For some 10 years or more our group of friends have escaped the crush and inflated prices of a London New Year's Eve to meet up with the Bristol mob in the West Country. This has allowed us to wreak havoc and mayhem in the coastal resorts of Devon and Cornwall and then party till we drop back at the cottages we have rented in the middle of nowhere away from the attention of neighbours and police.
This year offered a somewhat more challenging/unnerving/certifiable prospect. The last few years have seen an explosion in offspring and though we had gone away a couple of years previously with a few of the little darlings with mixed success, we wondered if our years of hedonistic pleasure were coming to an end. So how did 12 'grown ups' and nine children under four years old cope with a week in converted barn cottages on a remote Devon farm?
Well, the weather helped. A whole week of clear blue skies by day and clear starry skies by night accompanied by a thick carpet of frost was a wonderful backdrop to our activities… and what an energetic and outward-bound time of it we had! From the top of our winding wooded valley our view enticed us down to the coast west and north of Barnstaple from the expanse of Saunton Sands past the surfing Meccas of Croyde and Putsbourough and the climbing cliffs of Baggy Point to the Exmoor coast of Lynton and Lynmouth. The whole of this stretch offers wonderful beach combing and scrambling around rock pools with the spectacular Valley of Rocks just west of Lynmouth, one to savour for the more energetic.
As if this wasn't enough, we added pony trekking and cycling on the wonderfully flat Tarka Trail into the bargain. The older of the children thrilled to their first trot around the paddock and with a combination of baby trailers, child seats and tag-along mini bikes we managed a good four miles to the pub and back along the Taw estuary with its prolific bird life.
The indoor swimming pool attached to our cottages provided the final sleeping draught to our tired but happy brood at the end of their day and, with occasional blips, meant they slept soundly most evenings leaving us to recreate in our accustomed manner.
On New Year's Eve, armed with a battery of radio-controlled child listening devices alongside the normal cans of lager, the 'grown ups' descended on the pool and crammed ourselves into the Jacuzzi. The popping of champagne corks rang in to the still midnight air and we toasted the continuing success of our New Year adventures!
You may also want to take the Pathfinder Guide - Exmoor and the Quantocks Walks, OS/ AA Leisure Guide - Devon and Exmoor, OS Outdoor Leisure 9 Exmoor and OS Explorer map 139 Bideford, Ilfracombe and Barnstaple.
Author: Martyn Bearfoot
Date: 1 March 2002
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