Barnstaple; Sunday, 14 October, 2007

After a late start, we headed out into the heart of North Devon. A couple of miles out of Barnstaple is the Broomhill Sculpture Garden which has lots of pieces of modern sculpture dotted around the grounds of the hotel.

After leaving there we drove on and up into Exmoor, taking in many of the little lanes and passes which go through the heart of the Mooreland. We stopped briefly to pick up some sandwiches in Lorna Doon country, at the end of the Doon valley, before heading into Somerset and up to the edge of the moor where it meets the sea for some spectacular views. Sadly, the cloud was a little bit too low to be able to see across the Bristol Channel to Wales, but the views across the top of Devon and Somerset are still spectacular.

After a quick ice-cream it was time to start heading back to Barnstaple. A quick look at the clock showed that it had taken nearly 2 hours to reach this point from leaving the sculpture garden, and my train was in just over an hour.

Thankfully, there is a much more direct road around the top of Exmoor and down into Barnstaple. For part of the time it was touch and go as to whether we were going to make it in time, but in the end we pulled into the forecourt of Barnstaple station with nearly 20 minutes to spare, we could have had a second ice-cream!

Sundays are notoriously bad for travelling by train in the UK, not only are the services less frequent and the train shorter, but regular engineering works as well, and today was no different. Whilst the train from Barnstaple ran as normal, at least as far as Exeter (it was replaced for the rest of its journey south by a bus), the train back to Paddington meandered its way through Devon and Somerset, taking nearly three hours to do the same journey that had taken only two hours in the opposite direction, on the plus side though, my seat was right by the buffet so it was convenient for refreshment stops!