an exmoor b&b owned and managed by sue & andy north
guest house and b&b, lynton, north devon
34 lee road, lynton EX35 6BS tel: 01598 753328
Thank you to our recent guests Glandon and Susan for the excellent pictures of local scenes and birds. We will get some onto the gallery soon. One picture is of the plaque on the walk to Watersmeet which many people don't notice, marking the site of the disused Lynrock Mineral Water factory destroyed by the flood in 1952.
When guests ask us where to find a nice beach we always suggest Woolacombe or Croyde. Our recent guests Brenda and David enjoyed a visit to Puttsborough the other day, which is the one we always forget about. Puttsborough is between Woolacombe and Croyde, but seems to be less busy. We took a trip there today and it is beautiful. Although there were plenty of cars in the car park the beach seemed quiet. Most of the people there were surfing. We just had an ice cream!
Another year's Lynton & Lynmouth Music Festival has come and gone, and it all seemed to go smoothly and was well supported. It seems to get bigger every year, and the perfect weather conditions must have helped swell the crowds. We managed to get to the main events on the green at Lynmouth both days, but sadly had to miss some of the smaller events at other venues. Here is a selection of our pictures to give you a taste of it all. A big thankyou to our guests who arrived early on Sunday to enable us to get to it!
We were emailed today with information about a useful new bus service (Service 401), which goes from Lynmouth across Exmoor to Dulverton via Watersmeet, Hillsford Bridge, Simonsbath, Whitstone, Exford, Withypool, Winsford and Tarr Steps. The service is available on Wednesdays and Sundays from the 27th July to the 31st August. A brochure with full timetable is available here:
http://www.somerset.gov.uk/media/76B/E9/Service_401_Leaflet_08.pdf
With the nice weather lately and the long evenings it is possible to do a decent walk quite late in the day. There are often wonderful sunsets visible from North Walk or Hollerday Hill. We did a walk this evening which starts just down the road at a path called Snowball which goes through the woods of Hollerday Hill. On the way up we were surprised to see objects hanging from trees. This was all part of a performance called Hollerday combining live music, dance and design by North Devon Theatres Smash Boyz and the Stacked Wonky Dance Company which was happening this evening and tomorrow. The walk continues up to the summit of Hollerday Hill with excellent views of the Valley of Rocks and of Foreland Point in the other direction. An alternative route back could be through the site of George Newnes mansion, coming out at Lynton Cinema.
The music festival is just over a week away and the line-up has been confirmed. We're hoping for good weather, especially for the main events on Lynmouth Green on Saturday and Sunday, but there are several other bands playing indoors at other locations. It can all be seen at the music festival website:
http://www.llama.org.uk
Our guest Barbara, from Holland is having a holiday walking the Coastal Path. She arrived yesterday afternoon having walked from Porlock and felt she hadn't quite walked enough . . . so she got the 4.45 bus to Parracombe and walked to Hunters Inn and back along the coast to Lynton in time for tea!
Anyone who happened to be passing through the Valley of Rocks at night recently might have been surprised to see our guests Giles and Tim with loads of photographic equipment and several huge lamps. Tim creates drawings and photographs in many unusual ways and the photograph in the Valley of Rocks is one of an ongoing series called Nightwalks. A camera is set up with an open shutter, then Tim walks away from the camera for an hour carrying three powerful torches and a battery pack. The end result shows the shape of the walk plus whatever else he has illuminated along the way, creating a stunning image (example right). We have had a sneak digital preview, which was spectacular but the actual picture is being developed the old-fashioned way! More of Tim's work can be seen on his website:
www.timknowles.com
