A Bit Late…

I’ve finally made it back to Devon, only two years late! Little did we know what was going to hit us when, back in 2019, we booked for 2020. I’m having a few days in the campervan, mainly to do some cycling, before joining friends at the activity hotel we go to near Okehampton. 

I generally break my journeys somewhere interesting, this time it was the Swindon and Cricklade Railway that caught my attention. In the end it was a slightly disappointing experience as, due to a shortage of volunteers, the Museum and cafe weren’t open. There’s another slight issue, the full journey time is just over an hour, but actually consists of just 24 minutes travel and 44 minutes sitting in the stations and halts! The train of the day was an old 2 Car DMU set:

I suppose it makes a change from steam locos! 😊

Hayes Knoll, the “station” at one end of the line is an oddity, it looks convincing…

but if you look carefully through the windows you might be able to see that it’s a facade behind which is a loco and carriage shed. That’s an idea that will go in the memory banks for a future model. 

The drive to Swindon was pretty easy but unfortunately that didn’t last. I’d have been better finding somewhere to visit a bit further along the journey and, despite the SatNav’s best efforts and avoiding the M4 and M5 until I was in Somerset, I probably lost 40-50 minutes through weight of traffic then following a wobble box for much of the last 30 miles along a narrow road - I thought he might be coming to the same site but he turned off a mile or so short. That all combined to make it a near five hour drive from Swindon to here, with only a wee break at a service station on the way. 

I’m now ensconced on a Club site not far from Ilfracombe, all being well my first target is to cycle there tomorrow as there’s an old railway line that goes across the back of the site with a gate on to it. The line is part of National Route 27 which runs from Ilfracombe to Plymouth; I’ll be doing more of it as part of the Tarka Trail over the next few days