VW Campervan Trip to Devon

This post is somewhat overdue; I don't know where the time goes and I seem to get caught up blogging about other things. It was only when I was flicking through some photos on my computer that I realised there are several trips that I've yet to blog about. My bad, as the young folk say. Coming soon to a blog near you a series entitled: Places I've Been To Recently But Not Blogged About, featuring: 24 hours in Bruges and three nights in Amsterdam. 

Anyhoo, back at the very end of August Family W hired an old (1971) VW Campervan called Freddie.

And we drove down to Devon; Kingsbridge to be exact.

Unfortunately, what should have been a 2-hour journey ended up taking over four hours as dear old Freddie continually overheated and we had to make a LOT of pitstops. Apparently, this is one of the many 'joys' of an old campervan...

Still, we got there in the end and, after some yummy fish and chips for tea, we set up camp for the night.

DC was VERY excited about his bed in the pop-up roof.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, and this was the lovely view from our 'front door'. 

Not too shabby.

Our first trip was into the town of Kingsbridge itself, where we discovered a bakery which sold THE most delicious lemon drizzle cake EVER. (So much so, that we went back on our final day and bought three pieces to take home.) I still think of it now.

This is the lovely old cinema on the main street in Kingsbridge.

And here are some of the many boats moored at the bottom of the town.

After a very pleasant couple of hours strolling round the shops of Kingsbridge, it was time to jump back into Freddie and travel a few miles along the coast to Salcombe.

Beautiful, beautiful Salcombe.

A place to sit and contemplate.

We also partook in about an hour of crabbing and a little retail therapy before returning to the campsite and calling the AA man...

Yes, dear old Freddie really wasn't feeling his best. But, luckily the very, very nice man from the AA was able to patch him up.

We were lucky with the weather again the following day as we travelled a few more miles along the coast to Bigbury-on-Sea, home of Burgh Island (where hubby and I stayed for his 40th birthday - see this post).

The beach here really is magnificent, and arriving earlyish in the morning we had it almost to ourselves.

When hubby and I stayed at the hotel, we had the room just above the circular section, on the far right. Such a lovely place to relax for a couple of days. And in January it really felt quite isolated with the wind whipping around. 

After all the hardwork (ahem) of strolling across the beach, looking at rockpools and having a drink + picnic at The Pilchard Inn on Burgh Island, we jumped in Freddie and headed back to Salcombe, having enjoyed our visit there the day before so much. More crabbing ensued, including some that I have entitled 'Extreme Crabbing'. There's always someone who has to take it that little bit too far, non?

And after all that exertion, it was time to rest up at The Winking Prawn. Since we only had coffee and cake, I can't say whether it's a great place for lunch or dinner, but the location is a winner on a sunny day.

I was having such a lovely time relaxing in the sun that I didn't take many photos; this one sort of gives you an idea of the great location that WPrawn has - just across the road from the beach at North Sands. You can probably imagine how busy it gets in the height of summer, but we were lucky to be in at the tail end, so tables were easy to come by.

The following morning, after breakfast in the sun at the campsite it was time to pack up our old kit bags and head back home.

We made a little pitstop in Totnes on the way - I do like Totnes very much, it has some great independent shops and cafes. But unfortunately my phone battery ran out so I couldn't take any more photos :(

It also meant that I was unable to take photos of Freddie when he broke down a few miles later and left us stranded on a very nasty part of the A38 (right on a bend where other vehicles could barely see us until they were nearly on our bumper.) Luckily the police turned up very quickly and coned us off, before we were towed away. And there ended our trip, in authentic VW campervan fashion, apparently!