After travelling on the longest heritage railway in the country I visited one of the shortest. The Lynton and Barnstaple is a narrow gauge line currently just about a mile long, but with big plans for expansion. It's in a very picturesque setting on the moors with views of the coast.
The L&B features in the model railway press quite a bit these days as it's being used as the prototype for a number of ready-to-run models. One of the reasons I chose not to model narrow gauge was the absence of such stock, I don't regret the decision but it opens up more opportunities for modellers.
The other small railway of the day was the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway. This is a water balanced funicular between the two towns. These are always good fun if a little bit nerve wracking for anyone with a fear of heights. Lynmouth especially if a total tourist trap with a long line of cafes and gift shops, the Flood Memorial building is worth a visit though. I did also walk around Lynton, it's very hilly!
The roads around there have some very steep gradients, 25% (1 in 4 in old money) is quite common. The 'van managed ok but one thing I have to remember is that the petrol engine likes its revs. I ended up going up Porlock Hill in first gear having had to slow at the bottom. It's all part of the learning curve.
As Porlock is another pretty little village I decided to have a wander round. It was there that the gadding of the week finally caught up with me and I literally ran out of energy. It wasn't a problem but it cut the day a bit shorter than it might have been.
Back on site I settled down to a drink of Sheep Stagger Scrumpy (please read that carefully) and a snooze before dinner. That's the last night of the camping part of the trip so I decided to prepare for a reasonably early start to spend some time in Okehampton before going to the hotel, more on that later.
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