A New Adventure in France

After walking to Woolacombe again we took the bus back to camp, travelling via the small village of Mortehoe, a popular starting point for some of the coastal path walks. We marvelled at the young bus driver’s calm and nerve as he took the bus through small roads with only a few centimetres gap on each side and then reversed some way without hesitation when he met a bus coming the other way. Chapeau! As the french would say.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the weather to see if we could do the seal spotting boat trip we missed out on previously and we took a chance on a day that looked good. It was a late afternoon departure and we were blessed with clear blue skies and a calm sea with views across to Wales, when the previous time we couldn’t see the end of the cliff opposite the quay. We headed West along the coast and within 5 minutes a seal had popped its head out of the water. A porpoise and its pup also darted briefly around the boat. We motored on to Morte Point, a large reef area, much of which was visible as we had just reached low tide. From here we could see along Woolacombe Beach to Baggy Point and beyond that to Hartland Point where the Bristol Channel meets the Atlantic Ocean.

From here we turned back hugging the coast closely to see the seals, wildlife and coastal villages of Mortehoe and Lee, with a very detailed commentary from our captain. As it was warm we were lucky to see some seals basking on the rocks and others bobbing gently in the water. The trip also gave us the opportunity to see the coastline we’ve been exploring from a different perspective. The captain assured us we’d sleep well after all the sea air – and he was right!

In preparation for our long-term travelling we’ve enhanced our catering kit with a couple of additions, including a portable electric induction hob, a Ridge Monkey double-sided pan and additional fridge capacity. The induction hob allows us to cook easily outside on electrical hook up without lighting a bbq or cooking on gas in the van – we saw quite a few being used last year. The Ridge Monkey, as well as being a useful pan that separates into 2 pans, makes excellent toasted sandwiches and packs down into a very small space – very important when you don’t have loads of storage. Thefridge gives us more capacity to store fresh food without shopping so often and, of course, all important cold beer and wine storage.

We’re heading home this week to give ourselves a bit of time to get ready and get things sorted at home for our departure to France. We’re sorry to cut short our travels in the UK but looking forward to new adventures shortly.