Update Tuesday 7th April

Well, folks, this holiday seems to have been blighted from the start! Our trip from North to South Devon was fairly uneventful after a little retail therapy and we arrived in Hope Cove at 3:15 to meet up with Mike, Jean, Carol and Rebecca, Kevin's family. They were just having a sandwich for which they had been kept waiting for 45minutes due to the large numbe if holidaymakers who thronged to this beautiful cove on a hot, sunny Bank Holiday Monday. Once they had eaten we went back to the hotel to unload the luggage, shower and chill out until deciding where to eat come supper time. At 6pm a vote was taken and my choice of staying in the hotel to eat was outvoted in favour of walking back down to the beach to eat in the pub, which did have a marvellous sea view. We ordered our meals at 6:30. My first choice of fish pie was sold out, as was Kevin's of steak. I asked for pulled pork with potatoes, but they had run out of potatoes, only had chips left. It was going on for 8pm by the time our meals arrived. They forgot Mike's chips, my pulled pork turned up on a burger bap minus the apple sauce AND it was cold. Julia's veggie burger was also cold and the toasted brioche roll was an untoasted burger bap. We sent ours back and it was returned with fresh hot chips but the pork and burger were still cold and inedible. We complained and they agreed not to charge for our 2 meals. We did watch a beautiful sunset then walked back up the hill to our hotel and slept like the dead (having slet very little the night before). This morning after breakfast I drove the walkers to Bantham and pulled up literally just inside the gate to the car park to drop them off. I explained to the attendant that I was not parking, only dropping off but he said I would still have to pay the daily parking charge of £3:50. I said I was not parking but he insisted, so disgusted, I paid. Rottweilers Kevin and Julia soon got the money back and a somewhat lengthy argument ensued between them and the attendant! The sea today is a gentle, deep blue, swell. I can see boats on the horizon. There is a cool sea breeze but heart-lightening sunshine. The primroses densely cover the steep banks of the narrow lanes and the gorse is like a deep-yellow lace shawl covering the cliffs and sea slopes. I am now on my way to await their arrival in a car park somewhere along the route between Hope Cove and North Sands, Salcombe.