Our impromptu, well-informed guide, Gavin collected us after brekky (he'll have to correct any misquoted information). We tried to get access to the smallest parish in England in the village of Colbone where the footage for the music DVD Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics was filmed, but the rain stopped us. We drove to Doone Valley where the story Lorna Doone was based and visited the church where the author Richard Doddridge Blackmore was buried. (Can't wait to re-read it).
The Doone Valley is enthralling with irridescent moss covering the trees and cobble-stone pack-horse bridge along with curious mushrooms housing mystical creatures of the surrounding forest.
We made our way to the Cheynes at the top of the moors, finding ourselves amongst the wild horses of Exmoor. They really are rather cute with donkey-like features, but one did whinny vociferously at us, just to make sure we knew they really are wild.
Dunkery Beacon is the highest point in Exmoor at 1500ft where everything is bleak and bitterly cold.
Lunch was in the fishing village of Exford at the White Horse Inn, owned by brilliant photographer Peter Hendrie.
We ended our day in the dim glow of the fading light with a heater blazing the only red sheen we could find in the All Saints Church in Monksilver where Sir Francis Drakes love almost married someone else but was stopped as the church was cannoned by no-one knows who.
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