“Put your arms out and you’ll take off and fly right up over the sea,” said the old man who passed me on the lane yesterday as I walked towards the old Coffin Path and the cottage with the dead baby in the garden.
Your description of North Devon was so good and entertaining and realistic! If you really want to sample a frigid hell on Earth go and visit a friend in North Devon and get besieged by unexpected snow. You are trapped in the house by snow drifts and if you are so ignorant of North Devon’s snow demons you will attempt to open a door and dig an escape route. This exposes you to particles of wind powered snow that almost succeed in removing the skin from your face. Yet, on a windless summer day you envy your friend her whitewashed cottage.
My neck of the woods, you sometimes drive by tiny little cemeteries by busy city streets that have room enough for half a dozen graves that have been there for 150 years. Very strange. No babies in backyards though.
You big twat, you and your seductive waterfall hairwash face... Raymond Chandler originally called his book The Big Sheep but decided to edit it out at the last. That's why the plot makes no sense...
I visited North Devon for the first time in May. Your description of the wind and the roads had me Lol-ing. the weather was mixed while I was there, always windy, which I had enough of after 4 days. One day we visited friends who live in Woolacombe overlooking this gorgeous swath of land. There’s a lighthouse there somewhere but I never saw it. The hike starts out as what you think is a gentle downward slope. But after half a bottle of wine and with the wind whipping my hair around my face I decided I’d had enough after about 20 minutes. The walk back felt more like Everest than a gentle slope. But overall I loved north Devon. It’s a wild beautiful place.
Hi Tom, you could put all of these into a book of short stories with us all wondering what is going to happen next, a bit like a lot of Netflix movies. Watch out for the next episode. Another great post, thank you.
Haha! The gaggle of girls brought to mind “Doc Martin” 😆.
And the remoteness - I am from Oz and my London cousin and I once visited the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. We hired a car and ended up driving out to a stony place near the west coast.
“It’s so remote out here” she says, which had me nearly wetting myself laughing - it was about 15 minutes drive from the little town we had been in, albeit fairly a fairly stony and rough path.
When she visited me, although we flew to Alice Springs, we still didn’t get close to anywhere “remote”!
A lovely read, as someone who’s currently getting ready to escape the city to secluded nature for a few days, you allowed me to get there earlier so to speak. Thanks as always for your wonderful descriptions and stories in and around nature.
From the mid-70s to 1983 (which would make a great title for a book, I suspect), I was a boarding pupil at a tiny North Devon school. It was as windswept as your description suggests and there was *that* winter when we were snowed in and rations were helicoptered in. I started my rugby playing as a bantamweight winger but moved to the warmth of the scrum (still only a flyweight but determined to cosy up in the maul to fight off the North Devon chill). I have a milestone birthday and I have loose plans to cycle from the North of a Scotland to our home in France via North Devon … the headwinds might be too much!!
You are definitely where you're meant to be (Devon, UK). Just like I am where I'm meant to be (Virginia, US). It's wonderful when the Universe aligns like that! 🌌
We moved to North Devon this summer and the weather is a constant revelation, despite having visited countless times over the years. I got lost last week, driving round in circles for over an hour before I eventually found my destination - I need a proper OS map as 4miles to an inch is ridiculously undetailed and there's never any kind of phone signal to try ringing home for help, let alone GPS - was surprised I hadn't used half the tank of petrol. And yes, a visit to Torquay took hours to get there...
I do find it strange how us islanders find distance so very distant. You struggle from one end of your county to another. For me, Devon is a million miles away, I know, I tried it last summer and I felt like we needed to book a Premier Inn half way. But, my friends in Kansas, and by the way, it’s not all rolling wheat and tumble weed, drive for 6-7 hours no problem at all, like they’re popping to Lidl for the ‘specials’ aisle.
Your description of North Devon was so good and entertaining and realistic! If you really want to sample a frigid hell on Earth go and visit a friend in North Devon and get besieged by unexpected snow. You are trapped in the house by snow drifts and if you are so ignorant of North Devon’s snow demons you will attempt to open a door and dig an escape route. This exposes you to particles of wind powered snow that almost succeed in removing the skin from your face. Yet, on a windless summer day you envy your friend her whitewashed cottage.
A a north Devon resident I can confirm we have been extremely harassed by the weather this weekend!
My neck of the woods, you sometimes drive by tiny little cemeteries by busy city streets that have room enough for half a dozen graves that have been there for 150 years. Very strange. No babies in backyards though.
You big twat, you and your seductive waterfall hairwash face... Raymond Chandler originally called his book The Big Sheep but decided to edit it out at the last. That's why the plot makes no sense...
I visited North Devon for the first time in May. Your description of the wind and the roads had me Lol-ing. the weather was mixed while I was there, always windy, which I had enough of after 4 days. One day we visited friends who live in Woolacombe overlooking this gorgeous swath of land. There’s a lighthouse there somewhere but I never saw it. The hike starts out as what you think is a gentle downward slope. But after half a bottle of wine and with the wind whipping my hair around my face I decided I’d had enough after about 20 minutes. The walk back felt more like Everest than a gentle slope. But overall I loved north Devon. It’s a wild beautiful place.
This is brilliant, more please 👍🏻
Thanks Rachel.
Hi Tom, you could put all of these into a book of short stories with us all wondering what is going to happen next, a bit like a lot of Netflix movies. Watch out for the next episode. Another great post, thank you.
Fascinating and a bit terrifying too. An absorbing read!
Haha! The gaggle of girls brought to mind “Doc Martin” 😆.
And the remoteness - I am from Oz and my London cousin and I once visited the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. We hired a car and ended up driving out to a stony place near the west coast.
“It’s so remote out here” she says, which had me nearly wetting myself laughing - it was about 15 minutes drive from the little town we had been in, albeit fairly a fairly stony and rough path.
When she visited me, although we flew to Alice Springs, we still didn’t get close to anywhere “remote”!
Wonderful writing.
Thanks Simon!
A lovely read, as someone who’s currently getting ready to escape the city to secluded nature for a few days, you allowed me to get there earlier so to speak. Thanks as always for your wonderful descriptions and stories in and around nature.
What a great start to this story of your walk in North Devon... Loved all of it!
Thanks Celia!
From the mid-70s to 1983 (which would make a great title for a book, I suspect), I was a boarding pupil at a tiny North Devon school. It was as windswept as your description suggests and there was *that* winter when we were snowed in and rations were helicoptered in. I started my rugby playing as a bantamweight winger but moved to the warmth of the scrum (still only a flyweight but determined to cosy up in the maul to fight off the North Devon chill). I have a milestone birthday and I have loose plans to cycle from the North of a Scotland to our home in France via North Devon … the headwinds might be too much!!
You are definitely where you're meant to be (Devon, UK). Just like I am where I'm meant to be (Virginia, US). It's wonderful when the Universe aligns like that! 🌌
We moved to North Devon this summer and the weather is a constant revelation, despite having visited countless times over the years. I got lost last week, driving round in circles for over an hour before I eventually found my destination - I need a proper OS map as 4miles to an inch is ridiculously undetailed and there's never any kind of phone signal to try ringing home for help, let alone GPS - was surprised I hadn't used half the tank of petrol. And yes, a visit to Torquay took hours to get there...
I do find it strange how us islanders find distance so very distant. You struggle from one end of your county to another. For me, Devon is a million miles away, I know, I tried it last summer and I felt like we needed to book a Premier Inn half way. But, my friends in Kansas, and by the way, it’s not all rolling wheat and tumble weed, drive for 6-7 hours no problem at all, like they’re popping to Lidl for the ‘specials’ aisle.