Holiday in Exmoor - Watersmeet

After breakfast, we left Winster at 09.10 and with one stop at a Motorway services (Gordano on the M5), we arrived at the North Cliff Hotel about five hours later. Unfortunately, with the wind still from the North, it was quite chilly and also there as light rain and drizzle.

North Cliff Hotel

After dropping everything off in the room, we drove the short distance down to the neighbouring village of Lynmouth 700 feet below and next to the sea and after leaving the car in the car park we walked along the East Lyn River for a mile and a half or so to Watersmeet House.

East Lyn River

Watersmeet House has a lovely old cottage which now belongs to the National Trust and has a café and gift shop. I had a really nice rhubarb crumble and ice cream while Karen had a toasted tea cake as we sat under a porch roof outside as the other seating was wet from the earlier rain. Karen ended up giving a lot of the teacake to some chaffinches which hang around outside by the tables and chairs picking up any dropped crumbs.

Watersmeet House

Once we had finished eating and having a quick look around the gift shop, we walked back the same way and had a quick wander around Lynmouth, which since it isn't very large, didn't take very long.
We are staying in Room 2, where we have stayed before on previous trips, which not only has nice views across the Bristol Channel to South Wales, on a clear day anyway, but also overlooks the Cliff Railway just below.

Cliff Railway

The Cliff Railway links the village of Lynton above with Lynmouth, below and runs on a steep track down the cliff. It was installed in the Victorian era in 1890 and works by having two cars linked by a cable which is routed around large pulleys at each end. Each car has a top section for the passengers with a water tank beneath. Of course the floor in the car is flat despite the steep angle of the of the track. To begin with, there is a car at the top, and a car at the bottom. The car at the bottom, which has a partially empty water tank, is then pulled up the tracks be the car at the top, which has a full water tank and controlled by a brakeman on each car. In the middle section there are two parallel pieces of track so that the car can pass each other. This double-tracke section actually passed directly beneath our bedroom window and you can hear the railway whenever it is running.

Inside a Cliff Railway Car

When the car which started at the bottom reaches the top. its water tank is filled and the car which started at the top, and is now at the bottom, has its water tank partially emptied ready for the whole process to start again. No fuel is used and no carbon dioxide produced! Of course it does involve moving water from River Lyn about a mile away, but there is plenty of water!
In the evening, we had a wander around Lynton's shopping street in the drizzle before deciding we were getting a bit hungry. So we had some chips from the Fish and Chip shop and then returned to the hotel.
In the evening it got very windy and the room was very cool as the windows were quite draughty.