co owned the store with Terry and meeting them was such a joy for Chris. He left on such a high!

Back on the road and we were heading to Honiton, a little town in Somerset, with even smaller parking spots! It is a ribbon like town with a quaint museum, featuring Honiton lace and an eclectic display of war memorabilia. Chris and I had seen it featured on an episode of Escape to the Country and felt it would be worth a visit. Run by beautiful elderly women, there was amazing displays of laces going back to the 1700s. Unfortunately there was a lacemaker there earlier in the day so we missed the demonstration, but looking at the exhibits was just fine. What amazing skill, and all by hand. We learned about Queen Victoria’s fascination for lace and her use of black lace for mourning and many other interesting facts. After the museum we had a quick peek in the church before going back on the road. 

We had hoped to stop in Sidmouth, park, grab some lunch and stroll along the beach on the Jurassic coast. Sounds great, except that today on Bank Holiday, the Sidmouth Folk Festival was pumping. There were people everywhere and the exceptionally narrow streets were totally overflowing. Martina was driving and we all decided that there was no point in even trying for a spot, so we shot a few quick pics while we drove along the Esplanade before turning off to head out in search of lunch. And then an even bigger challenge appeared. The road dipped down and was covered by water. We had seen several fords in previous days and they had been totally dry, but not this one. We backed up around a corner and watched a few other cars brave it, and then Harry, with Martina at the wheel, flew bravely across the ford and up the other side... to the joyous cheers of all in the car and Enid’s jokes about Harry being a Ford and crossing a ford!

The drive out snaked up to the main road and a little way along we decided to stop at a pub for lunch. In the middle of what looked like the middle of nowhere, we actually found the Half Way Inn! The sign claims that it is half way between London and Penzance and half way between Sidmouth and Exmouth. Now whether it is or not we are not sure, but of course we felt the need to sing “Ohhhh we’re half way there .... “ and some of you know the rest: something about a lizard on a chair? A light lunch was great, some cod and salad and chips or pate and there were lovely views of Exeter in the distance.

On the road again, I decided that I wanted to actually have a Devonshire tea while we were in Devon! So, just inside the Devon Cornwall boarder is a former mill town Okehampton. We found a small bakery that had lovely tea and creamed scones and so Chris and I made them Devon style: cream on the bottom and jam on top. Nice to be able to say we have had a genuine Devonshire Tea, even if I secretly prefer Cornish Cream tea where the  jam is on the bottom. It is a quirky town, it has several inns, one of them an old coaching inn and it has St James Church which is actually non denominational and describes itself as an ancient mystical church. Unfortunately there was no time to explore it, but it was on my mind for Religion and Non Religion in Studies of Religion. 

The final drag took us into Newquay... but oh dear, you should have seen the traffic. There is a long board festival in Newquay and a circus in a neighbouring town. People everywhere. When we finally got to our accomodation, which is situated high on the hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean or maybe the Celtic Sea. We were feeling really chuffed as it is a great spot, but the minuscule parking spot provided with the accomodation was not even going to come close to fitting Harry Ford from a Galaxy far far away!!! Chris used his manoeuvring skills to get the car back out of the underground carpark and he went to park in a carpark just down the road. The unit is lovely. It is spacious with balcony views and two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It may be a little noisy with the busy road right outside, but I am sure we will cope. After a long day we decided to do a “ploughman” grazing style plate so down to Sainsburys to get some yummy things to eat, and home to relax and blog and bed. Another big day done.