Sundry photos related to our visit down to Devon. We moseyed down to Devon for a couple of days visiting Uncle Mike & Aunty Pauline (tm) near Abbotskerswell.
We obviously took the fantastic weather with us! The journey down was a little longer than expected as we didn't head off until around midday on Friday and at first went down the A303, but were soon hearing threatening noises from the traffic news about hold-ups (what do you mean men on horses with guns? - western ed) before Solstice Park - the last bit of dual carriageway before Stonehenge in Wiltshire.
So, my trusty navigator (that'll be B - ed) found us an alternate route which took us south from the A303 to Salisbury, then down past Blandford Forum until we hit the trusty old A35. This route is wonderfully scenic, and you get tantalising glimpses of the sea as you rise up and down the coastal hills, but only once you have passed The Major Hold-up, that is also known as Dorchester.
What was most surprisingly of all we only encountered 3 caravans, 2 heading towards Devon and one heading the other way, for a net total of +1 caravans heading to Devon. Guess this early in May we were at the bleeding edge of tourist season.
Unsurprisingly, we had to stop for what turned out to be a very late lunch (is 3pm late - ed) at the Coach and Horses in Winterbourne Abbas.
Now many of you who know me, know that I have various foibles (surely you mean marbles - ed) and one of them is when faced with a neverbefore visited pub and its menu I choose 'Ham, Egg & Chips' as my option (why is that - foodie ed).
My reckoning is, that if a kitchen cannot (a) fry eggs and (b) fry some chips and (c) carve a decent bit of ham of a large joint of the stuff, then they are probably unable to do much of anything else.
As a short aside, ham, egg and chips reminds me of the most embarassing moment of my life which was in a pub (The Black Horse? - ed) and involved an inopportune noticing of a large number of Toby Jugs arranged around some wooden beams and unfortunately exclaiming to one and all, "Look at those jugs!", just as the barmaid delivered a plate of ham, egg and chips to our table! There has huge guffawing amongst those around the table and I turned beetroot and hastily tried to point out the Toby jugs, but the damage had been done.
Anyhow, back to the Coach and Horses, when the plate arrived it was enormous, big fat chunky crispy brown chips, 2 double eggs and enough ham to build a raft with. I did my best, but couldn't finish it all, but it had to have been both the largest HE&C (Ham, Egg and Chips, for those of you who haven't been paying enough attention - ed) I had ever been served, and what's more (there was more - thought you didn't finish it and couldn't possibly of eaten any more - ed) it was of excellent quality. So well done to all of you at, "The Coach and Horses".
Anyhow, we finished off our journey and arrived outstide Abbotskerswell just in time for early evening drinks and dinner with Pauline and Mike.
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