Busy day in Devon!

We head down to Blue Groove for breakfast with Karma this morning, got some coffees & delicious poached eggs on English muffins *drool*. Unfortunately I’d forgotten my wallet again, fortunately, Karma said she’d shout us, she works there & got coffees for 1 pound each & 10% discount on food!
We head off the The Thatch, a pub round the corner, to pop in & say hi to my old neighbor but we’d just missed him.
We had an hour to kill so we went up to Baggy point, it was one of the walks I was really keen to take Nathan on but I couldn’t of walked all the way around on crutches so we went down to see the old whales bone & got some lovely scenery photos.

We popped back to Karma’s to grab my wallet & head out for the day.
Our first stop was to see old family friends Chris & Roy. They’d moved into a new house in Braunon & done some renovations on it, it looked absolutely amazing. They had these big glass doors which opened right up onto a beautiful garden. It was such a lovely day too, the sun was shining & it almost felt like we were in Australia again. It would be the perfect house to have right on the beach with an infinity pool. (I can dream)
Chris had made us a delicious lemon drizzle cake with raspberries on top, we sat & talked & enjoyed the beautiful weather. She gave us this cute wedding gift, it’s a wall hanging of beach huts, which will forever remind me of Devon, as Karma’s Dad owns 20 odd beach huts down at the local beach Saunton Sands. It was perfect.
Afterwards we head off to see Karma’s Grandma, we didn’t have long so quickly popped in, said hi, had a glass of water & we’re on our way.

We drove to Barnstaple next to pick up a present for my Auntie, I’d taken a stunning photo of a sunset a few days ago but because it was taken as a panorama the machine didn’t want to print it. So that idea went out the window, gutted. I had a lovely border & frame picked out ready to go. In Australia there’s this amazing place called Kmart where you can get any size print you want done instantly, we were going up & down the high street like headless chickens trying to find something similar but no luck. I had to settle for a small boring print of an Australian sunset on the beach where my parents live. Ok, it wasn’t a boring sunset but the quality was poor compared to my original plan. So we brought a bottle of wine to make up for it. Can’t go wrong with alcohol & a cheeky card of a smiling monkey.

On our way back we had this amazing idea to go down to Saunton beach & use one of Karma’s Dad’s Kayaks. His business basically gives tourist the option to rent out a hut, deck chairs, wind breaks, sup boards (paddle boards), kayaks and more. So we took out a 2 man & 1 man kayak & walked/hobbled a couple hundred meters to the ocean. Debby, Karma’s Dad’s Girlfriend (son’s uncles’s monkey’s grandma’s brother’s daughter.....) came down to the shore with us to look after my crutches & take some photos of us.

There was absolutely no waves, Karma & Nath held the kayak still whilst I slowly maneuvered myself into it. We paddled out & realized how perfect it would be if we had brought the GoPro! The weather was perfect, the ocean was blue & the view was absolutely stunning. So we only went out for about 20 minutes & decided we’d come back the next day for a longer paddle &take the GoPro out.

We head back to Karma’s had a quick shower got changed & head out to see good friends of my parents, Jo & Dave. I used to baby sit for them when I was younger. At this point Nathan was probably starting to think, who the hell are all these people I’ve met! I’d be amazed if he remembered all their names. Although almost every person we’ve visited they’re like ‘Hey Nathan! I’ve heard so much about you!’ as if they’ve met him before. It’s lovely. Good old Facebook.
I was so excited to see their dog Beau, but unfortunately he had gone deaf from old age & accidentally run over a while ago. It’s easy to forget how long you’ve been gone from a place, you expect everything to be the same, I still remember Beau as a tiny puppy, she was so sweet. We sat & talked for about an hour whilst Nathan scoffed down biscuit after biscuit. They’re two kids had grown up so much, last time I saw their youngest daughter I was sitting at their dining table drawing bumble bee’s with her!
We only popped in quickly as we had to head out to meet my family for dinner for my aunties birthday. We walked down to a pub called The Rock just around the corner from their house so everyone could enjoy a drink with dinner & not worry about driving.

We bumped into another one of mum & dad’s friends Dan, who didn’t recognize me at all until Rach said: ‘Hannah & Nobby’s daughter’. Hadn’t seen him in about 9 years since I left England first. He now runs the pub & sent out some lovely complimentary starters.
Me, Joel & Rich all ordered the ribs drizzled with a Jack Daniels sauce, it was heavenly. I felt so caveman-ish eating it, saucy fingers, meat flying everywhere, table covered in bones! I demolished this giant plate of meat, it was huge I didn’t think I’d get through it, Nathan was hoping I wouldn’t so he could finish them. Richard took it slow & steady eating every bit of meat off the bones. All Tess was talking about was sticky toffee pudding, so that’s all I was craving but there was no room in my tummy for desert! I sat there drooling over hers.

We head home, everyone a bit tipsy except me I couldn’t even get through half my beer. Nathan & I had hoped to get in some Wii time playing Mario kart, but we were so tired we all passed out fairly quickly.
All in all a very fun & eventful day!