We ended the last post with us picking up our car from the Park and Ride on Honiton Road, Exeter. After a day in the hot sun the car was pretty warm, but once we got going the air-con soon cooled us down.
Shopping
We have been Sainsbury shoppers for many years and I'd noted there wasn't a Sainsbury's in Exmouth, so for the few items we needed for the accommodation we had decided to stop at the Sainsbury's in Exeter which was 1.3 miles from the Car Park.
Our Shopping List of 'essentials' were apples, pears, easy peelers, tea bags, skimmed milk, orange juice, weetabix, granola, washing up liquid and clothes washing pods. Three of which had special bonus nectar points attached - hence us using Sainsbury's than the Tesco nearer the accommodation - after the brief shop we headed back onto the A376 towards Exmouth and for the first nine of the ten and a half miles were along the route we had taken to Lympstone Manor the day before.
The Sand House, Ashleigh Road
I have been asked before how we choose our accommodation for holidays and it seems it takes a number of factors - first is location. Having arranged to spend a night at Lympstone Manor and not wanting to stay in the city centre of Exeter, where there were some places. I looked around the region and noted that Exmouth had good communications by car, rail, bus and boat and seemed like a destination in its own right. With this in mind I then opted for Cottages.com the company we have used for UK rental for many years - since the days when they were called Cottages4You. They had four properties available in Exmouth for the fortnight we needed, two were apartment style, one being a studio - we discounted these given the vagaries of neighbours above and or below and then looked at the location of the other two. We wanted a place which was close enough to the town to walk, but not in the very centre of the town. The Sand House seemed to fulfil this requirement exactly, less than a mile from the town centre and set in a quiet residential street. So, we booked it last April a few days after we had booked for the Lympstone Manor stay.
One thing I probably hadn't taken account, given its location and price, is that the accommodation at the Sand House is large. Indeed, the floor plan of the house - a bungalow with an upstairs extension - is twice the size of our house in Cardiff! It is also in immaculate condition. [Co-pilot's quote: It is also, dear readers, great for playing hide and seek.]
It also has a balcony overlooking the back garden which is covered by AstroTurf and has a gas fired barbeque and it has a conservatory which is bigger than any single room in our house at home.
In terms of supplies, we didn't need to call to Sainsbury's apart from the fruit and cereal the Sand House has everything - including a full range of herbs and spices and enough crockery and cutlery for 12 not 2.
Within the first half hour we had only lost each other twice, but I'm pretty certain that won't be the only time.
Car Charge
For those paying attention to milage for our journeys to date, thank you Malcolm for reminding me, the trip from Cardiff to the Instavolt charging centre in Taunton was 77 miles. With a full battery we then went 37 miles to Lympstone Manor and 12 miles from there to the Park and Ride the next day. It was 11 miles from there to the Sand House, including the Sainsbury's journey. So, when we arrived at the Sand House we had 47% and 60 miles range.
This reminds me that one of the additional reasons for picking Sand House (that I forgot to mention earlier) was the availability of off-road parking. This means we can park the car close to the house and charge it here. By this morning we were back to 100% charge and 128 miles range.
