Our Devon world looked a little brighter this morning in that the rain had ceased and, surprise of surprises, even the sun put in the occasional appearance under the still threatening clouds. Having studied yesterday’s weather forecast for today, however, I wasn’t particularly hopeful that the improvement would be very long lived. Nonetheless, after a leisurely breakfast consisting mainly of coffee, Carol and I set off to investigate Plymouth leaving Rosemary and Steve to be visited by friends.

Just as “one swallow does not a summer make”, neither “does one brief glimpse of sun a dry day make”. ‘T was obvious from the colour of the sky ahead of us that we were heading in an ill-chosen direction and, sure enough, exactly as we drove across a line marking the beginning of the Dartmoor Park, the rain once again began falling. How appropriate! By the time we found the Plymouth Park & Ride scheme, it was falling quite hard.

Riding on a bus for the first time in more years than I can count was quite enjoyable. The scheme was excellent and we were soon alighting near The Hoe. As luck would have it we’d hit a rain intermission, too, so we stowed the umbrellas and struck out for Carol’s main objective. The naval memorial at The Hoe bears the name of her great uncle who was killed on HMS Defence in the Battle of Jutland on 1st June, 1916. No sooner had Carol located her great uncle’s name on the memorial than the rain started up again so she grabbed a photo or two, we redeployed our briefly stowed umbrellas and headed back towards the covered Pannier Market looking for a roof and supplies for the evening.

As befits a coastal town, Plymouth’s Pannier Market sported a couple of excellent looking fish counters where we couldn’t resist a couple of gurnard for our last night’s dinner in Devon. If we don’t have any sunshine, at least we could prepare sunshine food so we grabbed the ingredients for a reliable ratatouille to go with them.

Not being a day for sauntering and taking in the sights, we didn’t get to see very much of Plymouth but, on our limited experience, neither of us was particularly impressed. I’m no historian but, given that Plymouth is a naval dockyard, I imagine it suffered considerably during WWII. For whatever reason its current architectural style, or lack of it, seems to share much in common with Aylesbury (where I spent considerable years working) in being largely very unattractive 1960s concrete. Now that we know how to deal with the Park & Ride scheme, we’ll have to return for a better look, including the waterfront, during more conducive weather.

Here we are back at Wortham Manor for our final evening and it is still raining. The near constant rain during our visit has transcended the merely boring and has reached the heights of thoroughly frustrating. It’s been raining for 5½ days out of 7 and not just showers, consistent day-long rain.

We will have spent an enjoyable week in truly memorable surroundings with excellent company but it will have been in weather which has been as bad as any I can remember.

Tessa & Robin, Selina and partner all left yesterday followed by Mike and LInda this morning. Having got as far as Swindon, Mike and Linda reported reasonable conditions so it seems as though Devon and Cornwall may have been singled out for special meteorological attention. There can’t be much water left in the Atlantic ‘cos most of it has been dumped around us over the last few days. A hardcore of four of us remain.

I know that the Chinese have the Year of the Cat (cue Al Stewart), the Year of the Tiger and the years of various other interesting creatures but I don’t believe that they have the Year of the Jigsaw. They should have – and this should be it. Recently we spent an enjoyable though rather wetter than anticipated two weeks in Spain during the first week of which Carol spent much time solving jigsaw puzzles in the company of our hosts while outside the rain fell. Now, here we are in Devon celebrating Rosemary’s 60th and the vindictive god of meteorology is chucking rain at us again. It rained throughout last night and is still raining today We have now had rain four and a half days out of the six that we have thus far been here. Once again a jigsaw puzzle is maintaining the sanity of three of the remaining four weather prisoners.

Since there is little else happening today, here’s a few further pictures of our accommodation:

On the brighter side, this tiresome weather does enable one to catch up on one’s blogging. 😉

After a disturbed, restless night for Mike fretting about potentially collapsing house sales, we awoke to yet more of the depressing wet stuff. With the almost constant farm traffic up and down the track between Wortham Manor and the tarmacked road, conditions outside have deteriorated to a scene that would have been at home at the Battle of the Somme. Though regular cars do not actually seem to be losing traction, 4x4s are more comforting. Tractors and caterpillar-track-laying vehicles would be more comforting still. The grass strip outside the building, with only foot traffic, is also becoming waterlogged and treacherous. Our considered opinion is that, with a house that rents for £3500 per week in winter and about £5000 per week in summer, the Landmark Trust really should do something to sort out the access and parking.

Largely to divert Mike from his mental turmoil, despite the rain we took a trip to Bude on the north Cornwall coast. When we arrived and parked, Mike delivered the news that their contracts had been exchanged and all was well, their house sale would complete in just over a week. Bude wasn’t particularly appealing but, with a collective sigh of relief, we didn’t much care now. We began tacking our way back down the coast road towards Crackington Haven.

Carol knows no bounds with an Ordnance Survey map in her hand and we soon ended up on a dramatic, largely single-track roller coaster of a road with hairpin bends mixed in with comforting signs announcing descents and ascents having a gradient of 30% (1-in-3). Yikes! Both cars being equipped with Honda 2.2CTDi engines, we bravely carried on regardless and negotiated the worst that Cornwall could throw at us. It was certainly the most challenging road that I’ve personally seen in Cornwall. Having made it to the top of the most “interesting” section, we spotted a couple of intriguing signs.

We spotted the first sign on a lonesome house atop a hill. Though seemingly standing all alone, the house proudly displayed a “Neighbourhood Watch” sign. Curious.

The second sign occurred at intervals beside our difficult-enough–to-drive-along road. Despite having 1-in-3 gradients, this road was apparently designated as being part of the Sustrans National Cycle Network route 3. Strewth! I know I am not the fittest person in the world but on a bicycle I can just about manage a 1-in-7 hill, which should preferably be one that is a short, sharp shock; if it drags on too long, I’m going to have trouble. I have yet to meet anyone capable of cycling up a 1-in-3 hill, certainly not up a long and persistent 1-in-3 hill. It’s hard enough to push a bicycle up a 1-in-3 gradient. Armed with a bike, I’ve been down Chimney Bank, a 1-in-3 hill in Yorkshire, which greets cyclists with an instruction to dismount in order to descend in safety. Most bicycle brakes won’t hold you back on a 1-in-3 descent. Whilst I applaud the concept of the National Cycle Network as being a wonderful idea, I would have thought that its planners might have paid a little attention to the physical suitability of the routes chosen. Good grief, they have to be joking!

Crackington Haven turned out to very pleasant in a dramatic coastal views kind of way and, furthermore, provided an enjoyable pub serving Cornish Rattler cider accompanied by fish and chips for lunch.

The rain continued unabated all day long.