Adventures in Woolacombe, Devon

Oh my goodness. Hello. Again.

I kinda vowed I'd blog again this year, and I had written out so many half posts that never got completed, and I took so many potential blog post photos that never became anything, but that is another post for another day. Today I want to post a bombshell of photos and talk about one of my absolute favourite weeks of my life.

It's Monday today, on Saturday I came home from my holiday away to Devon with my partner and his family. I've never been down Devon/Cornwall way before, but I had heard lovely things about it.

I wasn't expecting it to be quite so beautiful, it's all quirky village/surfer town style surrounded by the biggest hills and mountains and wooded areas. The beaches are stunning and the sea is actually blue -unlike the midlands favourite go-to beach, Skeggy (which is brown).

My partner's sister brought her boyfriend along too and the group of us had such an amazing time. I learnt to bodyboard which is my biggest highlight, the sea is my favourite place and spending hours in there getting swallowed up by and riding the waves was the most fun I'd had in a long time, I also learnt to longboard in the empty beach car park at 10pm, I didn't think I'd get the hang of it at all but I was skating properly after about half an hour. We mooched in shops, explored nearby towns, went to lots of pubs, had lots of pasties and dinners out, laid on the beach. It was amazing, I don't think anything could top the absolute best time I had or the people I spent it with.

So, as always, here's my monster load of pictures I took:

Above is our view from our apartment that we stayed in, we'd just arrived when this photo was taken, after a gruelling SEVEN HOUR journey. 

We then went and explored the nearby streets and the beach front (below), it was around 7pm and clouds made the beach look so moody and beautiful, after a quick walk on the beach we went straight for a drink and some fish and chips.

There was a cute little coffee shop right above the beach which sold everything you can think of, me and J had some pancakes for brunch and went out on the decking for a chai latte (my favourite) after being in the sea all morning.

Below was one of my favourite nights of the holiday. J took me out for dinner and drinks and we got so tipsy and deliriously happy, it was a really cute night. We drank local gin and a local cider called rattler, which is by far the best cider I've ever drunk! 

 All the calamari!

We then hit the arcades, got loads of tickets, played all the games (which I won) and went into the photo booth to take ridiculously silly, drunk photos.

The next day we spent the morning drawing and reading on the beach, then played crazy golf which was absolutely hilarious and then drove up to Ilfracombe for the evening, which has a beautiful beach that leads into a marina. The town itself was stunning and we stopped for dinner which ended up in drinks and card games and dessert. This night was the best night of the holiday because it was so unexpected and just became one of those nights that everyone was happy and talking for hours and laughing. 

 The scale of this doesn't show too great on camera but this building was tiny and the top of the door would have come to my chest, and I'm 5 foot 3.

 More calamari

The next day we went to the eden project, where I took that many photos it's going to be a separate post on its own. So the day after that we drove down to Croyde beach for the day where the waves were so strong they were knocking me off my board and the tide was so strong it was pulling you in every direction. This was a really good day and while I don't look cute whatsoever with wet hair and no makeup, we did get some ugly-cool photos.

Later that night we all went long boarding and while me a J were being sickly cute, Will told us to freeze because we were in the perfect place for a photo, and this is the cutest photo ever. I was standing on a longboard too so for the first time ever I didn't have neck ache trying to kiss my boyfriend.

For our last day the plan was to go coasteering but we couldn't get in anywhere. The weather was pretty shitty so we drove to Barnstaple in the afternoon after a lazy chilled morning and grabbed some lunch and my very first cream tea. Holy moly it was beautiful. We then travelled back to Woolacombe for our last night drinks and card games, had an absolutely amazing night to end the holiday, after watching the new Tarantino film in an old fashioned American style cinema. 

 Another local cider we tried, which was also really nice.

 We ended the night with a cute little family photoshoot which was so much fun

The next morning we got up early, packed our stuff, went for one last banging breakfast, then sadly made our way home. To a 15 hour shift back at work the very next day. 

To briefly reiterate, this was one of my all time favourite holidays, I felt like I really lived, I had so much fun, did so many new things and also relaxed in the best way, this holiday was good for my soul and I've come back home feeling a million dollars. I can't wait until I get to go away again.

Shan x