The Last Day of Glorious 39

More time travel again today, as I try and catch up with writing about adventures that occurred a whole month ago!  The day before my 40th birthday, and our arrival on Burgh Island, we had travelled down to Devon to break up the journey.  After our stop at the Killerton Estate, we headed to our accommodation for the night, Beyond Escapes.  I quite often pick up cheap deals on luxury self-catering because people tend to want to stay for at least a long weekend.  When there's the odd night going spare, I swoop in and get a greatly reduced deal.

It was very modern (not my usual thing), but it was exceptionally spacious (two bedrooms, three bathrooms!), well equipped, and on a quiet site in the pretty countryside from which you could just about glimpse the sea.  The rain moved in that evening, so we stayed in and stayed cosy.  The bath had coloured lights around the bottom, which was quite fun, and Chris cooked a lovely birthday-eve dinner for me.

My birthday morning dawned a bit brighter than the heavy rain we'd had overnight.  Waking early (as I seem to do, even when a lie-in is warranted), I decided I would start the day as I'd like my 40th decade to continue, with fresh air and exercise.  I was feeling contemplative, and my solution is always a brisk walk!  I wasn't feeling melancholy about the age itself, or about ageing, but these milestones seem to be a natural point to reflect on what you've done with your life so far and what you want to do next.  The "what next?" question has been on my mind since finishing my PhD.

I felt much better after a nice long walk.  The countryside was very pretty, and I didn't need the umbrella after all.  We headed back to our accommodation for a bumper breakfast, before hitting the road once more.  To get the most out of renewing my National Trust membership, we had planned a stop on the way to Burgh Island.  I picked the country house Saltram, which is just outside of Plymouth.

After a walk around the house, I'd really wanted to explore the beautifully planted gardens, but unfortunately the rain moved in again.  Even the cows were sheltering under the trees.   We beat a retreat to the cafe for lunch instead, to warm up.  We were also conscious of not letting ourselves get too bedraggled before later going to Burgh Island.  It wouldn't have done to turn up soggy and windswept!

That's almost it for the Devon trip, but we did squeeze in one more National Trust visit on the way home.  I'll save that for another post...