We chatted to Sue over breakfast. She had had a late evening as she had had to do all the clearing and washing up after her busy Sunday lunch. She said one couple had come to the area for the day from about 40 miles away as they checked the forecast and looked for the best weather. We keep being amazed at how localised the weather is here.

We had checked the forecast and decided to go to Tintagel . The forecast seemed to suggest all parts of the area would get some showers but that it would be clearing from the west as the day developed. We had our usual lovely breakfast and set off to do a triangular trip via Barnstaple. We planned a route that would allow us to avoid the roads we had been on before.

We had a lovely drive on one of the smaller A roads to Barnstaple. We discovered there was quite a big town in the opposite direction to Exeter which seemed very nice. We also did a couple of caches while we still had some loaded in the area we were in.

I had just said how nice the road was and that it was lovely that there were no hold ups when we went around the corner to join a queue. The road works seemed to be mainly 'mowing' the hedgerows but it did mean one lane was blocked. It was a very short hold up and did encourage us to turn on the radio. We struck a local show that was hilarious. She said a caller had rung in to say they knew of a dog named Phideaux which is pronounced Fido . She moaned about the service in her local supermarket and named the checkout operator who had upset her. She also read out letters including one from a person saying he would be presenting a show on the area on Saturday. It appeared to be an unpaid ad.

We enjoyed the drive especially as the weather was the best we had had for a while. Then we arrived at Barnstaple and it suddenly started to rain. We had only called in to break the journey so decided to go on. The rain seemed to stop as soon as we left the town.

It was nice to see the sea as we drove south on the Atlantic highway. We went via a seaside town called Borcastle, were we would have stopped except it was only 5km or so from Tintagel. We saw lots of signs for local fetes, including one for a scarecrow festival. It would be nice to go to one but we have never been in the right place at a weekend.

John had a nice Cornish pastry from a caravan and we then walked to the castle viewpoint . From there we could see the site was mainly ruins and spread over quite an area.

We did walk half way to the information centre then decided we didn’t want to spend a couple of hours walking around the site as the wind was unpleasantly cold. We also decided we had probably already had the best view.

We spent a lot more time in the Tintagel Old Post Office. We read that Tintagel became very popular in the late 19th century when the Arthurian legend appealed greatly to the Victorians. This resulted in most of the old village buildings being torn down and replaced with shops and hotels. In 1895 the Old Post office was put up for auction and bought by a group of locals after fundraising. It was repaired properly as an ancient building and then sold to the National Trust in 1903. Over the years the roof has subsided under the weight of the massive local slates.

It was originally built in the 14th century as a 3 ‘room plus hall’ thatched roof house . The roof was replaced by slate in the 16th century. A little later the first floor was inserted and later more fireplaces. The windows are believed to have come from other demolished buildings. It was only used as a Post Office for a short time (in the 1870’s) but was after that known as the old Post Office.

The building is furnished with only some of the pieces from the original building or area. Most rooms had samplers in them, worked by girls as young as 9 and dating back to the 18th century. The original Post room is furnished in Victorian style. The Hall has blackened rafters from the smoke of ages. In here was the original trestle table from the house. The notes said that the top would have been put flat on the floor as a bed – hence the saying bed and board. Another bed upstairs came from a nearby farmhouse and had the mattress supported on ropes hence the saying ‘sleep tight’.

We came back to Exeter through Dartmoor. On the way we did a few caches and one took us to what appeared to be an old airfield. We thought it would make a great site for learner drivers. We ended up in some narrow lanes but the traffic was also very light. We had set our Tom-tom for a town in the middle of Dartmoor and did caches that took us in the right direction

We stopped off in Tavistock just outside the moor area. Unfortunately it was just on 5pm so what looked like a nice market area was just closing . The town was full of blue circles – historic buildings. We went past the old Grammar school which had about 20 chimneys. The Information centre was near an arch that dated to the 12th century. The sun was the warmest we had had for some time which may have made the town especially appealing.

We enjoyed our trip across the moors. We got out of the car a couple of time and then it was cold as the wind was biting. Otherwise the views were good and the landscape interesting.

After a fruitless drive to find a place with wifi we had tea at a spot we had seen in the morning a bit west of the BnB. We had forgotten to ask Sue for a recommendation (as our local was closed) but this proved a good choice. The place was full of rather non PC sayings (‘give a man a hand and he will run it all over you’) and the ceiling above the pool table had soccer shirts on it. The girl behind the bar was friendly and even offered to put a light on in the restaurant for us but we were more than happy in the bar .

Just before we left we heard the bar girl talking about moving to London. She had just done her A levels and was going to LSE (London School of Economics). However we also heard she was studying Social Policy and Criminology and had no idea what they were. Her father had told her that she as better to do an unpopular course at a good university than do something more popular at a lesser place. When we paid I congratulated her on getting into the LSE. She told me she was surprised I knew about it as no-one she had talked to knew about the place!!. I told her that it was a well known and well respected university and I was surprised that others had not heard of it when I had in New Zealand. The guy drinking at the bar agreed with me.

When we got back we finally had time to sort out some cruise ideas although we will need the internet to confirm some decisions.