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Now retired but busy still living..

Friday 24 April 2015

My last visit was forty years ago........

The other day we had a walk to Castle Drogo and back......

The last time I visited this, the last proper castle built in England, must be about forty years ago.
Unfortunately the castle is currently undergoing major structural repairs even though it is only 100 years old and is covered in scaffolding, so I was unable to obtain a photo of it worth sharing with you.

Since it was built it has always suffered with structural problems causing water leaks and damage throughout the building.
After a huge fundraising appeal a five year building project started in 2012 to put right all this damage.

If you are ever in this part of Devon it is well worth a visit and for us it made a good lunch time destination for our walk....

Pretty outward route to Castle Drogo
 Again the weather was brilliant for this walk. I just cannot believe how lucky we have been as far as the weather is concerned  for the start of our trip..... 
However, according to the weather forecast things are likely to change as we approach the weekend so we are making the most of it..... 

Our route took us along some very pretty woodland paths.........
We also had some great views over the Teign Valley .....
View over the Teign Valley near Castle Drogo
The walks around this area our quite strenuous...... we seem to be walking across the grain of the land.... it is almost constantly ups and downs with hardly any really level walking.
Mind you, as with my cycling, I love hills and anyway the views certainly make up for all the 
effort......  
On the path above the Teign Valley about a mile from the castle we saw an Adder sunning itself in the brilliant sunshine......
As we got closer to it, it slithered away into the undergrowth.....

View of Drewsteignton on return stage of our walk
We had our lunch in the grounds of Castle Drogo and after a look around the estate we had a Devon cream tea at the visitors centre near the car park before heading back to the campsite....
Almost back...our campsite is behind the trees to the right of the buildings.
Struggling up the last hill on the walk back to our site we did regret (a little) the indulgence of the Devon cream tea..... but once back at Eva the Eriba both Anne and I agreed we had enjoyed another fantastic day out walking.......

3 comments:

GreenComotion said...

What a lovely place, Trevor! Enjoy!!
Have a Beautiful Day!
Peace :)

TrevorW�� said...

*Chandra Eswaran*
Dartmoor is certainly an area of diverse beauty....

J_on_tour said...

From the scenery that you have shown here and in previous posts, it looks a nice place for the outdoors life. Who would have believed that it would be so tough, then again I once went on an organised walk in the North York Moors and the gradient was up and down all day. I found that more tiring than tackling the straightforward ascent and descent of a mountain.

I must confess, I have never been to the area in the outdoor sphere as I have either passed through it or around it. Having said that I was on a rail trip to Okehampton at the end of April from Crewe. Not a lot of time to see it as it was more about the traction and the line but I got a feel for the area.

Six weeks off.

 The visit to see the Consultant went quite well really ...   My ' numbers' have started to creep up again so I am going to be given...