Blue's and green's: Two Aussie's travel the world

Hey guys, we're coming at you from Bideford in North Devon tonight! Wow, what a day we had today...Loads of walking but well-worth the effort in our opinion. We've just had a nice meal of traditional fish & chips and have returned to our B&B (Orchard Hill Hotel) to settle in for the night and work out some plans for tomorrow, and of course to bring you some photos.

I'm going to lead-off tonight with an image of the lovely Faith, my "better half!". This was taken at Boscastle which is where we stayed last night. We walked down to the harbour mouth, seen in this image, before breakfast as I knew the morning light would give me a different perspective from than the images taken last night when I was forced to shoot into the sun. We then enjoyed a lovely English breakfast together and chatted about the day before departing.

From Boscastle we headed about 6 miles to Tintagel Castle. During the Victorian era there was a lot of romanticising about the Arthurian legend and it was rumoured Tintagel was linked to King Arthur. I don't think there's any fact to back that up but it's a good story. I wanted to visit it as I love old things as you know...Don't worry, if you're not old it doesn't mean I don't like you! This image is quite obviously of me but over my right shoulder (your left) you can see the ancient walls of what was once a big castle built by Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall in the 13th century. You can probably also make out a bridge which is the only way to get to the island.

This second image shows it a little better minus the me-distraction. We walked around the cliffs opposite the castle then down the mountain to sea level. See that cave to the left at the bottom? That's rumoured to be Merlin's cave and it's accessible to people at low tide.

This image was also taken at Tintagel but from the opposite side of the island from the first two. I included it because I like it. Through the wildflowers you can see a little bit of the ocean and the cliffs on the left are part of the island where the castle sits. On this side the Parish church and graveyard sits in open fields of wild flowers...Yes, I have images but I don't want to bore you.

This image shows the path we walked on. It as quite steep in places and care must be taken because there's so much amazing scenery one tends not to watch their footing. It was a great hike around the bluffs and down to sea level with a beautiful vista at every turn.

From Tintagel we headed north towards Bideford however we stopped in at a lovely little village called Clovelly. The village has only one street with several very narrow little alleys running off it. There are no vehicles permitted in the town as the cobbled street is simply too narrow and steep.

The villige winds its way down an almost vertical hill to the sea and the whitewashed cottages are festooned with flowers. This picturesque street leads one to the small harbour and the Red Lion Hotel at the bottom. The village is unique in that it's been privately owned by the same family since 1738...Yes, you read that correctly!

On our way down we stopped and spoke with a local who was tending her garden and she was telling us that her car stays at the top and when deliveries arrive or she is bringing her supplies in she pulls them down on a wooden sled. Just as she was saying so one of her neighbours came past pulling one with his grocery shopping on it. There are resident donkeys there also which haul the heavier items.

We wound our way down the steep street to the harbour at the bottom and wandered up breakwater wall and the pebble beach for a bit and also ate some ice cream (Cornish Vanilla, if you're wondering). The whole area was just so peaceful and we wondered how stress-free living there would be...Except for the very steep walk up and down every day.

This image is the lovely Faith, on the cobbled street heading towards the harbour below. It was very steep in places and of course quite uneven so some care must be taken. The views are spectacular.

The houses in Clovelly are all whitewashed and the contrast of the white walls against the ocean was lovely. We were lucky there wasn't a lot of people around so my photo's show off the views and scenery rather than tourists. I have a strong aversion to having anyone other than us in my photos and have an amazing skill to block them out of my photo's when I have to. It's a thing, I just can't help it. :)

I took this one more to show the contrasting colours...The green against the blue just seems to make me feel relaxed and calm. I took this from the spot beside where Faith is standing against the wall a few images back. You can see the green creeper next to her on the edge of the wall. It seems everywhere one looks in this part of the world there's another shade of blue or green. I love it...

This final image was taken on the pebble beach looking back towards the harbour. As you can tell from the angle of the shot I had to get my old bones bent and way-down-low to take this one. I hope you appreciate the effort. This little village has to be on your list of things to visit if you are in North Devon at any point. It costs money to get in, about 7 pounds or so, but is worth avery bit of it. You should allot about 3-4 hours to see it all and also spend some time at the bottom, more if you want to eat at the pub.

And so, another day comes to a close. We are nestled in our room which over looks the river in Bideford and after I post this will look into tomorrow's festivities. I hope you have found some value in this post. I didn't want to make it a long one so I have omitted certain parts of it like the Parish church and Post Office at Tintagel which are very interesting in their own right. I hope you don't mind. I actually took 323 photo's today and only picked out a selection for you. I will post more at some other time along with some more in-depth research on these amazing places. Thanks for following on our journey.

Faith & Galen x