Escaping to North Devon and Exmoor

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Escaping to North Devon and Exmoor

Day One: The drive to Mullacott Farm

One of the wonderful things about owning a motorhome is impulsivity!

“Fancy a trip away hun?”

“Where you thinking?”

“Quick run up to north Devon – cycling, coastal walking, stargazing?”

“When?”

“Day after tomorrow?”

 

And so, it comes to be. Great isn’t it. We are liking this motorhome malarkey!

 

 

We don’t quite get the quick start we want and its around 10.00 before we depart the storage site. We opt for an ‘overland route’ - Launceston, Holsworthy, Bideford, Barnstaple and Braunton. Stop at Instow for a stroll along the beach and coffee at a little shoreside Deli we know and maybe a stop at Braunton as well for a stroll around the town’s shops and boutiques.

Of course, plans are plans and as is often the case, they don’t quite turn out as we expect. We get held up by traffic going through Launceston. Actually we get lost in Launceston and on its outskirts, we do a U turn and head back into the centre for a second go at getting out north of it. Inexplicably, we miss the turn for Instow as well, so no coffee and no stroll.

Braunton is a traffic nightmare and after trying to find a café and/or a car park, we give up. The Pelican crossing lights are causing traffic delays and the town is full of aimlessly wandering tourists. Having been to Braunton before, we call in at its Tesco’s for a food stock up and then head for Mullacott Farm instead.

 

The farm has several camping facilities – a field just for tents; two camping barns and then a large field for tents, caravans and motorhomes which want EHU’s out back.

Our allocated pitch 2 is up against the fence, next to the Alpaca enclosure and so Maggie is very happy. I’m slightly less so and it’s not anything to do with disliking Alpacas. I find them funny and entertaining. They look so arrogantly aloof.  

No, it’s the pitch. It has several different cambers as it lies at the foot of a little grassy knoll. It doesn’t matter which way we go into that pitch, we end up with a sloping van. And that’s after using the wheel chocks. After several fruitless attempts, I lie prone on the floor to work out where the cambers and dips are and choose the best spot I can find. Even with the chocks under the front wheels, we still have a significant slope, but the fridge works, the water drains from the sinks, so we accept it. I know I’m going to be on the downslope side of the bed for three nights and resign myself to the forthcoming inevitable ‘face crushed against cab bulkhead’ experience as Maggie rolls downslope and pushes me further downwards!

We make a mental note to invest in higher wheel ramps (perhaps the Milenco Quattro series; but then, where to store them becomes an issue. Will they fit in the external wet locker as the current Fiamma ones do?).

 Dilemmas, dilemmas, dilemmas!

Still, the views across barns and rolling hillsides are nice. The summer season ‘Circus Big Top’ can be seen on a distant hill and a short 10-minute walk away are a herd of forty alpacas. Maggie is in ‘alpaca heaven’.

We stroll out along one of the footpaths leading from the farm. On a map, it looks as if it joins the North-South Devon cycle pathway into Ilfracombe, which will make things easier for tonight’s cycle route planning. We discover however, that whilst there are many footpaths in the area past little lakes and down through steep fields, they all end up at major roads. It isn’t quite at the heart of a footpath network and cycling wise, whichever way we go, we will have to brave the busier ‘B’ and ‘A’ roads to get back to the site. Ho hum! Mental note to self to pay more attention when choosing sites. In fairness, this was all we could find at peak summer in North Devon. All the Woolacombe and Croyde sites were full so ‘beggars can’t be choosers’. Over the next few nights though, we grow to really enjoy the site with its views, breeze, glorious sunsets and great kite flying opportunities.

And of course, there are the two horses and Alpacas as immediate neighbours.

 

Route details:

A388 from Callington to Launceston (where we get lost and end up heading back towards the A3- dual carriageway; necessitating a U turn back into the town to try and renavigate it!!) – A388 to Holsworthy – A388 to Bideford – B3223 to Instow (where we miss the turning for the coastal village) – A3125 into Barnstaple – A361 across the Taw Bridge and into Braunton – A361 to Ilfracombe (total distance – 75 miles approx. and 3hrs travel time).