Day 4 A (Cold) Rest Day with Regent Friends

This turned out to be another good day—featuring a surprise visit from our friends Christine and Julia, whom we know from our time at Regent College. We had initially planned for an easy day, just looking around Lynmouth and Lynton and environs; in fact, it was an early "rest day" in hindsight brilliantly scheduled by Ken, given our soreness from the long walk yesterday. But last night Christine phoned our B & B to let us know that she was staying with Julia near Exeter, and that they would like to come up and share the day with us. So like our impromptu day with Amos & Helen, it was a wonderful way to explore the area with friends!

On the Grounds at Lee Abbey—It is always nice to see old friends...

The only hitch was that the weather, although not rainy, was very cold! This would not usually be a problem except that we—particularly Ken—had given much of our clothes to our kind hosts at our B & B so they could wash them for us. Ken only had two thin, short-sleeved base layer shirts on under his lightweight rain jacket, so he was not especially eager to go out for long walks on the coastal path shivering in the frigid wind! 

Riding the Cliff Railway

Ken and I took the Victorian water powered railway up the cliff from Lynmouth to Lynton, with good views out to the ocean. While we were waiting, we went into St. Mary's Church, which was rather dark inside, but had an interesting barrel-vaulted ceiling.

Julia and Christine picked us up and we decided to go to Lee Abbey, a nineteenth-century mansion turned golf hotel turned Christian conference center where Julia had worked for several years. It was the first day the tea room was open for the season, so we had lunch there, successfully confusing the new staff with our orders. We then toured Lee Abbey itself, and later went for a lovely short walk on a cliff path on the abbey grounds—which gave us a foretaste of the next day's cliff top walk to Porlock. While Ken was a bit nervous at the occasional sheer drop near the path edge, I enjoyed learning from Julia some of the names of the plants I was seeing. We learned that gorse blooms smell like coconut.

Oh how cute!

We went to the tea room again for an afternoon cream tea—scones, jam, clotted cream and tea. A photographer took multiple photos of our group consuming tea. I will have to look on their website later to see if we show up as part of their promotion!

After that, we drove to the Valley of Rocks, a curious "dry valley" right near the coastline, stopping when we spotted a group of Exmoor ponies grazing near the cliff edge. For all their rarity, we got to see them up close for a second day in a row.

Exmoor Ponies, Valley of Rocks

We got a ride back to Lynmouth and said goodbye. Then we headed out for dinner, ending up at the Bath Hotel. We had one of those delightful happenstances of ending up talking with the couple at the next table, who were older walkers from Somerset, near Wells. We must have chatted an hour after finishing our meals, just enjoying the exchange of experiences and the lovely evening . . . inside, well out of the freezing wind! Then we headed to our B & B where our fresh laundry awaited us: I sniffed it (!!!) appreciatively as I folded it. Laundry is important, since we only have four pairs of underwear and socks, the most vital elements of our garb.

All in all it was the perfect rest day, and so nice to share time with friends old and new.

12,977 steps, 9.732 km, 350.2 cal

Cold but Happy in Lynmouth