A few weeks ago, I went on a girls trip in Devon, in south west England. Alka drove most of the time, with Vinita, Karen and I as the passengers. I was so glad there were three other people in the car who not only can drive stick shift, but also are used to driving on the left! We'd been trying to plan another girls trip to follow up our trip to Bath, and we finally made it happen.
Here we are on the way there, at a random pub we stopped at called "the Hungry Horse", where you can "Fill up for 5 pounds." You can't get that kind of bargain in Oxford, that's for sure! It was quite the local place, and really made me feel like I was experiencing English culture. The age range there was anywhere from 3 months to 85 years, and unlike in Oxford, they actually had teenagers working as waitstaff rather than grown-up immigrants.
We stayed in a beach town called Torquey (pronounced 'tore-key'). This town must have been quite the place back in the day, and still had a special seaside feel to it. Since it's England, and it's not all that warm in the summer (80 degrees for 2 days is a major heat wave), there's not so much swimming in the water, but people walk around the beach and hang out.
We spent two nights in a B&B, touring around Dartmoor National Park the first day. I had found a brochure for Miniature Pony World, and we all decided this was the perfect place to go. Problem is, to get there, even with a GPS device is nearly impossible. You have to drive on all these two-way roads that only fit one car - literally, there are tall stone walls on either side of the car, so if another vehicle comes, you have to back up the windy road until you reach an intersection or driveway. Fortunately, the area is beautiful, and we happened upon this really cute town called Widecombe in the Moor. Here's their church, where they were having a craft fair.
And here's "The Old Inn" next door, built in the 14th century according to the park website. Yeah, I'd say that's old!
Here's what the park looks like, for the most part, when you've managed to get away from the crazy roads:
So finally we made it to Miniature Pony World! Here's some pony pictures:
Here I am petting a pony! I knew Paul was going to be so jealous, because he secretly wants to get his own miniature pony! He saw one on TV once that rings a bell when it needs to be let out and he thought it was so cool.
I guess the place is mostly for kids, but we still had fun. This kid was really into it.
I tried to get an eye-level shot with this pony, but as soon as I squatted down, she came over and tried to nuzzle me - so cute
And of course, they also have some chickens...
Next we had afternoon tea with real Devonshire cream at the Primrose Cottage in Lustleigh
So remember those crazy roads I was talking about? Well, usually you come up against cars, but occasionally, you have a stand-off with a rogue cow! This one didn't want to back off for a couple of minutes, but eventually she relented and walked over to a gate.
We then toured around Cockington (that's really the name, I did not make it up, I swear). We were too late to see the little market village there, but they had some real cute buildings. Doesn't this look like something out of a fairy tale?
And this is more what I had in mind for accommodation when I found out we were moving to England
Just slightly more glamourous than our student flat!
Here's downtown Torquey, where we stayed:
Cute English cabanas at Paignton Beach
My pasty white feet in the English channel
Donkey rides on the beach at Weston-Super-Mare (north Devon)
And finally, we decided we needed to fly a kite before we went home (thanks Vinita for bringing the kite!)
