On to our last stop over

We’re going to a party!

We sleep really well in the Nautical room at the Ranscombe House Hotel. I make a couple of cups of tea to wake us up, we shower and get ready for breakfast. I forgot to mention the shower yesterday, it’s a bit of a challenge… nothing wrong with the shower itself. But the shower curtain that hangs over the bath and wraps around is a little close fitting, and as you shower you are battling with it, as it sticks to your wet body and wraps itself tightly around you.. it is most amusing and adds to the fun.

The owner is staggering breakfasts for his guests to enable better social distancing, we chose the 08:00 slot. We make our way down to the dining room and make ourselves known to the owner, who is also chef this morning. The owner’s name is “Pip” and featured on Channel 4’s ‘Four in a Bed’ and ultimately won the series. We are given some instruction how to use the rather large modern looking touch screen coffee machine by the waitress who we assume is his daughter. We only need hot water for our tea so a simple touch of the screen fills our cups. Earl Grey for me, English Breakfast tea for Kate.

The owner tells us he has both Oat milk and Soya milk and asks Kate which one she’d like. Kate confuses him and asks for both. “In the same jug?” he asks with a quizzical look on his face. Kate explains – Soya milk for her tea, Oat milk for cereal. He nods and goes back into the kitchen.

We sit at a table next to some French doors leading onto a balcony and down to the garden. The waitress brings Kate’s two jugs of milk and takes our order… two vegan breakfasts please.

This hotel really is lovely, the dining room is spacious and there is a very comfortable looking sitting room next to it overlooking the large garden.

We take advantage of the continental breakfast from the counter, helping ourselves to fruit, fruit juices, cereals, etc. The waitress brings over three slices of toast along with non dairy spread.

The cooked breakfast soon follows. This is by far the best breakfast we have had – Vegan Full English with 2x Linda McCartney sausages, Beans, Hash Brown, Mushrooms and Grilled Fresh Tomatoes. The waitress also keeps the toast coming. A perfect start to our day as we have a long ride ahead of us into Dorset today.

We clear our plates, demolish the toast – there was even Marmite for me – and finish our tea. We thank the owner and tell him that his was the best breakfast even better than the Jamaica Inn. He is more than happy he outdid the Jamaica Inn…

We would definitely stay here again.

The weather isn’t looking great today, it is quite overcast and damp this morning. We load the bikes and get our gear on and leave Brixham for Dorset.

Kate has been a little jealous of me in my Knox Jeans and Knox Urbane Pro mesh shirt for the past couple of days in the hot weather, but her Triumph Navigator adventure gear (waterproof, windproof and breathable) is definitely the gear to be wearing this morning.

I had plotted a run right around the coast of Torbay towards Dorchester through some areas of outstanding natural beauty. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated so we could not enjoy the little seaside towns.

It was also the weekend of the Devon Country Fair so the route was quite busy, and the roads had been cordoned off for the traffic heading to the fair.

As we headed into East Devon the weather really drew in, the low cloud was incredibly thick and made riding a bit hairy. As we climbed and then descended the hills the cloud\fog got thicker and thicker. We had to be particularly wary and defensive riding was needed. This kind of riding is very tiring, luckily I had planned a stop in Sidmouth, a visit to The Donkey Sanctuary.

I was actually looking forward to this stop to take a break and see the rescued donkeys. Unfortunately visibility was so bad we rode right past it. Kate suggested doing a U-Turn and going back but I was so keen to get out of the poor weather I decided to give the donkeys a miss and carry on.

Just before Axminster – yes, the place the carpets come from – we picked up the A35. We follow this pretty much all the way to Dorchester.

I’m starting feel a little uncomfortable and tired so decide to look for somewhere to to take a break. We eventually come across Bridport Rest Area on the A35 so we pull in for a comfort break. They have toilets a little cafe and shop with picnic tables. It’s a popular stop over for caravanners.

We stretch our legs, have a drink and I feel much better. We continue our journey east and as we do the weather starts to pick up which always makes us feel better.

We turn north just before Dorchester and eventually take a detour onto a fabulous road which becomes the B3143. We follow this road through some lovely Dorset countryside and little villages with thatched cottages, very pretty. We leave this road and join another lovely unmarked single track road for many miles which brings us into Sturminster Newton.

After this mornings challenging ride in heavy cloud and rain this road through Dorset villages in the sun is an absolute joy to ride. It is relatively devoid of other traffic too. I am always amazed how “planted” my 1200 Scrambler is. It has excellent road holding for such a tall, off road styled bike. I think Kate enjoyed this part of our journey too.

We are staying at a B’n’B called Newton House which is opposite the old water mill on the edge of the town. As we ride in passed the mill we look for the B’n’B but we cannot see it.

It doesn’t matter yet as we are visiting Kate’s cousin Mandy’s first. It is her husbands 65th birthday and retirement party today. Hence the South West road trip plotted to end up here for the party, and so Kate can see her Aunty Josie who is 92.

There is quite a gathering, and two excited boys – Mandy’s grand children – waiting to see the bikes.

We pull onto the drive and a couple of small faces appear at the front window when they hear the bikes…

Everyone comes out to meet us and we are glad to be here.

The boys are a little shy and stay close to the people they know, they’ll get used to us I’m sure and will want to take a closer look at the bikes. It’s better that they are holding back as the exhausts are very hot. My high level exhaust is a little too prominent and they could easily burn their little hands on it.

We go inside and meet everyone. There is quite a gathering of Kate’s southern relatives. There is Kate’s Aunty Josie, her two children Keith & Mandy and her husband Alan who’s birthday and retirement party it is. Two of Mandy and Alan’s children William and Eloisa, her husband Al and their children – the two young boys Woody and Dougie and their gorgeous 1 year old daughter Finny, she has the most amazing eyes. It isn’t long before I’m cuddling Finny… she’s a little unsure to start with but quickly comes around.

I don’t think we have seen Eloisa since she was Kate’s bridesmaid 32 years ago… now she has children of her own.

Mandy has prepared a lovely looking lunch for us, and it isn’t long before it is all eaten. I am holding Finny and feeding her some vegan cake Mandy has made specially, but Finny thinks it is better for smearing on my white T-shirt than eating…

The boys have got used to us now, and as the bikes have had time to cool down, we go out the front to let them see the bikes. They enjoy climbing on and off them, swapping between mine and Kate’s.

They are quite excited about the bikes until we start them up and then the noise is a little too much for them and they cover their ears.

It’s time for us to go and find the B’n’B so Kate gives the owner a quick ring to find out exactly where it is. She gets instructions so we head off through the little market town back to the road we came in on. We ride slowly past the water mill looking for a sign for Newton House but we cannot see the B’n’B anywhere.

We pull up and Kate makes another call. This time the owners daughter answers. There is no sign because her Mum doesn’t want one outside the house… how are people supposed to find it? It looks like all of the other large old houses in the town. The daughter says she will open the gate and meet us on the front.

We spin around and ride back to see her waving outside of one the houses we have driven past a few times already. We pull along the long drive into a large garden with gravel parking.

The owner, Margie, meets us along with an elderly wiry haired terrier called Truffle who is super friendly and fussy. They also have a young Newfoundland called Gracey who has had a major operation after tearing a ligament. She needs to be kept quiet and not excited.

The house is very old, mainly Georgian, but parts of it date back to the 16th century. Margie leads us through the house to our room. The house smells very strongly of dog… if you are not an animal person you would probably find it overpowering, but we are dog lovers so forgive them.

The owners must be in their 80’s\90’s and of another time, the house is filled with a great deal of old furniture from many decades, along with many unusual trinkets. It is almost as though time suddenly stopped in the house in the seventies after years of being a family home. I imagine it was an amazing house to grow up in as a child with it’s many rooms and olde world style and large garden.

We are shown upstairs to the Garden Room. There are two steps just inside the door to the bedroom up into the room itself through a short but narrow entry and I have to duck to avoid banging my head. The room is large with heavy oak beams which look like they were once part of a great old sailing ship from the 15th century. The room has a large bed and a number of pieces of, shall we say “period”, furniture. It does over look the large lovely garden. We later realise we are under the older thatched part of the house.

There is no ensuite, but we do have access to our own bathroom on the large landing just outside the bedroom door. We are slightly gob-smacked, as this is one of the most expensive places we have stayed in on this trip but the amenities are a little “wanting”. There is no lock on the bathroom door, just a small “hook and eye” in the top corner. This is the same on the bedroom door. There isn’t even a kettle or tea and coffee in the room just a carafe of water and a couple of glasses.

I plug the intercoms in to charge in two of the plugs in opposite corners of the bedroom. On both occasions as I bend down my face breaks through cobwebs… I do not mention this to Kate.

We unload the bikes and decide to shower and change before walking back through “Stur” to re-join the celebrations at Mandy and Alan’s.

The shower is over the bath, except it isn’t. It is attached to a very nice brass vintage tap set but there is no hanger on the wall for it, so showering means holding the shower head in one hand whilst washing with the other.

After freshening up and changing we wander downstairs. We are met by Charles, Margie’s husband, he offers to run us back to the party, we thank him for his kind offer but decline saying we are looking forward to the walk through the town.

Margie appears and asked what she can feed us for breakfast “I don’t know what I can give you to eat, can you eat eggs?” er no… “are you Ok with bread?” yes, we can eat bread, “can you eat tomatoes?” yes, we can eat tomatoes, “even if they are roasted in oil?” yes that would be fine. So it looks like we are having homegrown roasted tomatoes on toast for breakfast. I say that she doesn’t have to go to any trouble and we’ll get breakfast from the local bakery on our way out in the morning. Kate does not pick up on my suggestion to avoid breakfast and continues to run through food we can eat with Margie!

Margie asks if we are going to be late back after the party, we say “no, we won’t be late, 10:00 o’clock at the latest, probably much earlier”. Margie seems happy with this news.

We leave the family in peace and walk back up to Mandy and Alan’s. It doesn’t take too long and the walk is quite pleasant past the old mill and through the old market town.

On the way we concoct a cunning plan to avoid breakfast at the B’n’B. We will say that we were unaware that a large family breakfast has been arranged at Kate’s Aunty Josie’s to see us off on our way back to Nottingham so we need to leave quite early to be a part of it.

Everybody is still at Mandy’s house, and as I walk into the kitchen Al plonks Finny in my arms. She has her pyjamas on after having her bath. We take a stroll around the back garden watching the boys chasing each other.

It is really nice sitting in the garden relaxing and chatting whilst the boys race around the garden with their Dad and their Uncle Keith… Keith does seem to be the main focus of their attention, playing the “smelly sock game” and swapping noses 🙂

We stay for a couple of hours and the kids go to bed after their supper. Before they go to bed I double check they have the right noses on.

We take our leave and scrounge a lift off Keith who is running his Mum (Kate’s Aunty Josie) home as he is staying there tonight. We thank Keith for the lift, arrange to return tomorrow for a cup of tea as we are leaving, and to say cheerio. We walk the rest of the way back to the B’n’B. We go in the back door and poor old Gracey is in her cage with blankets over her. We creep past her in the hope of not exciting her.

Margie greets us and we tell her about the “large family breakfast” that is planned… we thank her and go up to our room. as we are going up Margie warns us that Gracey may start “singing” in the early hours. That’s fine , we’re used to dogs and their peculiar ways.

As I said earlier we are missing a few of the usual amenities that we have enjoyed at other B’n’B’s, it is quite literally “Bed” and “Breakfast” and nothing more. There is no Wi-Fi and no TV in the room, we can’t even make a cup of tea. So we sit and read, and chat until it’s time to go to bed. I have to say the bed is clean and looks very comfortable.

Today we covered 106 miles from Brixham to Sturminster Newton, some of it a bit of a chore, some of it enjoyable.