DDD

The first D stands for Devon - where we spent the last weekend of daylights savings over here. Anna and Rae had tripped down there on the Thursday, staying in Exmoor National Park. Myself, Rich and Titch journeyed down there by train to meet them on Friday night after work. A long train trip, but made all the more easy by a couple bottles of wine and a few snacks. The girls picked us up at Exeter and drove us down to Dartmouth where we were staying for the night. And the reason for Dartmouth? The second D being for delicious....

The New Angel - the Michelin-starred restaurant under chef John Burton-Race. And delicious it certainly was! For entree, I had a scallop salad (suspect #1), as did Anna and Rich, while Titch and Rae had the quail. For main, I had the pork (suspect #2) which came with some delicious black pudding, while steak, lamb and venison were also at our table. All were very well cooked and extremely tasty. With not much room in our bellies, we all decided to have dessert of course, though Titch's cheese "plate" could have fed us and a small nation on its own. Being very well fed, the staff finally booted us out and feeling very well pleased with ourselves we warbled the 100 metres or so to our B&B.

The next morning we checked out the picturesque Dartmouth and took the "most attractive little boat ride in all of Britain" - or so the sign said. And the boat ride wasn't too bad at all, if the 'captain' was just a little grumpy. Having to drop Rae off at Plymouth station to get the train pack to London, we had time for a drive along the coast and a quick lunch (suspect #3 - hazelnut milkshake). After dropping Rae off, we headed into the Dartmoor National Park and into the fog. This made for a very surreal backdrop and taking a walk up to Hound's Tor you could feel why Arthur Conan Doyle would have set the Hounds of the Basketvilles here. (Was also good for my album-cover shot - see below).

Continuing the culinary theme of our weekend, we ate that night at the Sandy Park Inn, winner of Best Country Pub at the Devon Food and Drink Awards. And we weren't disappointed. A hilarious night was had with some funny conversation and Rich giving a fine example of how to dig yourself in a deep hole - caramello! The only downside was that the third D had started to take its toll on me - and that is all I am going to say about that.

The next day we went for another little drive around the Dartmoors - with the weather being a lot clearer the views were better, but didn't have the same mystery of the day before. With vows of only eating salad and soup for the rest of the week, we headed back to London with contented (and bloated) bellies.







For some more pics, click here.