After four days in Cornwall we headed out, sad to leave but certain that we’d be back.  It was just too beautiful a place for us to stay away for long!  I considered staging a protest and refusing to leave – ever – but I did want to see the rest of the places we had planned, so I decided to be a big girl and stick to the road trip schedule.  Our next stop was a quick overnight to break up what would have otherwise been a long drive, but it ended up being a blast.

On our way out of Cornwall, we made one final stop: Tintagel.  Tintagel is famous as the birthplace of King Arthur, who… I hate to break this to you guys, I really do… probably didn’t exist.  (The legendary King Arthur is probably an amalgamation of regional kings, one of whom was indeed born at Tintagel.)  Tintagel was pretty cool.  The “castle” was mostly a pile of rubble, but the cove was beautiful, with more dramatic rock formations and bottle green water.  We scrambled down into the cove and spent about half an hour picking our way around the beach and exploring Merlin’s cave (the dark opening just above the water line in the pic above).

We set up camp for the night in Lynton, a lovely town on the north Devon coast.  Hubby chose this stop because it was just a few hours’ drive from Cornwall and made for a good in-between stop before our next destination.  I didn’t know anything about the town and had no idea what to expect, but I was charmed.

The town was not deserted by any stretch of the imagination.  There were a number of British families vacationing there, even in October, enjoying the peace and the natural beauty of Devon.  We stopped for sandwiches (I had cheese and pickle – so good) and tea at a small cafe, then wandered up and down the main drag, snapping pictures of the lovely Victorian-style buildings and the clear blue sky.

Lynton perches atop a steep hill – more of a cliff, really – overlooking the north Devon coast, and nestled into the base of the hill is its sister town, Lynmouth.  There is an extremely steep path with about a half dozen switchbacks leading from Lynton to Lynmouth (the path is part of the famous South West Coast Path we’ve already explored) so hubby and I decided to head on down and check out the beach and the town.

Here are more boats sitting on the sand in a drained harbor.  At this point we were starting to think that beached fishing boats were some kind of recurring theme of our trip.  Obviously we had to take more pictures.

Lynmouth was just as charming and adorable as Lynton, and we had a fabulous afternoon wandering around and looking into the shops.

The steep path isn’t the only way to get back up to Lynton from Lynmouth – there’s also the famous Lynton-Lymouth Cliff Railway, which runs straight up; I mean it, it’s practically vertical.  Hubby and I briefly debated taking the railway up, for the experience, but decided that we’d rather have the exercise and so we walked up the path.  Part of the path includes bridges that you can hang out on and watch the cliff railway from, so we took a few stops to catch our breath and watch the train go up and down.

When we got back, we were clearly starving after having burned a multitude of calories hiking pretty much straight up.  Our B&Ber recommended a tapas restaurant nearby, so we hit it up and enjoyed a fantastic Spanish meal with some wonderful fruity red wine.  For dessert we decided to try leche frita, a fried custard dish that we’d never had before, and this conversation ensued:

Waitress: “How is your dessert?”
Me: “Delicious, thank you!”
Hubby: “It reminds me of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”
Waitress: “What is Cinnamon Toast Crunch?”
Hubby: “It’s this cereal I have at home.  It’s baked rice and wheat squares coated in cinnamon and sugar.”
Waitress (enthralled): “That sounds lovely!”
Hubby (solemn): “It is lovely.”
Me: “It’s a children’s cereal.”

If looks could kill… I’d have died twice, because hubby and the waitress gave me identical poisonous glares.  Okay, okay, I’m the weirdo who doesn’t like cereal.  SORRY!  The leche frita was fabulous, though.  As was the entire meal.

The next morning, we headed out early.  We had a full day ahead of us, but we couldn’t leave Lynton without checking out one of the main attractions of the area: the Valley of Rocks.  This is a spectacular natural area within Exmoor National Park, and it’s less than a five minute drive from the center of town.  Hubby and I headed there and spent a blissful half hour or so poking around and watching the play of early morning sunlight on the rocks and the water – so beautiful.

For a quick overnight stop, Lynton more than delivered its share of charm and beauty!  Stop by next Friday for the next installment in our road trip of a lifetime.