SPEND A WEEK EXPLORING THE ENGLISH RIVIERA WITH ME / DEVON

Good morning everyone, welcome back to my Sunday Diaries and welcome to my very small, tiny but slightly cute caravan in Devon. We are currently staying in Devon, we're in South Devon, just outside of a place called Paynton, which we visited yesterday and it was so beautiful there, like Paynton is so gorgeous, all the coloured houses. So we're just here for a week and I thought I would do kind of like a little mini vlog, so it might not be as long as my normal ones, though I always say that and they always end up being quite a good length, so we'll just have to see how it goes. We arrived a couple of days ago and checked into our little caravan, it was a last minute kind of holiday, so all we could get was a caravan, but actually they're very nice and they have everything they need and it's a really nice little like holiday camp, so they've got a swimming pool here for the kids, got some restaurants, some bits and bobs. You can walk to the beach but it's like half an hour, so we've been sort of driving down there and parking and it's actually been okay and it's not as busy as we thought it would be, so it's quite nice so far. Yesterday we went to a place near us called Fairy Cove, we basically, yeah, we chose it because of the name. I don't think it's got anything to do with fairies, but it's basically a really great beach for rock pools and for crabbing, looking for crabs, and there were so many rock pools there. There were also some really nice restaurants around the harbour there, the harbour was so, so beautiful. It literally makes me want to paint when I see places like that, it literally makes me want to get some watercolours and try and paint, even though I'm absolutely terrible at painting, but it always just sort of makes me want to paint stuff again, so I always take loads and loads of pictures and think, oh I could paint that when I get home, and I never will, but maybe one day I will, I don't know. Maybe I'm saving them all up for one day when I'm just going to go on a painting spree. The rock pools there were so good, so I've been to the Seven Sisters before, and they have rock pools there, but there's never anything like alive in the rock pools, but these ones at the Fairy Cove are amazing, they're literally full of life. I saw so many different creatures, it's just, honestly it's incredible, so if you ever want to go like proper rock pooling, where there's actual creatures in the rock pools, Fairy Cove is definitely the place to go. I think the plan for today, because I'm going to take you with me today, we're going to go to Dartmouth, which is a little bit of a drive, you have to get a ferry across, and then we're going to get the ferry to Dartmouth Castle, and have a look around the castle, and it's supposed to be really beautiful there. I'm looking for really cute, nice villages and towns and stuff, just to sort of wander, anywhere that's got nice coffee shops and like little trinket shops, my kids love all those little, you know, rocks and fossils and things like that, so Dartmouth kept coming up when I kept sort of looking for places, and I think the castle there's going to be really fun to explore. So we're going to go there today, let me show you what I'm wearing. Okay, actually there's nowhere to sort of stand you to show you what I'm wearing, but I've basically got this stripy shirt on, and then I've got a white tank top from New Look, and then I really wanted to show you my new trousers, because I really like them. I don't know how to show you my new trousers. The caravan is very small. Okay, let me just see if I can... Here they are, really nice floaty, stripy trousers. Okay, a bit of an outfit fail, but I really wanted to show you this, because it's like the most like relaxed kind of outfit that I've ever worn, and I feel very boaty, I feel like I'm going on a boat, so I thought I would show you that. Right, okay, I need to pack, we need to get going. Wow, that ferry was so nice, and it saved about over an hour of our journey, if you try and drive all the way around. It takes about like literally three minutes to go across on the ferry, and it was so beautiful. We got the lower ferry, if you wanted to know, because it's got better views, and it really did. Right, we're in Dartmouth now. We're going to have a little wander around. It looks really, really pretty. Definitely my kind of place. Look how lovely it is down here. Literally everywhere you look, oh my gosh, there's no barrier there. Okay, I better watch my step when I'm vlogging. It's just everywhere, it's just so, so beautiful. We're at this cove place in Dartmouth, and every time I turn a corner, I just want to take more video and pictures, because it's so beautiful, every corner you turn. I mean, I'm just walking up these stairs, and look at this. Look at that. That is absolutely unbelievable. It's just the prettiest place I've ever been. This is the boat to go to the castle. So, Dartmouth Castle, definitely worth a see. Some of the stairs were very, very steep though, and there was a couple that I just did not do. I mean, I'm in Birkenstocks, to be fair, so just going to get the ferry back and find some food. The boat comes every 10 minutes, so you just have to pop down and wait, and you can jump on it, and it takes you back to all the shops, with a lovely view. All right, we've just driven to Broad Sands. I think it's called Broad Sands. Is that where we are? Broad Sands. Yeah. Yeah, which is a really nice blue flag beach, so we're going to... Wait, what? We're at the beach. Tom doesn't know what's going on. Yeah, we're going to spend a few hours at the beach. It's supposed to be one of the nicest beaches in Devon, so we're going to go and have a little explore here now. I thought I'd take you with me, because that seems to be what I'm doing today. Sorry, everyone's just correcting me. It's Blackpool... What's it called? Blackpool Sands. Blackpool Sands. All right. What do you call it? Broad Sands. No, that's the other one. Okay, we're currently on the beach in Blackpool Sands. I actually don't know why they call it Sands, because the beach is actually stones, but they are the smallest, most satisfying stones that I have ever seen. Honestly, I could just take a handful of these home, though I actually think that is illegal to do that. The rocks are completely flat as a pancake. How cool is that? They're also like this in painting as well, which I think is something to do with them being eroded. A lot of them have got little fossils on. How cool is that? The stones are so, so satisfying. So, so, so pretty. I think I'm just going to sit here and... What is that? It's an aeroplane. I can't get away from them. No matter where I go in the UK, there will always be aeroplanes trying to bother my filming. I think I'm going to sit here and read my book. I'm still reading this, which is Fellow Creatures, and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm almost the whole way through, and then I'm going to start on my other book. But I'm going to sit here on the beach and just read this. I'm just obsessed with it, and I really don't want it to end. It's one of those books that I just kind of want to keep going forever and ever and ever, because the storyline is so satisfying, the characters are so interesting. Like, seriously, buy this book. Definitely read this book. I'd 100% recommend. My family are just down in the water being absolutely crazy, so I've got a little bit of time to myself, which is amazing. Let me just show you some of these stones up close, because I really want you to appreciate and understand how beautiful they are. I feel like I'm not doing them justice, but honestly, like, if these were in a shop, you'd pay for these. You really would. Some of them are like marble. Look at this. They're just like, oh. I actually really prefer rocky, like, stony beaches like this to sandy beaches. But let me know in the comments what you prefer. Do you prefer sand or stones like this? We are back. I don't know how many times I say that. I always say that. We are back. We're in the caravan. I did buy a few things from one of the shops there, which was so cute. It was called Whistlefish, and I will show you those later. But right now, we're going to, where are we going? Brixham. Brixham. We're going to pop down to, what? Brixham. Brixham. Brixham. Like Brixton, but not. I think you said it right the first time, I don't know. Brixham. We're going down to Brixham. So we're going to go and have a look there, and hopefully it'll just be really nice. So let's go. Good morning, guys. We've had some late nights. I'm very tired. Is the background okay? Yes, okay. Just don't want you to be able to see all of the mess in our bedroom because these caravans are really good and useful to stay in, but they're like so small. So all our stuff is just everywhere. I wanted to quickly show you this morning what I picked up from this really, really cute shop. So this shop was in Dartmouth, and it's called Whistlefish, and they're online as well. Look how gorgeous the bag is. It was basically like an artist kind of shop, but they had lots of like, they had like pictures, but then they had tea towels, coasters, notebooks, loads of stuff. So I picked up a tea towel. I really wanted to get a piece of artwork, but because we're about to move house, I wasn't entirely sure what would work, what I wanted to get, and because they're online, I thought there's no rush. But I couldn't resist. I couldn't resist picking up one of their tea towels because it had all their artwork on, and it's just so cute. So the one that I went for was this, which as you can see is some doggies on a boat. How lovely is that? I'm so obsessed with nice tea towels at the moment. This just looks like a really good one. Just love the colours as well, just the vibrancy. And then I picked up a couple of notebooks because I really need some new notebooks. So this one with all the shell print on, how lovely. Just a plain notebook, but how gorgeous is that? And also got the same print again of the dogs in the boat. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with these dogs in a boat, but just so, so lovely. I just love the colours. I don't know, there's something about this vibrant kind of blue that I just love. So that's what I picked up from the shop. I was very restrained actually. I really restrained myself, trying not to buy too much here. And yeah, they do sort of lots of different art prints and things in this shop, and it's online. It's on whistlefish.com. Whistlefish.com. And in fact, there's a £5 voucher here. So if you are interested in this actually, I'm going to hold this up, there's a QR code. And also you can see there's whistlefish.com forward slash refer, we'll get you £5 off. Not an advert or anything, but just literally that's what they've given me. So if you fancy having a look on that website, you could get £5 off if I refer you. There you go. You're welcome guys. You're welcome. I think we're going to pop out today to a really cute village called Cockington. I think it's called Cockington. And we're going to have a little look around. It's supposed to be really, really pretty and quaint, a bit like the Cotswolds. So I really wanted to go and check it out. So we're going to go and have a look there. And of course, I will take you with me. Well, this is the most beautiful little village. I've already found about five houses that I'd like to move into immediately. It's so beautiful. We just had lunch at the Weaver's Cottage, which was really nice. And now we're just going for a little wander. Look at all these. There's lots of little sculptures all around the place. I think this one is supposed to be the Loch Ness Monster, maybe. I'm not quite sure what this one's supposed to be. An old pterodactyl coming out the tree. It's all looking very, very prematurely autumnal in this park. There's a lot of fallen leaves. A lot of the trees just look like they're autumn, basically. It looks like it's autumn everywhere, which I know is because of the drought. And it really shows here, just like the lack of rain. It's just forced everything into sort of early autumn. It's so strange. It's such a strange sight to see everything looking so, so autumnal. If I told you it was October, I think you'd probably believe me right now, if it was in August, obviously. But look at this tree. It's just the most autumn I've ever seen it look in August. Obviously, the grass is just like completely dead everywhere. And we had that alert come through on our first day about wildfires. And you can really see why. Look at this little cottage here. So cute. Oh my gosh, look, it's got like tree trunks as part of the house. That's amazing. I really feel like I was born to live in one of these little villages somewhere out of London in the countryside, maybe near like the sea or something, I'm thinking now because I really like being by the beach. But I think I was, I think I was born to be somewhere like this. I just feel so at home and so happy in these places. Imagine coming home to a house like this. I mean, oh my gosh, some people are just so lucky. We were actually recommended to try that place. I'm so glad that we went. It's so quaint and so pretty. Definitely a must see if you're in the South Devon area and you love places like the Cotswolds. It just had that really nice villagey vibe and also very arty as well and creative. Lots of art studios there and things to look at and stuff. So I definitely recommend trying out Cockington if you're in South Devon. Yeah, that was so nice. Good morning, guys. It's been a few days since I last checked in. We've just been chilling out in Devon, exploring, went to the zoo, painting zoo, quite good there, saw some giraffes. Just trying to switch off a little bit this holiday as well. But I thought I would vlog today because we're off to somewhere called Totnes. Is it called Totnes? Which is supposed to be a really nice town to have a look around. So we're going to have a look around there and then we're going to go to a beach called Broad... I cannot for the life of me remember any of the names of these beaches, by the way. Blackpool Sands was so, so nice. We've been to Fairy Cove, Blackpool Sands. We went down to Painting Beach. Wasn't a huge fan of Painting Beach just because it was so busy. And today I think we're going to Broad Sands, I think it's called, but I will double check that when we're there. Sorry if the camera's a bit wobbly. I'm trying to balance it on something. So we're going to go to Totnes first, have a little look around the town and then go to Broad Sands. I think it's called Broad Sands. Just wanted to check in because I finished this book. Can I just say that the ending is ridiculously good. I knew this book was good when I was reading it. I really was like just enjoying it. But when I got to the end it's like it's even better than I thought it would be. So I absolutely recommend this book. It's just the most amazing read. You just want to keep reading it. You want to find out what happens. The characters are incredible. Like honestly the ending blew my mind. So absolutely huge huge huge huge fan of this book. I have moved on. I've moved on to Piranesi. I've only read the first chapter and it is probably the weirdest book I've ever read in my life. I do not really read books like this. They're kind of a bit, kind of like fantasy books and stuff. So it's really, it's going to give me nightmares. I can already feel that it's going to give me nightmares just because I'm a imaginative person. I can really imagine a story when I'm reading it. So when I was reading the first chapter I could physically see everything and I know it's just going to give me the weirdest dreams. So I am enjoying it so far though. I am enjoying it. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with it or understand it but actually it's written very well. I mean it's won a lot of awards I think. So I'm going to stick with this. I'll let you know how I go with it but let me know if you've ever read this book because I know it did the rounds about a year ago and like everybody had read it and I just sort of didn't but I'm reading it now. So anyway, I will let you know how this one goes. Let's pop out to town and have a little look around and I will take you with me. Outfit of the day. So this my friends is Brooklyn Sands. Brooklyn Sands. A beautiful beach. It's like a little cove. This is three o'clock in the afternoon. Look how empty it is. I know it's a little bit cloudy today but it's still really warm. It is literally so empty here. So Totnes was so nice. It was a little bit different than what I thought it would be. Firstly it was a lot smaller. Oh my gosh the wind. The wind is picking up now. It's a bit smaller than I thought it would be but it was really nice just to have a little look around. Lots of very quirky little shops there. Very very pretty. There was a nice river, the River Dart, which was quite pretty to walk down. It just it wasn't quite what I was expecting. It was still a really nice place to sort of explore and now we're just spending some time out here on the beach like I said. The beach huts here are so beautiful. They're probably the prettiest ones that I've ever seen. It really makes me want to move to the beach and get a beach hut. I can just imagine like taking my laptop down and doing some work there or just sitting and like even in the winter time. I mean apparently it's really really hard to get a beach hut. It's actually harder to get a beach hut than to get an allotment plot which is definitely saying something. There's lots of yachts that pull in here and just sit in the little cove as well which is quite nice and then I think over there that is Torquay which is somewhere that we haven't really visited to be honest because it's a no I don't think it's quite our vibe. It's a little bit busier Torquay, a bit like Painton and we weren't too keen on Painton. We're kind of like we like all these little smaller quieter villages I think and they've got all these really fun rocks here with rock pools and a lot of people come crabbing here try and find all the crabs in the rock pools. I think I've seen one crab here. I think I saw more at the fairy cove. Yeah it's a very nice little beach. I would say this is definitely a bit of a hidden gem and there are a couple of cafes up there too and a place where you can hire things like surfboards and stuff but it feels very quiet and every time we've been here we've been here about three times now every time we've come it's been quite quiet and it's just so so beautiful so I'm just going to sit down here for a bit read my book maybe make a sandcastle or two and chill What a view. I made a caterpillar Dave. I made a caterpillar. Guys that is the end of the vlog and the end of my holiday. I actually can't find my hairbrush so this is how I'm gonna have to go home with my hair like this but we are driving home it's be about five and a half hour journey home to London from where we are so that's going to be good fun. Just wanted to quickly say I have read pretty much almost the entire book of Piranesi. Piranesi. I have to say this is the weirdest book that I've ever read. I was determined to get through it. I found it quite difficult to read for the first maybe 10-11 pages. I really struggled with it but then I pushed through because I was just lying on the beach and I didn't have anything else to read so I was like right I'm just gonna push through and read and it is a good book. It's very very well written and it's very readable. It's a really weird story. I'm on the very very last bit and a lot of people are saying that I won't believe the ending and it's really weird at the end so don't tell me the ending but I'm almost there. I don't really know what to make of it if I'm honest. I don't really know what to make of it. It's not the kind of book that I would normally read. It's quite kind of fantasy you know like it's not real, it's in another world, it's set in a completely different and I'm just I that's not the kind of book that I normally read so I find it really hard to like criticise or to like have an opinion on it other than just being able to say it's really weird but it's a good read. I'm enjoying it so I've just got a few more pages to get through and I'll find out this amazing ending or not so amazing ending as some people have told me. I've actually got a bit of a cold now. I've been on the beach like every single day. I don't know if that's given me a cold, seaweed cold or something. Anyway I hope you've enjoyed the vlog. I will see you again when I see you. Thank you so much for watching. I'm going to be going back to the allotment plot probably later on this afternoon and filming there to see what's happened. It's been a week since I've been away but we have had some rain in London so maybe it will all be good now. Maybe it'll all be happy and I'll go back with a big smile on my face or maybe it'll be all overgrown. Either way we will find out. So join me again I think tomorrow for an allotment vlog at five o'clock and we'll find out together. Right okay I'll see you. I need to go. Love you. Bye.