All of this was important to me - but especially the eat all you want bit! Having been dieting for the past 6 months I was keen to enjoy some real food again, without putting the weight back on. And I reckoned that cycling for 5 or 6 hours a day meant I could pretty much eat anything I liked.
The Tarka Trail follows an old railway line in north Devon for much of the route: about 60 miles are suitable for cyclists. It offers sea and estuary views along some stretches, whilst other parts go deep into the Devon countryside through dense woodland, across open meadows and nearly always close to the river Torridge, home to wildlife such as Tarka, the fictional otter that the trail is named after.
We started our holiday in Bideford, staying in The Royal Hotel, pictured below. It was a great place to start as it was a friendly, comfortable place in a beautiful town.
Bideford is situated either side of the estuary, with a 'weak' bridge linking the two areas. The Royal hotel was east of the water, which is why the area is called East-the-Water. It is an ancient suburb of Bideford apparently.
There was an information centre and cafe at this former station too, where you could get free maps and a cream tea to go with it!
A grey day - but still beautiful in the Taw estuary.
We passed through the villages of Instow and onto Fremington Quay as we cycled towards Barnstaple. Fremington Quay was a very busy port a hundred years ago, the busiest between Bristol and Land's End, with the railway serving the vital function of transporting goods brought in by boats as well as local clay. The last train was in the early 1980s and it's closure was the death knell for Fremington Quay as a port.
The tide was out...
Eventually we arrived at the outskirts of Barnstaple and crossed a suspension bridge here (steepest climb of the holiday!) in order to avoid going into the town. We cycled westward back towards the mouth of the estuary - again beautiful, peaceful and flat!
It just so happened that we arrived at a waterside pub just as it started to rain - the appropriately named Tarka Inn. It would have been rude not to shelter there! Castle like on the outside and nice and quirky on the inside, with lots of little nooks and crannies to sit in, we were actually quite glad it had rained...
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| The Tarka Inn near Barnstaple The journey back to Bideford was just as interesting as the journey back, even though it was the same route. The wildlife and the weather were constantly changing and it really didn't seem like we'd cycled about 36 miles. The fact that it was pretty flat helped of course. All in all it was a great first day and we were ready to feast by the early evening! We drove inland a little, (yes, drove...) getting ourselves deeper and deeper into the Devon countryside with the lanes so narrow and windy and the hedges so high they scraped the sides of the car and created a sense of danger with every twist and turn. For all I know we may have driven round in circles for about half an hour before we came upon a pub where we stopped and ate. It was one of those olde worlde places where it helps to be under 5 foot 4 - as Dave found out a few times when he stood up! The name of the pub? Ah well that eludes me right now, but I will look it up shortly. It served good food in plentiful portions - something we became very used to in North Devon, and very nice it was too! |
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