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Days when you know why you live in the British Isles


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Using 'England' as an Americanism, I went for my usual morning walk early on and took a detour to come back via the end of our street. What a lovely view now Tan-Y-Goppa Mountain has gone from brown to green in the space of 10 days.....

 

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A couple we knew came up from Sheringham and asked how we could live with that view. :O They regarded the mountain as 'orrible being used to flatlands. I wonder how Gilbert of 'Peterborough' fame would views mountains....? 

Edited by coachmann
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Evenin' all,

 

Delayed by a week due to the failure of our modem and subsequent wait for a replacement....here are a few scenes from our recent (April 2014) stroll through the Manifold valley between the visitor centre at Hulme End & Wetton Mill. The trackbed of the former narrow gauge railway was used as far as Swainsley but we switched to the old road from Swainsley to Wetton Mill...same route used on the return

   

 

Dave

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Evenin' all,

 

Every now and then a walk with the ancestors is the best therapy...the one that does it for me is along 'The Ridgeway' long distance footpath somewhere between Wantage and Avebury. Staying with a friend in Oxford for the last few days presented the latest opportunity and whilst the ladies went for a more leisurely stroll and a little retail soothing I drove on to the Uffington castle/white horse area for a 10 mile out & back. The mist burned off as the walk progressed and by the time I reached Waylands Smithy it was great to stride out in lovely warm sunshine.

 

The Great Western main line resembled a model railway on the flatter land below.

 

 

Dave

Edited by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71
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When we have a week off me & Mrs Rivercider like to get down to Devon or Cornwall

and have made a start at walking the South West Coast Path,

we are only enthusiastic amateurs, being easily distracted by things like stops for coffee, and pubs......  

So far we have only done some of the easily accessible bits, but what a great way to get to the pub,

 

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This on the section from Exmouth heading towards Budleigh Salterton in Glorious Devon, 15/5/2012

 

cheers

 

....excellent coastal path walking around there R...we've often stayed at Salcombe Regis and little by little covered a considerable South Devon section. Sidmouth is just lovely!

 

Dave

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  • 1 month later...

Mornin' all,

 

Here are a few wild bird scenes (mainly) from my early morning constitutional walk down to the River Deben whilst on holiday near to Felixstowe last week

 

 

 

Yellow wagtail, reed bunting, reed warbler, barn owl, black headed gull and mute swan feature.

 

Dave

Edited by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71
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The top end of the South West Coast path is at Minehead where there is also a rather nice railway.

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This is on the coast path between Porlock and Minehead we are usually up here or in nearby Selworthy/Allerford woods evry morning with the dogs unless away in the motorhome.

Don

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The things you all describe in this thread are the reasons I have a boat on a mooring in Christchurch!

 

Watching Mudeford harbour turn from mud/sand with a few puddles into a wet harbour while the sun rises and Hengistbury Head becomes visible. Passing through the Run and facing straight towards the Isle of Wight. A turn to starboard and head towards Old Harry rocks while passing the beaches of Bournemouth. Detour into Poole harbour and weigh anchor at Brownsea Island for a spot of lunch and some swimming.

 

There is no better way to spend a summers day than seeing our beautiful country from the sea that encases our little island.

 

Mark

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Evenin' all,

 

Just back from a few days 'on tour'....the prospect of a few rest days this week caused us to look at the blank spaces on our travelling the British Isles map...matching a promising weather forecast with an instantly arranged itiniary (thank goodness for the internet) led to a 3 day largely coastal drive through North West England and along the southern coast of Dumfries & Galloway. Leaving the Staffs Moorlands at 13.00 on Sunday we travelled via the A34, M60 anti-clockwise, the M66, A56, Clitheroe, Slaidburn, Forest of Bowland, High Bentham (Porsche owners club outing accounted for the highest tally of the make that I've seen in one day on the Forest of Bowland section), then on via the A65, Kirkby Lonsdale, the A590, Newby Bridge, the A5092 towards Millom, Whitehaven, Maryport and Silloth. Staying over at the Golf hotel Silloth provided an excellent break of journey on the scenic Solway Firth and following a great evening meal a few sunset scenes were filmed

 

 

...on the next day via Bowness on Solway, Port Carlisle, Dumfries, the A710, Kirkcudbright, Garlieston, Whithorn hbr to Port William...for our second night out....this time at Hawthorn Hse for superb views and a great full Scottish breakfast. Returning largely as outward to Silloth for our 3rd night out led on to our journey today through a few previously unseen areas of the Lake District before retracing our outward route via Bentham & Clitheroe. Dropping in at RSPB Caerlaverock for a sighting of a curlew sandpiper (smaller bird in the foreground of the clip) also featured on our return towards Silloth.

 

This trip must have covered all through waterside routes each side of the Firth. Ironically, we could almost see Luce bay from Silloth and yet spent nearly 8 hours driving all the way around to it.

 

The excellent bookshop in Wigtown accounting for yet another splurge on 3 railway books.

 

Glass of wine time and a chance to sit and watch the superb video/colour cine film of Ivo Peters Vol 3 'Westmorland 1965/67 & Scotland Easter 1963' again, which includes footage of the Newton Stewart to Whithorn and Garlieston branches. 1920s Ordnance Survey map ordered from The National Library of Scotland showing the branches relative to the road network at that time, obviously still useful for tracing the route that the branches took.

 

Dave 

Edited by Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71
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As I am sitting here I can here the house martins are chirping away outside, and look beyond to the sand dunes marking the North Sea,  a few minutes ago, I just looked out of the back window and saw around ten Blue Tits Charging around (mostly youngsters), no deer today in the garden, and beyond to the Norfolk Broads ( they are NOT a National Park). Who Needs Mountains?

 If you need pictures of why I chose to live here then this link has plenty:

 

http://the-norfolk-broads.co.uk/viewtopics.cfm?Forum=28

 

The Q

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Evenin' Q,

 

...you are fortunate to live in such a lovely part of the country....we have enjoyed numerous holidays in Norfolk and hope to have many more. All of our holidays in the UK and abroad have given us much pleasure....usually for different reasons. If all destinations were the same then why travel anywhere? Surely, the individual characteristics of each area are reason for celebration.

 

Dave     

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Hi, one of the places that I Iike so much is the Pocklington area, and the nearby Wolds(which are not featuring in the Tour de France). Here is a photo' of a delightful little place near to Pocklington called Meltonby.post-22631-0-09537800-1404424773.jpg.

 

All the best,

 

Market65.

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The things you all describe in this thread are the reasons I have a boat on a mooring in Christchurch!

 

Watching Mudeford harbour turn from mud/sand with a few puddles into a wet harbour while the sun rises and Hengistbury Head becomes visible. Passing through the Run and facing straight towards the Isle of Wight. A turn to starboard and head towards Old Harry rocks while passing the beaches of Bournemouth. Detour into Poole harbour and weigh anchor at Brownsea Island for a spot of lunch and some swimming.

 

There is no better way to spend a summers day than seeing our beautiful country from the sea that encases our little island.

 

Mark

This reminds me of my childhood, We lived on the Wiltshire / Hampshire Border at Ludgershall, and all the family holidays were along that bit of coast and the Isle of Wight. Somewhat more expensive down that way now!! I have sailed along that coast in later years  (and the Outer Hebrides!) but these days tend to stick to the Norfolk broads.

The Q

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Ah, Norfolk Broads, plastic boat heaven :-). Here's yours truly doing one of the things I enjoy most, at the tiller of a 70 footer narrow boat, passing under the old, and newer road bridges at Pershore going up the Avon to Stratford, not easy with a low river during a drought as it was in the summer of 2010. Week after next it's one of the most scenic canals in the British Isles, from Cymbran up to Brecon.

post-7336-0-73786100-1404468249.jpg

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The OP refers to the 'British isles'. The Wiki defines this as 'a group of islands off the north-west coast of continental Europe that consists of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles'. With this definition there is no need for apologies for including Wales or indeed Scotland or Ireland from the thread. Everyone welcome!

Some delightful photos here and thanks to everyone for posting them.

 

David

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Ok, while I'm at it, and apologies for seeming to monopolize this thread a bit at the moment. Not because part of my paternal family lives/lived in this place, and it has many happy childhood memories but it still is one of my favourites. This is a recent-ish pic of Maldon (pronounced 'Moledon') in Essex taken from about half way along the 'prom', once a thriving small sea-port, in the pic you can see about 4 or 5 old Thames barges at the old quay, when I was kid those barges would be lined up stem to stern with their flat bottoms on the mud at low tide, lined up all the way along the full length of the prom on both sides of the channel, how times have changed, but Maldon hasn't spoilt that much.

post-7336-0-65956500-1404475551.jpg

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Hi Paul,

 

We stayed at the Blue Boar in the town whilst visiting friends in Chelmsford a year or two back. I too filmed the traditional sailing barges at the quay as we went on to explore the Blackwater basin.

 

Given the maze of inlets, estuaries and other waterways I wasn't surprised to see the customs clipper in attendance.

 

The Blue Boar has the Farmer's micro brewery attached to it and serves a mean 'full English'.

 

Dave

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If I said I frequently wished I was living in the British Isles, would that be good enough.... 

The North Welsh coast, my favourite holiday haunt:

 

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A view from our holiday cottage in Porth Colmon on the Lleyn peninsula, the three peaks of Yr Eifl in the distance.

 

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