Delicious Devon

 So, time for a road trip...and this time, wifey hinted at an interest, so I guilted her into it - what could go wrong?!

The Rogues (the group I go to Wales with every year) decided to do a short 3 day trip to Devon, for a change. I wasn't expecting too much (the forecast wasn't great and my wife is not, bless her, a rough-it type of person who can travel without her heated seats) but in the end, it surpassed all my expectations.

Day 1 - Surrey to Ilfracombe,  220 miles

A reasonable 6am start and the first hour was a blast on the motorway to the meet point - BAD idea. It was dry but only around 6 degC and I left the roof down - my wife was frozen and hinting at turning round! We soldiered on to Popham services on the A303 and met the other very cold people which helped my wife feel better that she wasn't the only one. We were a very eclectic group; 2 Elises, a Caterham, Tiger, Stylus, Quantum, MX5 and me.

It was a bit warmer, so we carried on to breakfast at the Haynes motor museum:

But, disaster, they weren't doing any hot food, apart from a toasted teacake! Oh well...

Five minutes down the road was the Fleet Air Arm museum, a must for a couple of our plane fans and it was an excellent museum all round; interesting exhibits set out in a really imaginative way, with enough detail for the experts and not boring for the casual visitor - highly recommended. 

After that, an enjoyable thrash up through Exmoor to our hotel for 2 nights in Ilfracombe. Dinner was a great meal in the Smugglers in the harbour area.

Day 2 - Devon loop, 180 miles

Who knew that Devon had such great roads? I associate the place with caravan-strewn dual carriageways, not the beautiful, twisty, roller coaster roads we found, with very little traffic. I guess everyone stays on the A-roads - lucky us. More amazing, my wife wasn't screaming at me to slow down. I don't think she enjoyed the faster bits too much but the scenic roads were lovely - strangely autumn colours but very pretty.

A mostly dry day allowed the roofs to stay down, with the Stylus having a slight electrical problem with its fuel pump giving us an excuse to stop:

The route went south as far as Tiverton, via the Quince Honey farm for coffee and cake, then back up towards a 2nd coffee stop at Blue Anchor on the coast. In between were quite a few, very muddy lanes:

...and a sublime run up to the coast; miles of smooth, twisty B-road heaven with no traffic; I have no idea why. A tough test for my wife but she managed to not scream too much. I almost suggested we turn around and do it again but that might have been a step too far...

The coffee stop was a welcome sight:

A great drive along the coast led us to a toll road just before Lynton (I think - sorry, I'm not sure of the exact location). For £3, a lovely wander along a cliff-top road that twisted and turned through a forest of moss-covered trees and stones that reminded us of something in Lord of the Rings (the Shires, not Mordor).

We dropped down into Lynmouth briefly on a fun, twisty little roller-coaster of a road, then back up and on to another toll road:

Slightly bumpier and narrower (it was only £2) but just as scenic. 

I had lost everyone by this point because I had to trundle along a particularly bumpy stretch so as not to scrape the bottom off Zedster. I originally set Zedster up with a recommended average ride height but as my almost 20-stone is probably not average and then adding my wife in... suffice to say, there were lots of sparks (and not romantic ones either).

We finished the last 10 miles or so alone and were last back to the hotel in the evening sun:

Dinner was the Smugglers again (hey, we liked it, what can we say?) with a little wander around Ilfracombe harbour (and the dodgy Damien Hirst statue) before bed.

Day 3 - Ilfracombe to home, 230 miles

Our all-too-brief trip was almost over and despite an ominous forecast and dark skies, we set off with roofs down. A great run using previous routes in reverse led us to Porlock Weir:

We all started putting our roofs up as it was getting very dark and, 30 secs after this photo was taken, the heavens opened with 20 minutes of biblical rain - fortunately, we had just got our roofs up and the hotel did a great coffee, so we waited the worst of the rain out in comfort.

The next stop was a run through Cheddar Gorge but I had a problem at the petrol stop just before that - Zedster wouldn't start. Fuel pumps started up, dials worked but no starter motor at all - totally dead. Regular readers will know that I've been concerned about my voltmeter gauge reading low recently, suggesting an alternator problem so I assumed it had finally got so bad that my battery hadn't been charging for a while and was now dead. However, an attempted jump start made no difference at all, which didn't make sense if it was a dead battery.

Fortunately, at this point, an electrician turned up to fill his van and he had a multimeter which I used to check the battery - 13.2V, fully charged. This was good and bad - it meant my alternator is fine and it is my gauge that has a problem but it also meant that my starter circuit was currently dead. Most likely, a wire has dropped out behind the AUX panel (this has happened numerous times before, although I thought I had fixed it the last time).

Luckily, the garage was on a slight hill and a bump start proved the theory - Zedster kicked into life. Unfortunately, this now meant that I had to get home in one go because I couldn't turn the engine off (unless I stopped on a hill, I guess) and so we had to skip  the lunch stop just outside Cheddar.

The plan had been to all go our separate ways after that stop anyway, although that didn't work out too well either as the others got split up before the stop (I hope that wasn't my fault by delaying some of them at the garage as they tried to help me out).

The trip back was pretty bad - the rain didn't stop for 3 hours and the short stretch of the M3 we took was like a permanent water flume ride. At least we provided entertainment for the others on the motorway...and I heard the M4 route was even worse.

Epilogue

While the weather had been mixed, other things on this trip had been a pleasant surprise; the roads in Devon and how much my wife actually enjoyed it - I really had expected her to suffer in silence and then never want to see my car again but no; she's actually keen to go again. The company, as always, was great but she was much more comfortable in my car than she expected, the scenery was an enjoyable distraction from my hooliganism and she enjoyed the whole driving-in-a-group concept, looking out for others and trying to work out why we sometimes passed each other going in opposite directions! The regular coffee stops also helped... For me, it was also nice to have someone to talk to in the car - a win/win all round.

While Zedster did have a hiccup at the end of the trip (and one windscreen wiper did break on the way home but then, it had a lot to do), in all other respects, he was great as usual through some pretty horrendous weather.

The next road trip is France and the Alps in June, just with my son in his C63 AMG - should be interesting...