Post by Dave on Sept 13, 2010 16:38:38 GMT
The Valley Of The Rocks
This wonderful place was on our to do list, only it took 15 years from the first time I ever saw it, to visit here with Carol. The day I first drove through the valley, I truly thought I was on a different planet, no place I have ever been before has ever given me such a feeling. This will be part one of two of our day out and one where we ended up walking for over eight hours and Carol having to struggle to get me back to our car as my legs would not walk any further.
That was due to walking the valley and then moving the car into Lynton, walking to Lynmouth and then walking hours through a wood looking for a place called Watersmeet. I will tell you in the next episode why you should not believe anything a stranger tells you in the wood.
So how did I come to know about the Valley Of The Rocks? Well around 15 years ago I was only looking to work one or two days a week, just enough to help support me as I followed my musical dreams. I had found a national pharmaceutical company who had a base in Paignton, that delivered all over Devon, Cornwall. I had to give it up in the end as I found I was working six days most weeks and it was just too much in the end.
One day you could find that you would be walking past a pub in Plymouth with some not so nice looking people standing outside, as you were carrying six bottles of methadone to a nearby chemist. The next day you could be calling at a chemist high above Boscastle in Cornwall.
Well this day I was asked if I thought I could do North Devon and I said yes and so I set off to do the run, I also had a map of a car park I needed to be in at Bideford by 1.30pm, as a another van would come up there from Paignton to bring the after run for me to deliver to the same ones I had called on in the morning.
It was now only 10.45pm and I had finished the morning run and the last call was at Lynton, I saw a sign as I had driven in pointing the way to the Valley Of The Rocks. A quick check of a map showed me I could drive that way and get back toward Blackmoor Gate and then go towards Barnstable.
That is what I did and I was so impressed with the drive through the valley, the road afterwards was narrow and had many bends and at one point you come up to what is best describe as a toll gate. There is no one there and the road goes through some private estate and a notice asks you to put the money to use the road in some sealed bucket thing. It was a pound then and I only had 69p in change so I said out loud,” you will have to make do with that my lordship”
So 15 years later Carol and I made it there, you can park in a small pay and display car park and wonder around to your hearts content. There is a great cliff path that goes back into Lynton, we walked some of it but decided to go back to the car park and move the car into Lynton. The path can be seen in some of the last pictures.
So get yourself up there some time and discover the joys of the Valley Of The Rocks, Carol loved it, but then she is happy no matter what we do or where we go.
