I have just spent a week away in rural North Devon with my husband and five-year-old son. We stayed at a 17th Century cottage on a farm where the nearest villages were little more than half a dozen houses. We had no broadband or wi-fi and the valleys were so deep, there was virtually no mobile phone signal.
It was bliss!
As much as it is vital to be connected in my line of work, there are times when I really don’t miss it – I just take the extra time to enjoy the countryside around me, rather than constantly scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, emails etc.
The countryside around Cookbury, near Holsworthy, near the Devon/Cornwall border was truly spectacular. Few beaches can compare to the sandy expanses and interesting rockpools of Widemouth Bay at Bude – we found fish, shrimps, shellfish and starfish galore.
By contrast, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor were both stunning in their ruggedness, but perhaps my favourite discovery was the National Trust-managed Lydford Gorge on the edge of Dartmoor. Here we went on a three-hour hike around the gorge, which boasts the 30-metre high Whitelady Waterfall and the awe-inspiring Devil’s Cauldron – a truly exhilarating experience which was well worth every penny of the admission fee.
The roads in North Devon were also an experience -the lack of a decent GPS signal meant sat nav was often non-existent, but we cruised through beautiful villages on single car-width roads with grass growing up the middle and it made for memorable motoring.
Perhaps the most long-lasting feeling I have brought home from this trip is that it is often worth taking a step back and spending time learning to love what is literally right in front of your nose.
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