Each year for our wedding anniversary I try to get Eric a gift that we can do together. Of course I follow the ‘traditional gift giving list’ based on the length of our anniversary, but I try to incorporate an activity as well. This year it was ‘leather.’
Since we’ve arrived in the UK , most of the weekends that we have travelled have been to destinations outside of the country. And, of course, all of our friends here (besides making fun of us for ‘ticking the countries off of our list’) whine about us not seeing more of beautiful England. Therefore, I decided to do a little research on some English ‘city-breaks’ and ended up booking a ‘glamping’ or ‘posh-camping’ experience in a Mongolian yurt in Devon and enclosing a picture in a leather wallet to make sure the ‘leather’ theme was fulfilled.
As most of you know our anniversary is in July, but the first weekend that was available for both the yurt and ourselves was this weekend in October. The weather would be iffy, but I knew we would just roll with it (as we generally do.)
Friday night, we took the train from Paddington down to the Tiverton Parkway station in Devon. The journey took a little over 2.5 hours which (to be far) is a bit long for quite a few Brits. When they hear we were only going that far by train for only about 2 days, many were shocked. We were met by Greg-Peter (whose moniker I will explain later) the owner of Halsbeer Farm where the Blackdown Yurts are located. An ex-City businessman, Greg-Peter or GP for short in this blog moved down to Devon 8 years ago to retire in peace and enjoy the great outdoors. He and his wife Jas constructed the yurts only 2 years ago after their ‘alternative’ daughter lived in one for some time and suggested the idea for guests of the farm as a potential business. Check out the farm and how the yurts are made.
We arrived at the farm and were given a tour. It was extremely dark so flashlights and headlamps were necessary. From what we could tell, the farm consisted of two yurts at the base of a hill each with a cook shed and outhouse type thing, our secluded yurt at the top of the hill, a ‘farmhouse’ kitchen (which I explain in a sec) with a shower area next door. The farmhouse kitchen was basically a big room with a table for 8, some plastic tubs full of plates, cutlery etc., a sink, a fridge that contained a loaf of bread, butter, milk and a bottle of wine for each yurt (along with some frozen homemade meals), a toaster and coffee maker, and a few couches for lounging. If you have a big group this is the gathering place for meals or hanging out (especially if it’s raining).
We dropped our stuff in the yurt after navigating our way up there with GP and he was kind enough to start a fire for us city folks in the wood burning stove. There is only 1 small light in the yurt by the door. The rest of the light is supplied via the skylight type thing in the top of the yurt along with many little tea lights (Fun Fact: Eric is obsessed with tea lights, go figure!). Inside the yurt is a wood burning stove in the middle, 2 single beds, a trunk, a dresser, and a queen size bed. Quite spacious! As GP was leaving, Eric and I simultaneously said, ‘Bye Greg’ ‘Bye Peter.’ Luckily he was a bit deaf, like me, so he didn’t hear that I called him the wrong name.
By this time it was around 9:45 and we were starving. We made our way in the dark down to the farmhouse kitchen where we helped ourselves to one of the homemade meals – Chicken Chili Casserole and deposited £6 in the honesty jar. As a side dish, we decided to cook up some toast and butter as well. All of this we hauled back up to our yurt.In our little yurt kitchen, we heated up the oven and put the casserole in it (mind you it was frozen so we knew it was going to take awhile). So for an appetizer, we decided to cook some toast in a pan. It was in the little yurt kitchen when I saw my first spider. Then I looked a bit closer around the yurt kitchen and only then did I notice that they were everywhere. All shapes, all colours, all sizes. I supervised the toast making from outside the little shed.
After about an hour, the casserole was ready to eat so we took it inside the yurt and ate by candlelight in the dark, washing the lukewarm, somewhat bland, boney slop liquid down with a bottle of red that we had brought. Shortly thereafter, Eric helped me heat some water to wash my face, we brushed our teeth outside with some of the spring water and took a group trip to the outdoor toilet. Everything seemed to take just a tad bit longer. The fire was stoked, the tea lights flickered out and Eric and I settled into the comfy warmth of the yurt bed.
On Saturday morning we were awakened by some rather loud ‘moos.’ Mating season? The yurt sits opposite a meadow which is home to many cows. It was a nice way to wake up actually and vastly different from the sirens which usually wake us. The view over the rolling hills of the farm was beautiful. The sun was peeking through the clouds and a light mist blanketed the grass. It was nice to breathe some fresh, clean air for once without the risk of black soot coming out in a tissue later on.
When I headed back into the yurt was when the experience went from exciting and unique to suspect and uncomfortable. I was gathering my stuff for the day, I noticed some big cobwebs up near the skylight. When I looked closer, I then noticed the gigantic brown spiders that inhabited those webs and the little mini spiders surrounding them. Anyone that knows me, knows that I hate spiders. Luckily, we were scheduled to be picked up around 9:45 to make it down to Haldon Forest in Exeter for an appointment at Go Ape! Unfortunately I didn’t have any more time to inspect the yurt. That would come later...After a breakfast of toast and coffee in the farmhouse kitchen we headed off to Exeter with a paedophiliac-looking man who was desperate for a chat. About 40 minutes later we arrived at Go Ape, had the safety briefing and were off on our own to enjoy the high ropes course/obstacle course challenge. The experience was fantastic; it was a combination of physical exertion and the thrill of being so high up. I actually preferred it to our zipline canopy adventure in Costa Rica on our honeymoon!
We spent the remainder of the afternoon on the walking trails in the forest until our paedo driver arrived to take us back to the farm. Again, he was up for chatting so did so mostly uninterrupted for the entire trip back. It was then that we learned he drove little kids to school...ewww!
Upon arrival back to the farm, we met up with Nigel from Abbottshood Cycle Hire who was nice enough to drop off two mountain bikes for us. They were super cheap and they were the nicest people to deal with. Before we headed off for a ride, we found Jaz and asked about the little local shop that they had encouraged us to buy goods from for our meals. At this time it was about 5 and unfortunately we learned that the shop closed at 3. Boo, we really didn’t want to eat another frozen meal, and I had my heart set on steak! Jaz did say that there was a Tesco about 4 miles away, but it was getting dark, we had no helmets, reflectors or lights so we had to peddle fast! (And did I mention that the farm was really hard to get to and there are no street signs?) There was a pretty strong chance that we were going to get lost, and definitely in the dark.
Off we went. On the menu for the evening and the next morning were: filets, asparagus, jacket potatoes (Brit term for baked potatoes because, one guess. They’re wearing jackets! Aww, how cute), a dark chocolate bar, eggs and Quorn (vegetarian) sausage (which was rank!). We cycled back furiously (and it was hilly!) and made it back to the farm before sundown. Soon after it got dark and that was when the fun began.
The groceries were lugged up to the yurt and Eric and I decided that we wanted to shower before making dinner since the showers were kind of a hike. That was an experience. There were no lights down in the shower area so Eric took a lantern with about 5 tea lights in it so that we could see what was happening. It was also really cold out so we were looking forward to warming up a bit. We got down to the shower and realized it would be best to exercise a little team work especially since the shower would go from cool to scalding in about 20 seconds so there was a brief window in which to shampoo, lather and rinse and then dry off with a kitchen towel (lame) and put clothes on quickly before you froze. (Mom, sound fun?!)
After the shower adventure, we headed back to the yurt to start our meal. Eric worked on stoking the fire in the yurt (which took about 20 minutes to light and actually stay lit) and I inspected the yurt for spiders and was so unhappy. There were hundreds and they were quite literally everywhere. Inside, outside, multiple on a web, black ones, clear ones, brown ones, hard-backed ones (yeah, exactly what is a hardback spider! They exist in Devon!!!) Poor Eric was doing all of the work while I just sat there and was miserable.
A charcoal grill was available outside our yurt so we set to work lighting that with the charcoal they provided that was supposedly ‘Express Light.’ Once he got the fire going, he tried to light the charcoals with little success. He then resorted to lighting a piece of kindling and transferring the smoldering wood via the dust pan. He was able to get some heat into the bottom of the grill and while he went to see if the other group had any lighter fluid I was tasked to ‘stop looking for spiders’ and start blowing the charcoals to try to get the others lit.
Eric came back just in time as I was nearly asphyxiating. He took over blowing and had an ingenious idea to fan the coals with the dust pan!! Brilliant! After 40 minutes we had some hot charcoals on which to grill our (what would end up being) delicious filets! It was a pretty laborious dinner but once it was finished, we ended up sitting at the picnic table outside of the yurt wrapped in blankets, enjoying our food by candlelight (around 11 p.m.).
As much as I dreaded bed, I was exhausted from a full day in the great outdoors so we got ready for bed. Before bed, while Eric was building the fire to last for a few hours, I made sure to inspect the sheets, pillows, blankets and areas around the bed for any spiders dead or alive. Success. Found 1 dead on the sheepwool rug at the foot of the bed. And yes, it was a big one. I crawled into bed with about 3 layers of clothing on and wool rag socks. It was so hot in our yurt, but there was no way I was sleeping with any part of my body below my neck exposed. A spider might get me!
I thought I would get a little sleep, but I was so concerned that the spiders were going to drop down on a string and land on our faces (which is totally justified considering I have had a cockroach in my hair before as I slept!). So, I watched all night from about midnight to 6 in the morning those spiders scurry back and forth and back and forth. Eric was in charge of the tea light vigil we had going so I made sure that throughout the night when it went out, that he would re-light it. And, Eric didn’t seem the least bit grateful, but around 4 in the morning because of that tea light and because of my watchful eye, I stopped one from dropping down on his forehead.
Those 24 hours were the longest and most miserable I think I have ever experienced. I was never more grateful to see the dawn than I was on that Sunday morning.
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| You can't see the spiders, but they're there!! |
We had a bike ride planned, but decided to take a wet walk into town to see the village of Kentisbeare and visit the illusive local shop. The walk took about a half hour on the mud and rain covered roads. The village itself was really small, but quaint and the village shop can be equated to a small bodega. But, of course, we wanted to support the locals so we bought some Apple Cider (which I just saw in my local Tesco), some Devon potato chips and some chutney. After a brief stop in the church graveyard, we headed back to the farm and visited the holiday cottages that are also on the farm grounds. We then stopped into the farmhouse and chatted briefly with Greg-Peter, Jaz and their friends. They were beginning to break down the yurts for the season, so they had their friends there to help.
GP was nice enough to drive us back to the train station where we caught the train back to London. Crawling into my own bed that night never felt so good.
Some pictures from the weekend: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=862701088703%3A2060485709
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