It was not dull in the boring sense of the word, but dull as in the weather sense of the word as you will see from the photos on this entry.
The town? Dul (l)verton!!
No, definitely not dull by nature! The drive over was beautiful.
I have driven there from Lynton once (which was spectacular, coming over Exmoor) but I have never approached it from this direction before.
The drive from here was equally beautiful through the Exe Valley. I turned off the A361 and was immediately in stunning countryside and within minutes had already seen my first lambs of the year! I used to love lambing time at Lee Abbey which had its own farm.
I knew what I was going to Dulverton for. A tearoom!
I had visited this tearoom previously and have, for a while looked forward to visiting it again. Before I went there though I took a wander around the town, which is the gateway to Exmoor and took a few pics on my phone. Here are a few of them:
This was taken near the river Barle which runs through the town.
Below are a few photos I took as I walked a short path along the river
It was not long before I was hungry! I stopped off at a lovely gift shop, come newsagent, come cafe' to get a newspaper and then headed for the tearooms that I remember Dulverton for! Here is a link to their website if you want to read all about them: Lewis's Tearoom, Dulverton
I went there several times with friends from Lee Abbey and always enjoyed the wonderful homemade cream teas and cakes that they serve, but this time I fancied something savoury and decided upon one of their speciality rarebits. I wish that I had taken a photo of it, but I was not able to.
I had Somerset Cheddar with Somerset Cider rarebit, served on homemade, granary toasted bread, with a lovely rocket and tomato salad and a selection of local chutneys. I am not normally one for chutneys, but these (caramelised onion, sweet chilli pepper and sweet red cabbage) were fantastic and really complimented the rarebit (rarebit consists of toasted bread topped with a cheese sauce typically made from cheddar cheese, porter or other dark beer or ale or cider and cream. Cooks add the sauce after toasting the bread and often place it on top of sliced tomatoes on the toasted bread) I had a nice cafetiere of coffee to wash it all down! The selection of homemade cakes was as always, very large and very tempting, but I resisted on this occasion!
I spent a peaceful lunch time there, savouring the food and the log burner which I sat next to, along with a good number of other diners.
Talking of log burners, there was lots of log burning going on in the homes of Dulverton today. As I got out of the car, in the Guildhall car park, by the river, I was greeted by the distinctive smell of log fires and saw lots of plumes of smoke coming out of peoples chimneys!
After lunch I continued walking around the town. I have not really explored it before, so today was a good chance to. Here are a few more photos:
This is the town hall.
The sign post says Lynton - 24 miles! Had I not been limited for time, I might well have been tempted to visit this lovely town, my home for 6 years, previous to moving to Somerset!
After an hour or so strolling around the town I headed home as I needed to be back to head out again this evening over to Costa Coffee in Bridgwater where I enjoyed some live music (covering Michael Jackson, Cold Play and all sorts of other music), but that's a different subject altogether, so I will not write about it here!
The drive back from Dulverton through the Exe Valley was equally as lovely on the way back and the motorway was fairly clear and fast.
All in all, a lovely afternoon out in a beautiful 'chocolate box' town.
I can't believe how quickly 'E' has come round! See you next time!
