Somerset Scenes

Having briefly returned to Wales, a rapid U-turn facilitated a return to the South West! Here's a few scenes from a lovely family tour around Somerset. 

Including the dancing goats of Ilton...

Some classic car appreciation...

Visiting the historic market town of Ilminster...

Hikes and trails...

The Quantocks Hills...

Wild Ponies...

Some impromptu, mid afternoon beer tasting!

Golf club inductions...

Live folk music...

All in all, some great times - thanks to everyone for showing us such a great time - was good to see you all!

Sleep and the South West (again!)

After a few hours of sleep at The Cottage, I was back on the road again! A pre-packed bag was already for me by the back door, so after hanging up my tent to dry, I returned to Manchester to where Clare had just stepped off the flight from Seattle (via Iceland). We were almost both as tired and dazed as each other, but in anticipation of this, Clare had sorted us out with a decent place to chill for the evening, somewhere south of the airport and north of Birmingham. 

A attraction of a long and undisturbed sleep took precedent over the spa, restaurant and bar. Sometimes just a shower and a bed are all you want! The next day, after a very late check out, we took a walk around a local lake (where we saw an otter!), before heading the final way south to Somerset to hang out with the family for a few days.

The Somerset Stop-Off

An alpine start of 05:30am meant that we could break up the journey home with some rock climbing near Portishead. Amazingly, we managed some great climbing along with pretty much traffic free driving (only getting held up in the last half hour!). Once the group were re-united with parents, we spent some time in the stores getting the gear sorted then was eventually made the last leg home to The Cottage. Bex dropped me and my mini mountain of bags off at dusk, having clocked up 1000 miles this week and climbed in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. What a whirlwind...

Portishead Quarry:

- Pharos, HS (4a)*

Life at Land's End, Cornwall

Just because we were camping in an empty field on a cliff top, didn't mean that we couldn't have fancy pancakes for breakfast! 

Sea mist and drizzle put a stop to any climbing plans, so we checked out the Minack Theatre instead. An absolutely magical place! We didn't watch a show, but enjoyed looking around the grounds and immaculate gardens.

The beach of Porthcurno enticed us down for a swim, despite the cloud cover.

It was cold! But the group stayed in for ages - I was pretty much hypothermic by the time they got out!

Next stop was Land's End for a genuine Cornish Pasty. Delicious....

After eating, we scoped out our climbing options, which annoyingly, kept getting soaked by passing showers. 

One minute it was glorious, the next it was raining. 

In the end, the group opted to hike the coastal path back to Sennen, where Leo met us with the bus.

Things brightened up in the evening back at camp. Kite flying was a popular option and the camp cooking went down well too.

Cornwall Climbing - Sennen Cove

Our South West rock climbing expedition continued south this morning, and crossed borders into Cornwall...

First things first.....  Then onto Sennen....

Sennen looked as magical as I remembered as we drove down the hill to the harbour.

We then made the short walk over the cliff tops and made an intimidating abseil down to the waters edge at the base of the cliffs.

Waves were crashing and it was all rather atmospheric. The sun was warm and everyone spent a bit of time marvelling at the surroundings before we got to climb back out. 

There was a nesting seagull on the classic climb that we wanted to do, but the 'Corner Climb' turned out to be excellent as well. In the evening we got chips on the Harbour wall at Newlyn. I wasn't the only one in the group with family here, so while someone's uncle popped down to see the group, I made a dash up to Aunty Janet's for a lovely chat. I could still make out Pendor on the hillside...

It was late by the time we got to put the tents up and everyone was suitably tired and ready to enjoy some bedtime stories by the campfire.

Climbing at The Dewerstone

The threat of rain was in the air when we woke up, but down at the Dewerstone, on the edge of Dartmoor, things stayed dry until the afternoon. We had the entire crag and valley to ourselves, so spilt into small teams to climb. Bex and I led some students up 'Mucky Gully' - a climb which I used to teach on regularly, when I worked for Duchy College back in somewhere around 2006. It's a great climb, but still a little 'mucky'! Leo and the lads climbed Cornel's Arete next to us, which made it all rather sociable on the belay ledges.

While one team climbed the classic 'Central Grooves', I took some others on 'Route B', as the drizzle started up.

We dried off and de-briefed in Tavistock by sampling some local culture and tradition....