Yesterday we visited the Babbacombe Model Village and then a little trip into Torquay for a walk on the promenade etc. We felt that we spent the majority of the day in the car so decided that today we needed to find a nice sandy beach…

A web search pointed out that the majority of beaches are NOT dog friendly but we found that there are three beaches at Lyme Regis and that two of the, are dog friendly – result.

So, once we managed to raise the Rusty boys from their associated pits, we head out there. It took about 20 minutes to get the and THEN we spent just under one hour trying to find somewhere to park Penny – in a funny way this suggested that we had struck gold with the location. We parked about a mile out of the town and walked down a lovely little lane alongside a brook and found the town centre and then ultimately the beaches. The two beaches at the town were both not dog friendly, one was shingle and the other a lovely sandy beach – it was 11:30 am and the sandy beach was chokka – no room for us even without the hound,, we head around past the harbour to find the dog friendly beach…. it wasn’t sandy or shingles – it was a rocky beach 🙁 To rally top it off, it stank of rotting seaweed – winner, winner chicken dinner – we were all delighted.

Lunch was consumed on the beach and we all agreed that it was time to leave. A shame because the sun had come out and the temperature had risen to a lovely 26C.

So, back to the car with all the gear and ultimately to the cottage to play cricket in the garden (after bathing Hugo in the garden).

Tomorrow is about Beaulieu as the weather does not look quite as nice and possibly a trip to Smyths toys on the way 👍

We are about to research beaches again to see if we can find anything in Devon or Cornwall that isa) sandy and b) accepts hounds… wish us luck…

So, we have enjoyed a weekday break this last week at the Sherwood Forrest Center Parcs (lots of swimming and scootering around) and then first thing on Saturday morning, we packed the car and headed down to Dalwood in Devon. A 4.5 hour journey ended up taking nearly 7 hours due to two pit stops and around 1.5hr delay around Bristol on the M5. The sun was shining all the same and when we arrived, we were greeted by the most beautiful country cottage – we are staying here for a whole week.

Sadly, poor Olly has been coming down with something since Thursday with a raging fever etc, so given it was not easing we ended up seeing a local doctor last night for her to confirm that he has Laryngitis and that it will subside in the next couple of days and that the fevers should reduce over the next 48 hours or so. In fairness, they have just 24 hours later, although he has all but lost his voice and his hunger has slowed a little – we have relaxed in the cottage games room all afternoon following an fantastic Sunday lunch at the local pub – the Tuckers Arms. We were actually saying that it is perhaps the best Sunday lunch we have had anywhere, ever. Period. Wow – a big statement that one…

The rain fell this afternoon while we were in the games room watching Airwolf (the TV series) and Deadpool the movie – highly inappropriate for the boys so no solid daddy points scored today.

Swift walk for Hugo in the drizzle this evening before PJ’s and family board games to finish the day up.

Tomorrow looks set for a trip to Babbacombe to see the model village and get our first Devon beach walk for puggle – oh and apparently we are in need of searching out a toy shop…. Not sure about that one…