Welcome back!

If you have a favourite picture “of the week ” - be it a sunset or anything you just really life, email it to me and I’ll post up the best one from the week (obviously linked to your site!).  This is my favourite this week, taken over the weekend.  My hometown is definitely a great place to take photos! x

Nature Reserve

This afternoon we decided to go to Berry Head (Brixham, Torbay).  Berry Head is a 100-acre nature reserve on a coastal headland at the southern end of Torbay.  The nature reserve is home to a colony of endangered bats, rare species’ of plants and also cows and goats.  It is also the site of 2 Napoleonic forts and an unmanned lighthouse.  The cliffs offer amazing sea views and bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, harbour porpoises and basking sharks can regularly be spotted from this brilliant vantage point. 

Berry Head has just been given a £1.8million Lottery Heritage grant for improvement work (including a new visitor centre) to be carried out over the next 3 years. 

Today was (hopefully) the first sunny and warm day of many!!  Definitely a good day to visit (and a bonus that it’s free).

The highlight of the day was walking to the edge of the cliff, looking over to the side of a further away cliff and there were kamikaze goats trying to eat grass on the very edge!  The greedy things didn’t seem too worried that one foul move would send them a long way down into the chilly sea below!  I myself was a little concerned about this and spent quite a while telling Jamie to be careful (he had the car keys - how would I get home if he fell?  Hehe). 

I have spent the best part of the day trying to convince one of my friends to blog.  As you know I am new to this world but I can see the benefits already.  It’s made me realise how boring and dull life can be if you let it be that way - I’ve started to try and go out of my way to find things to blog about…and slowly but surely I’m finding ideas.  I think one of my main problems is that I have spent the best part of the last 5 years writing down someone elses ideas and opinions and so in a way I’ve stopped thinking for myself when it comes to writing.  I used to really enjoy writing and I’ve started to finnd that I really enjoy the process again (despite the, so far, regular writers block) and actually being able to write something that someone else somewhere is reading.

My main aims for blogging were to keep a diary for myself, for my friends and family and also the chance to maybe inspire someone else to travel.  We have quite a way to go before going travelling though so for now my blogs will be about anything and everything (but I’ll try and link as much as possible to travelling!).  

What are you’re reasons for blogging?

A Bit of Investigation

I Checked out a lot of tourist info websites and have come up with a list of things to do before we leave.  I will carry on looking for things to do and tag them onto the list as we go.  Each time we visit a place I will give you a little lowdown as well as some pictures (how exciting for you!!).  I determined to get a new-found appreciation of where I live before we leave (so if we end up back here down the line I don’t want to leave immediately!).

Here goes nothing…..

• National Marine Aquarium
• Living Coasts (coastal zoo)
• Bygones
• Torre Abbey
• Kents Cavern
• Torquay Museum
• Dartmouth Steam Railway
• Quaywest Waterpark
• Paignton Zoo
• Dartmoor National Park
• Berry Pomeroy Castle
• Tuckers Maltings (Brewery)
• Castle Drogo
• Babbacombe Model Village
• Canonteign Falls
• Bicton Park
• Powderham Castle
• River Dart Country Park
• Becky Falls
• Berry Head
• Buckfast Abbey
• Okehampton Castle
• The Otter Sanctuary
• The 9 beaches of Torquay (8 of them anyway)
• Woodlands Adventure Park
• Plymouth Ski Centre
• Killerton House
• Occombe Farm
• The Butterfly Farm
• Vennford Reservoir

Some of these clearly don’t sound like the most exciting places in the world, but these are the best of the bunch so far - I omitted to add Digger Land, the Milky Way Adventure Park and some other not so fun sounding places!  Anyway, I’ll give you a weekly update on the list (unless I can squeeze more than one in a week!).

Inspired by Lots of Other Blogs!

I’ve found myself something (hopefully) more interesting to blog about after spending a few hours of reading other blogs.  Although there are the obvious reasons for this blog, I was feeling a little rubbish because I just didn’t seem to be able to find anything I felt was interesting enough to blog about on a regular basis…and then the epiphany (haha) happened. 

Taking hints from other blogs I have decided to make the most of where I live now.  Although I don’t appreciate it that much (as with a lot of other people who take their surroundings for granted) I’ve decided there are actually a lot more good points than bad and so I shall take advantage of them before we leave with an unknown time / date of return!

Devon

Devon is the 3rd Largest county in the UK with an estimated population of 1,135,000 (in 2007).  This is a relatively small population for its 2,590 sq miles (6,707 sq km) but a large proportion of the county is taken up by the rural Dartmoor National Park. 

Torbay

Torbay is a conurbation of seaside resorts also known as the English Riviera on account of its beaches and mild climate and has an estimated population of 134,200 (2001).   Torbay is one of only six places in the UK (and 53 worldwide) to be given Geopark status (and I didn’t even know that until now!!) as it is considered to have ‘geological heritage of international significance’.  Torbay is the only urban area in the world to have the status.

Torbay is made up of 3 towns - Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.  I live in Torquay, the largest of the 3 towns. 

Torquay

Torquay has an estimated population of 63,998 (2001), with an estimated summer population of 200,000 (there are a lot of hotels!).  We have 9 beaches, although 1 is currently closed due to falling rocks! 

Tourist Attractions & Places to Visit

Devon has a lot of tourist attractions and places to visit.  I will endeavour to make a list of these (ahh) and try to visit as many as possible before we leave.  I definitely hope to get a better appreciation for the place I live in and hope I might inspire some of you who are travelling / planning to travel to come this way on your trip!