Aaron's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘bickleigh mill’

Over the final Bank Holiday weekend in May, we stayed at a Lodge just outside of Tiverton. It was basically Kelly’s birthday present. The lodge was on a farm and was part of 3 other buildings that were rented out but we were on the end next to a large field with sheep and a pond. The farm also had a proper tennis court and a games room, so it was very nice really. The only problem that we had was that our Lodge didn’t look to have been cleaned down on the outside as it was covered in massive spiders webs and there were quite a few cobwebs in the corners of the rooms inside. Oh and the sheep woke us up at 4am each morning by ‘baa..ing’ extremely loudly! 😉 There was free wi-fi though, even though it was quite sketchy and kept cutting in and out.  We had a good weekend there though and visited several places. 

On the Saturday, we went into Tiverton and had dinner at a Wetherspoons before having a walk alongside the neighbouring river before heading to Wimbleball Lake, which was on Exmoor. The weather wasn’t great unfortunately but was dry enough for us to have an ice cream and go for a walk along the lakeside path. Ben managed to get stung along the way though so wasn’t very happy and Coby was moaning as he didn’t want to walk. So the usual then really! On the way back to the car, we had a look at the campsite and the boys had a play in the outdoor wooden play area for a little while, before we headed home. It had come out really hot in the evening, especially as we were trying to play Tennis, and then we started to hear the rumbling of thunder in the distance (which had been forecast). Typically, the thunder and lightning started as the boys went to bed, although Ben, who was in his own room, came out to watch it with me as he was a little worried being on his own. Aaron and Coby managed to sleep through most of it though. It didn’t last too long and Ben went back to bed, although it did come back a bit again in the night.

On the Sunday, we didn’t really know what to do as the weather was quite iffy and rained each morning, but we eventually decided to go swimming in Tiverton. It was a nice pool and the boys all enjoyed it there. We then ended up at Bickleigh Mill, just outside of Tiverton and had a look in there and had an ice cream. The weather was quite hot and sunny by now, which was typical! At the same place was the Devon Railway Centre, which is where we had hoped to go before we woke up to rain that day. The boys really wanted to go in but it was way too late for that so we decided that we would go there on the Monday instead, even though we had planned to go home in the morning. After leaving here, we stopped off at the Great Western Canal (as it was on the way back to the lodge) and had a very short walk along the canal and the boys played in a brand new play area there, before driving home for tea again. We did some packing in the evening and we all went to play Tennis again and the boys in the games room before heading to bed. Luckily, there was no thunder or lightning that night!

On the Monday, we had to be out by 10am but for some annoying reason, the owner came over to us at about 930am and asked if the cleaner could go in and strip the bed as ‘they wanted to get them washed and dried in the nice weather’. We weren’t very impressed by that but couldn’t really say no. So we eventually left at 10am, after making sure we had picked everything up, and drove to the Devon Railway Centre and spent the majority of the day there. It was boiling hot with not a cloud in the sky, so the weather was too perfect really! The place was really nice and we had lots of rides on the steam and electric trains and the boys had a good play in the soft play area. They also had a model village and a nice picnic area where we had our sandwiches for dinner. They had lots of little model railways in an old train carriage, which was great, but so hot in there due to the weather! We had to make sure we put plenty of sun tan lotion on all day! Whilst we were having our picnic, Ben got bitten by a horse fly, so he was in tears again. Luckily, Kelly has some cream on her to put on it. On our way out, we stopped in the shop and the boys bought something each with their money. It took ages for Aaron to decide, but he eventually settled on something! We then got back in the car and drove home.

We all had had a nice weekend and enjoyed the quietness of the lodge (apart from the sheep and thunder) and went to some nice places. The lodge was OK, although it had lots of cobwebs outdoors and a few indoors, and the farm was nice with the tennis court and games rooms. It was a shame that the owners were a bit strange though!