Devall Travels

We had a bit of a broken night. Firstly it was freezing. It was raining when we got back from across the street at the Druids Inn. As a side note I can thoroughly recommend the pub for its food, friendly welcome to us and Reggie. For half the night we shared the bed with him. Then he went and either slept on the sofa or the floor in the lounge. Back again about 6.30am. So as we were up we had breakfast and set off for our first port of call, Bakewell.  We parked on an island in the river Derwent. It's a big island.  The river was a raging torrent and earlier in the week had burst its banks. The flood barriers in evidence all along the walkways. Of course, with no great sense of direction we walked the opposite direction to the town. As I had forgotten gloves on the trip we saw a Farm and Country shop - Torne Valley Limited, Haddon Road, Bakewell. A real Alladin's Cave. Anything you might want they seemed to stock. Plenty of gloves. I bought a pair. They are re...

Set off a little before 11am for the proposed 4h30m drive north to the Peak District and our stay for the next 4 nights at the Stable at Druids Farm in Birchover. With the car packed up we set off on a route to avoid the Dartford Crossing. This entailed the M20/M26/M25/M40/M42. We had a stop for Reggie to have a pee and we got a coffee. Plus a Slimming World busting biscuit. Both between us. Once we got onto the M42 after pretty much a cruise-control run from home, it all ground to a stop, then stop/start.   Nissan Navigation seemed to try and avoid the traffic and instead took us up some dead end seeming road. In the end we made it to the M42 further up. Southbound was solid for miles. We made a second stop at Tamworth Services. A chance for all three of us to have a widdle, and for the humans to get something to eat from M&S. We then had a magical mystery tour via Burton upon Trent and then to Derby. The back roads to Birchover took us along quite a few roads where we sa...

Not heard from the booking company as yet but when I logged in they will take the outstanding balance automatically on or around the 15th December.   I hope that they take it after my MasterCard statement for December is created and so the cost will be on the next one due after 13th January. Spreading the costs! Once it is all settled I can start to look at places to go that are dog friendly in late February!  Still need to have fingers crossed about the weather!   Even though the climate experts were telling us some fifteen to twenty years ago that the south-east of England would have a Mediterranean climate by now, we still have nothing to show for it.   Storm Arwen has recently struck the north east of England and border areas with Scotland and high winds and snow have taken out overhead power supplies.  Some 8 days later people are still without heating and light. Augers well for a carbon neutral future with everyone driving electric cars... b...

I have been looking for somewhere to go for Claire's birthday next year and then eh voila, a cottages.com email arrived. Black Friday! Initially I looked at the south coast, Hampshire or maybe Dorset.  It's outside school half term holidays when prices rocket, but even so for a short break prices were silly money. I think that many owners are trying to get back what they lost during the lockdowns. I won't play that game. So I expanded the search and thought about the Peak District and had a look. Even here there are Black Friday discounts.  With the filters set for "dog friendly" and "enclosed garden/patio" there were very few options.  Individually there were quite a few but once both were entered, the choices became fewer and fewer. I bookmarked a few places but in the end decided on The Stables near Matlock in Derbyshire ! It's dog friendly so Reggie can come too.  I need to plan  how to get there. We can't check in until 3pm in any case.  Go...