On our way

 

Cardiff to Lympstone Manor

The start of a holiday is always, for me, a time of real excitement. Even from the days of my childhood when my parents would drive us all the way (all 7 miles; but in those days it felt like 700!) to a caravan in Oxwich, the thrill of the different of being away has always filled me with both a sense of anticipation and an excitement when it arrives and today is no different.

Having packed we took the, now traditional, photo of Captain Jack our travelling companion with the luggage.   

This year the luggage was complimented by the chocolate and pork scratchings snacks my sister delivered yesterday, as I described in yesterday's post. 

Honda E

Last year when deciding to buy an electric car, we considered the impact it might have on UK based holidays. The Honda E is a perfect town car, it gets me to Mass each day, to the supermarket once a week and Drew to see his mother once a fortnight, but it isn't built for lots of luggage or long distance with a maximum range of 130 miles. 

At the time we discussed renting a car for long trips, but since buying it electronic charging has become so ubiquitous that we decided we would have no problem taking it with us (or is it it taking us?). 

We packed the car with luggage, which given the boot space means the boot and the back seats and headed off.

The Journey

As the map at the top of today's blog post shows the journey was a simple one. M4, M49, M5 and then onto the A376 for six miles.

Zapmap, that invaluable app, which I now use to plan any journey outside of Cardiff, suggested a midpoint stop at the Instavolt Charge Station at Heron Gate on the outskirts of Taunton and so we did.

As the yellow M at the top of the picture indicates the Instavolt Chargers were in the car park of McDonald's, so Drew, who regularly nags me [Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, prefer to consider it as a polite reminder] for not letting him have McDonald's often enough, was able to treat himself to a Double Quarter Pounder with cheese, fries and diet coke while I opted for the Spanish Stack which included chilli cheddar cheese and a bravas sauce. 

While Drew is a competent McDonald's eater, it became clear that I am not. Drew kindly took this photo of me with bits of bravas sauce on the face and hands as the centre of the burger seemed to try and escape from the bun when I bit into it. [Co-pilot's note:Some of you, dear readers, may remember the photo of Ed Miliband trying to eat a bacon sandwich - imagine that times 10,000, it was quite remarkable] 

36 Mins and 17kwh (kilowatt hours) later we were on the road again with the car at 94% charge. It had gone from 96% (125 miles range) to 36% (47 miles range) on the first part of the journey.  

Lympstone Manor

We arrived at Lympstone Manor at 2.10pm and parked in the lovely shaded car park, walking through a woodland path from the car to the hotel. 

The hotel is in a lovely setting just beside the Ex estuary with views towards the river and the sea.

The little buggies beside the door are for staff and guests to go back to their cars for luggage. We managed to pick ours up and walk back with it, as the distance wasn't huge.

We checked in and were shown to our room - The Dunlin (all the rooms are named for birds) - and quickly settled in with the help of some lovely tea and coffee making facilities and Lemon Drizzle cake for Drew and fruit.

 

We spent an hour relaxing before going out for a walk in the wonderful grounds - more of that in my next post.