A Week in Devon

I didn't mention in my posts last week, as I never like to advertise online, the fact we are away from home, but this last week, we have spent the week on holiday in Devon.

We headed off last Friday morning and after a long journey that took 8 hours, due to several traffic snarl ups, we arrived at our rented accommodation, a converted barn a few miles from Dartmoor National Park, near Okehampton.

We were really looking forward to the break, as it's been a pretty eventful few months, for me anyway, due to leaving my job.  I'm gradually getting used to not going out to work though and this holiday has helped me to draw a line under everything and move on.  

Anyway, the accommodation had a hot tub, which was the express reason that we rented it. Getting a swimming pool with private holiday accommodation in the UK is virtually impossible, due to the high cost, but a hot tub sounded like the next best thing and there were quite a few properties that had this option. 

The last time we'd rented a property with a hot tub, it was so noisy that we were put off using it, as we were in quite close proximity to other properties.  This time around, we had no close neighbours, so we could use it as much as we wanted. It was a bit of an extravagance for us, but it did help us to enjoy the holiday and to really relax, as it felt very luxurious.

The rest of the property was lovely, very spacious and open plan and super well equipped. It definitely made for a lovely relaxing break. The owners had left us a lovely welcome pack too, of wine, crisps, biscuits, dog treats and lots of fresh eggs too. Very thoughtful.

On arriving, we brought everything in from the car, connected to the Wifi, unpacked our clothes and generally got settled in.  We didn't brave the hot tub on the first night, as it was quite late. I was in bed quite early, exhausted by the journey.

Our first day on holiday is always a pretty chill one. Acclimatising to our new environment, buying in some food for the week and generally familiarising ourselves with the local area. We headed into Okehampton in this instance, which was our nearest small market town.  It was an interesting place with lots of interesting independent shops. I bought a few small things.

The remainder of the week was spent hanging out at the house and using the hot tub, venturing out and about visiting local places of interest and walking the dog locally and on Dartmoor. OH went out cycling a couple of times over Dartmoor. We had the odd meal out at a pub. It was very relaxing.

We weren't so lucky with the weather, as it rained most days, but we did get a couple of days of sunshine. We weren't too worried though, as we could use the hot tub whatever the weather and goodness knows the UK needs some rain at the moment. Just a pity there hasn't been any to speak of in London for a while.

Today, we packed up, cleaned around and headed off at 9.15 am. Our journey home went well, until we got to the outskirts of London. Friday afternoon is never a good time to travel into or around the capital, but we eventually got home, the total journey time being about 6 and a half hours, instead of the 4 and a half hours predicted by the sat nav.  It was lovely get back toour house and to water the very parched garden. We were surprised that things survived as well as they did without being watered for a week.