Family Dinner in Plymouth

Wow.. I feel so blessed to reconnect with this side of our family again.  Its a bit convoluted..but take it as read .. that these are cousins on the Pierpoint side ( my mums) whom we have kept in contact with via Christmas cards for years and years.

We were really touched to have had a family dinner with all of the Wembury crew while we were here. Families - no matter how far removed have a special bond and it just felt so nice to be welcomed into arms and home and feel.. at home.  

Christine is so like my mum - it was hard to say goodbye when we did.. though its never goodbye.. its see ya.

We are trippilly delighted to be invited to Tamsins Wedding.. wooooooo hoooooo - in June.. I think I may be a bit more excited than she is.. ha ha!!

Dewestone on Dartmoor - 2nd training walk

Cousin Tamsin and her fiancée, Jamie, took us to a hidden gem of a walk - The Dewestone - which hugs the outskirts of Dartmoor.

Imagine a place so green, thick with soft moss and rushing streams, and one you are certain you are about to bump into a unicorn or fairy at any moment.

Simply breathtaking.  I am sure Tamsin got quite sick of waiting for me as I took yet ANOTHER photo.

The Dewestone traack takes you over the streams and then winds up round mossy rocks to the top of a gorge. Did I mention it was beautiful?  It is hard to imagine that this area had been a quarry in the early 1900s and a large producer of limestone.  There are still the footings of these buildings, slowly being covered with moss and ivy, at the bottom of the gorge.

It was the first uphill training walk for our upcoming Camino trek in April/May. I am pretty nervous about the first day - its the longest and the hardest - straight up the Pyrenees. But I guess ther is only one way to tackle it huh?

Keep on training - a little... every day.

Dartmoor Otters

So there is something I am just a little bit crazy about - apart from squirrels... and its otters.  Cuteness overload!!!

I took the kids to the Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary - thinking it was going to be a really dismal day - but was so pleased to see that the sun shone and it wasn't particularly cold either. 

We were super lucky to have a personal tour by the head keeper as he did his rounds in feeding the otters.

I was pretty amazed to hear that they can live up to 28 years in captivity ( they have a 26 year old at the moment) but because of pollution and predators ( mainly human) in the wild, they will only live up to 5 years.

Otters are still in the endangered list - so we didn't mind having to pay up for the privilege to get up close to them today.. knowing that the money is going directly to a good cause.

A male otters territory can be up to 5 km up and down the river - and I grinned to hear that he can have up to three females in his territory - so a chick in every port... 

Below is a picture of one of the larger otters they had. The American otter is about 4 feet high - huge!! However the sea otter can be up to 6 feet high.. far out!

It was heartening to hear that the sanctuary works with the other Otter places around the moors with a breading program, and that the pups of the British Otters are destined for release into the wild. about 15 odd years ago when I was last in Cornwall on my bike, I went to the Tamar Otter Sanctuary - which ws pretty similar to this one.  I was glad to hear that it was still going strong.

Below is a picture of Paprika - a british otter and much smaller than his American cousin. he weights around 15 kg.

We were unrushed as we wandered around; and the keeper even opened up one of the burrows so that we could see inside.

I love finding these little gems and even more thankful to be blessed with sunshine as we walk around.