Steep Hills, Tarr Steps & ... er, ice cream!!!

Porlock Weir in Somerset is absolutely my favourite place in the whole of the UK. It has everything that I love... sea, hills, woods, sunshine and a touch of the ever so slightly odd!!



My love affair with the place started when I was a child and we used to go and visit Granny & Grampy in Somerset. Originally from Northamptonshire, they fell in love with Porlock when they were still courting. They had travelled down on the motorbike, with Granny sitting in the sidecar, but it broke down on Porlock Hill. At a hair-raising 1 in 4 gradient, it's not unusual for breakdowns there, and this turned out to be a particularly fortuitous one. Forced to stay a few extra days, Granny & Grampy fell in love with the area and vowed to move back there when they retired.



If they hadn't broken down there, would I have ever found Porlock? Who knows! Granny and I used to go to Porlock every time I visited. We went other places as well, but no day out was as special to us as the trip to Porlock and Porlock Weir. When deciding where to go on a short break, there was no other place for me... it had to be Porlock!

Granny now lives close to us here in Berkshire and had tears in her eyes when I said where I was going. Happy tears, tears filled with the best memories and gladness that I'd chosen this place above all others in the UK to go to. I'm going to go and show her the photos this afternoon and I know there will be many happy reminiscences and chuckles over very, very happy days!

So, off I went with Rich and spent a couple of fantastic days. We stayed at the Hurlestone B&B in Porlock, which is a great place. A beautiful house, gorgeous rooms and a breakfast to die for!!! If ever you go to Porlock and are wondering where to stay, try the Hurlestone B&B; it's the best I've ever stayed in, and I've stayed in quite a few over the years!! (http://www.hurlestonebandb.co.uk/).

In all the times I've been to Porlock, I'd never walked along the marsh. A SSSI, Porlock Marsh is a very strange but beautiful place.



With Bossington Hill on one side and Porlock Hill looming over you on the other, the twisted and bleached driftwood forest on the marsh is totally surreal. There is also a very touching memorial to remember the airmen who died in 1942 when their aircraft crashed onto the marsh after clipping Bossington Hill in poor weather. 11 men died and one survived. There is a small plaque on a stone that has been made from a piece of the wreckage, just a few words, but it leaves a big impression. I really hope someone remembers them on November 11th and that a few poppies are left with love at the memorial.

Heading west across the marsh takes you into Porlock Weir, a medieval harbour once used to export tonnes of oak logs, but now more used to the tinkling sound of wires slapping the masts of pleasure yachts moored up in the tiny but beautiful wee harbour. An equally pleasing sound is the hubbub of chatter and laughter and the chink of glasses coming from the thatched, 16th Century Ship Inn. It would have been very rude not to join in!!!

The next day saw us driving up the very dizzying heights of Porlock Hill and heading over the purple heather-clad Exmoor for a walk at Tarr Steps.



Although the bridge gets washed away every so often, the stones are all numbered and painstakingly put back in place for tourists to cross and wonder at this ancient, ancient clapper bridge. It is awesome. A word I use a lot, but it really is!!

Walking alongside the River Barle, we sauntered in to Withypool. A comfortable 4 mile walk through ancient woodland in Lorna Doone country! Lovely!! A pot of tea and a huge slice of delicious cake later, we thought about heading back to Tarr Steps.

It was a lovely walk, but was just back the way we'd come... looking across the road to the post office in Withypool, we saw a rubber dinghy blowing about in the breeze and inviting us to buy. It was soooo tempting!!!! How much fun would that be, to raft down the river to Tarr Steps in the dinghy!! It really was very, very tempting!!! My more sensible companion talked me out of it and so we set off on foot.... but it still makes me chuckle to think how much fun it would have been!! Daft? Yes! Wet? Most likely! Fun?.. absolutely!!!

We made it without incident back to Tarr steps and, suitably refreshed at the Tarr Farm Inn, we headed back across Exmoor to Lynton & Lynmouth.

No trip to Lynton & Lynmouth is complete without an ice cream with clotted cream on the top!!! And no ice cream is worthy of the name if it's not made from clotted cream and double cream!!!! Oh wow!!! You could cut our arteries up and serve them on a cheese board, but my word, how delicious was that!!! Mmmmm. Feeling ever so slightly sick but very happy, we set off back to Porlock... for dinner at the Top Ship!! Lol, and mmmmm again!!

Rebecca, x

rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
www.rtphotographics.co.uk