One hundred days? That’s over 14 weeks isn’t it? More than three months. How on earth did that happen?
I’m sure that you all know exactly how it happened so I won’t mention anything about lockdowns or viruses as we can get our fill of that on every news station that we tune in to. Suffice it to say though that we have now been down in the south west of England on the North Devon coast for 100 DAYS since our dramatic return from Tenerife.
This is without doubt the longest we have stayed anywhere since we walked away from our old lives over five years ago and could potentially have been a serious problem for us when the world started to close down and we found all of our plans collapsing. That we found such a wonderful place to live was down to Jo’s younger brother and his wife but mostly due to the kindest of their friends Rose and Jim. They offered to rent us a self-contained apartment in their house just outside Braunton for as long as we needed. Saved our lives to be honest.
As we are a little way from the town we are fairly isolated which suits everyone at the moment, and with only a weekly hike to Tesco our contact with the rest of the world has been minimal. Of course we see Jim and Rose every day plus Jim’s sister Wooe and her husband Rich who live next door, so it’s been reasonably social and when the weather has allowed we’ve shared fish’n chips in the garden and helped out with a few jobs.
Feels like we’ve been part of a big family and they have made us so welcome that it really does feel like a home from home.
Games and hobbies, hobbies and games
So what have we been doing for a hundred days? Seems like ages doesn’t it? Well we really haven’t had a minute when we have felt bored or isolated as we have thrown ourselves into so many hobbies and challenges. Reading, crafts, baking, games, blogging, exercise and of course walking have taken up most of our time. We made an early resolution to try not to switch on the TV until 7pm and we’ve stuck to that fairly well, except for rainy dull days when we’ve hit the armchairs a little earlier.
Walking our socks off
Including our May challenge when we decided to walk from here to Trafalgar Square, over 195 miles, we’ve done nearly 500 miles of hiking along the footpaths and bridleways of North Devon. Generally never seeing another soul but always quiet we’ve had some amazing days out.
- West Down Birthday Walk
- Scenes from our South West Coastal Walk
- The Croyde Bay Wednesday Walk
- Our Favourite Devon Walk to Heanton Punchardon
We can’t decide which one is our favourite walk as it changes every time but I think we would plump for the South West Coastal Walk because of the fabulous scenery and the fact that it stretches right along the clifftops and along the coast. Beautiful.
Hopefully we will get to do all of these wonderful hikes again in the next couple of weeks but currently the weather has other ideas and it is blowing a gale and bucketing down with rain once again. We got thoroughly spoilt with the sunny weather throughout May I reckon.
Staying in Braunton
We had absolutely no idea how long we were going to be staying here when we arrived which made Rose and Jims offer even more incredible. It might have been 2 weeks or it could have been 6 months but it now looks like it may well be somewhere in the middle as we are starting to make some plans for moving on.
We are so grateful to Rose and Jim, Wooe and Rich, for making us so welcome and opening up their home and garden for us to use as our own. We have felt so comfortable and happy here and have made some lifelong friends who we will definitely stay in touch with. In fact, I think we’re back later in the Autumn for a spot of housesitting.
It’s very tempting to say ‘here’s to the next 100 days‘ but I don’t think we shall be here a lot longer as we are beginning to make plans. We couldn’t have chosen a nicer location but we miss our nomadic lives and are itching to get those backpacks on again. We’ve loved our prolonged staycation down in Devon though and will never ever forget it.
30/06/2020
JWalking 
Wonderful post. You folks landed in a sweet spot! Cheers!
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It’s been fabulous, we were so lucky to find such friendly and welcoming people in such a beautiful location. Will be a shame to leave when the time comes.
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Sounds like the itchy feet are back in business xx
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Yep really starting to play up again. We need to start scratching those itches and soon!
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Someone upstairs is really looking out for the two of you – such a lovely spot to be locked down in!
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Not too bad is it? Been very lucky to have found such a great place and meet such lovely people.
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Isn’t it amazing how the days just seem to go by, with plenty to do to keep us all busy. It’s been nice to know you’ve had a safe haven all this time.
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We’ve been so lucky to find this lovely safe place and you’re so right about the days just seeming to drift by. It often feels a lot less than 100 days that we’ve spent here.
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What a moving post that was to read, the amazing kindness of such wonderful people, and your sincere gratitude. Amongst all the wonderful memories you’re creating from your vogabonding life, I think this one is almost sure to be the most heart warming and stand out of them all. Loved that gorgeous photo of Joanna walking down the lane.
We play sequence too.
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Thanks Chris, it’s been a wonderful stay and we’ll never forget the kindness and welcome that we have received here. Sequence is a great game isn’t it? Simple to play but addictive.
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Yes it is adictive. We hadnt played it in a while, but your mention of it has prompted some re-matches. Currently I’m getting beaten, but I’ll turn that around. Must be out of practice!
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It does take a few games to get back in the swing of things doesn’t it? The mixture of luck and skill makes it a really good game I think.
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Well, it would have been hard to find a more idyllic spot to hole up in for the lockdown Jonno. I hope that wherever your path leads you next is equally beautiful. It’s strange, but looking back, in some ways the weeks seem to have flown by!
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It’s been a great place to stay during the whole lockdown, so grateful to Rose and Jim for their kindness. I’m not sure we’ll find anywhere quite as nice for a while. The weeks do seem to have raced by though.
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There could certainly have been worse places to end up!
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Much much worse and we’ve been so lucky.
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You’re much more disciplined than I am about your TV watching – I have it on pretty much all day, but that’s not new to lockdown, it’s always been the case on days when I’m not working. I’m not necessarily watching it all day, I just tend to have it more as background noise when I’m reading or doing other things, which is probably a holdover from childhood, since my father always had the TV on, and I got used to reading with it playing in the background, but I will concede it’s not the healthiest habit!
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Not so bad if it’s just background noise, we always have the radio on so much the same. So easy to get dragged into watching daytime TV though isn’t it?
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Very much so, especially since Channel 5 started showing The Golden Girls during the day! I’m also a bit of a Food Network junkie…
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So easy to get distracted by daytime tv isn’t it? Not a huge cooking show fan although do like Man vs Food occasionally.
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I’m glad you found a place to live in these odd times! Cheers to new friends.
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We were unbelievably lucky to find such a lovely little place to rent and to meet such nice people. Not many things better than making new friends is there?
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No there is not. They make everything better.
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You definitely landed on your feet! And you’re right about the time never dragging, I’m always amazed how quickly the days pass.
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Some people seem to always be bored but we never run out of things to do. Different attitudes I guess.
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What a great spot and wonderful people to have around you in a tricky time. You made the most of it though – hats off to you 🙂
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We’ve tried to make the most of it, and hopefully if the weather improves a bit now we can get back to the outside life. It’s a lovely part of the world and our hosts Rose and Jim are so good.
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A priceless gift.
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It certainly is and one we won’t forget in a hurry.
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We’re rural, so the lockdown and social distancing measures were quite easy for us to adopt, but I can’t believe it’s been three months. Crazy.
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Much easier if you live a quiet rural life I guess but you’re right that the three months seems to have flown by now.
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The kindness of strangers Jon. What a fabulous and generous offer from Rose and Jim. Still time to get moving mate. We can’t be having you putting down roots.
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No worries there, won’t be putting down any roots for a while and wouldn’t be down here. Rose and Jim have been amazingly welcoming, couldn’t have managed without them.
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Lovely reflective post Jon. You couldn’t have wished for a better location, especially one that is so suited to your love of walking/hiking. Good luck to you both with your next adventure. I look forward to reading all about it. Take care and keep safe.
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Thanks so much LIz. It’s been a wonderful stay down here, we were so lucky to find it and will forever be grateful to our hosts Rose and Jim for their kindness. Shame the weather has turned but still enjoying North Devon.
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