Lavender Fields and Missing Ships

Whilst scrolling through my main Instagram girl crushes I was pretty jealous of the amount of pictures people get (hair flowing, skin glowing) in lavender fields.  Now I don’t have a flower crown, an ethereal white partially transparent dress or a family that could grace a white company catalogue, but I have a pretty long travel bucket list and visiting a lavender field was high up on it. 

After a little searching online I could see that we could go to an actual lavender field in Somerset which looked to be an hour away, or a 'low impact beef farm with tea room in a lavender garden'.

The chance to see the lovely farm animals and visit (for a small fee) the secret garden made it a done deal in my book and I duly took down the post code and planned the trip

We only knew North Devon from our trip to Clovelly and the Atlantic Village shopping outlet but we knew we had to go on a very busy slow road to get there.  When I arrived in Singapore I was awe of the buildings, but 2 months later it was old news to me, giant mall?  Bah, I’ll navigate it…..and I did. 

But over a year since flying across the world to South West England I still cannot believe there are this many caravans, caravanettes or roof racks in the world let alone one road – and we had to drive it. 

After waiting half an hour in a queue which didn't even appear to have a beginning I was starting to think we should just turn around.  However, Mark did put my negativity in check and I'm so glad I listened as once we got out of the traffic jam we were back on beautiful open roads traveling through quaint villages again.

About 5 miles past Clovelly on a single track road behind stuck behind a tractor (which is, despite what everyone tells you, a massive blessing when there are speed freaks roaming country lanes) we arrived at Cheristow. 

From the car park we walked up to a little bungalow which had seats inside and out as well as comfy sofa's to sit and sip tea in.  We decided to sit outside as it was such a lovely day and we'd been stuck in the car for a while already.

While we were waiting I let Daisy off to explore and we could see that she was more than happy to get out on soft grass and in fresh air again too!

Tea and cake was ordered and we got to sit in the sun looking out at the lavender, farm animals and fields.  Daisy was being her typical self and wanting to explore so I took her for a walk along some paths so she could let off some steam whilst Mark went into full blown photography mode.

I tried to compete but it's just hopeless as I've not got the skills but I like to think my 'trying' means something too...?

After I duly filled up my Instagram account we headed off in search of the lighthouse and ship wreck we saw signs for on the drive up.  We found it quite easily and although I’m still smarting about the fee to get into an area of the countryside to walk we happily parked up and went to find the lighthouse. 

Now I should state that one of my all-time favourite places in the whole wide world is at a raggedy cliff edge.  I love rolling hills, I can stare at a mirror like loch without getting bored and find peace, and I adore combing beaches, but I can easily use the wold sublime in full context when I'm at the edge of a rugged cliff looking out to sea.  This is when I realise how supremely lucky we were to live in our little cottage in Cruden Bay when we were in North Aberdeenshire.  Nowadays I constantly flip flop between longing for golden sands in South Devon or the more rocky terrain of the North as I no longer have both options on my doorstep.

 Unfortunately the lighthouse at Hartland was closed and didn’t open to visitors, “that’s ok” we thought, there's a ship wreck on this map, lets go find that…except for it floated off the previous weekend. 

We did go to the lookout, have a walk around part of the coastal path before returning to yet another bunting covered café for some more treats.  This time Mark and I decided we were too full for cake, but not ice cream and ordered up some sundaes. 
 

We headed home quite soon after that which means that in the space of just 24 hours I did most of my favourite things, Saturday was a very good day indeed.