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Wednesday 14 September, through the Dartmoor National Park to the south coast

Great Britain 2005 - part XXVI

Elisabeth & Teije
2006-08-28 18:04:34

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After a delicious breakfast we get outside, into the drizzle. It stays that way the whole morning and the visibilty is very limited when we take small roads towards Plymouth. At Tavistock we take a turn, into the Dartmoor national park and soon we are driving on a plateau in dense mist. It must be a rough area, but we don't get to see much of it.

One of the things the park is known for, are the half wild ponies who live here and once the fog lifts, we see a few. Young foals, playing frolicly and one mare who is so curious she puts her head into our car through the open window. When we close the window, she starts to gnaw on our car! Later we see the marks of her teeth in the varnish and at our garage they tell us it will cost € 500 to repair it. But well, we have seen the ponies of Dartmoor!

The fog is disappearing slowly now and we see more of the landscape. It looks very old here, it feels a bit 'primal'. In ancient times many people lived in this area and there are many relics to be seen, but this time we have other priorities, so we don't look for them.

When we have arrived at Exeter the weather has improved so much that we can sit outside for a cup of coffee and some soup. We go for a walk through the town which is the capital of Devon. In the second world war this town was heavily bombarded, but the cathedral took no hits and also the Underground Passages were spared, an underground network from the 14th century which was used for the supply of water.

From Exeter we drive via Dorchester to Lulworth Cove, an almost circular bay, brightly lighted by the sun. The soft limestone has eroded during millions of years and left this bay. It is a very nice place for walking around.

We have read in our comprehensive travel guide about South England that there is something here that we want to see, but we can't remember what it is and we have lost the book yesterday. Later we find out it is Corfe Castle we had wanted to see, but we have missed that. But we have seen a very nice part of the south coast.

After this walk we take more normal roads so we can drive a bit quicker to the east. At 6 o'clock we start looking for a hotel. It gets much colder now at night and the air is still vey humid, so we don't want to put up our tent somewhere, just for one night. But it seems to be getting harder and harder to find a suitable place. Only after it is dark (around half past eight) we find a room at Arundel for £ 90, the most expensive night of this holiday, but the cheapest we could find in this area. And we have been to quite a lot of hotels in a radius of 30 kilometers!