Exmoor and a river crossing

Tuesday was the day we had planned to explore north Devon, or at least some of it. The plan was to head north from Tiverton to Dunster, Minehead across to Porlock and then zigzag our way back across Exmoor. As for the whole holiday, the weather was gloriously sunny but cold. The change in temperature from hill-top to valley bottom was quite noticeable, and not having a pin-lock insert on my tinted visor meant I had to ride with the visor partially open to stop it fogging up.

The first stop was Dunster Castle, or it would have been if it was open. Instead we walked around the village of Dunster and into a few jewellery and art shops (since getting back into photography I’ve become quite the critic!) and went for a coffee in a Victorian tea room. This was the first time that I’ve walked into a room with all my bike gear on and everyone in the room stop talking and turn to look at me, they must have thought I was up to no good and was going to rob them all.

Next was a trip to Porlock. On the way we skirted around Minehead, although I’ve since found it that the old part is quite nice to visit – just don’t go near the caravan park!. We stopped in Porlock for lunch, a bacon bap , in a cafe that doubled up as a book shop. After a bit of confusion we discovered that motorbikes can park for free in the municipal car park in Porlock. I’m still trying to get the hang of where you can and can’t park a bike in the UK. In Guernsey it is simple: no motorbikes in Disc Zones or Yellow lines, pretty much everywhere else is fair game, apart from town where you need to use one of the many motorcycle parks.
After leaving Porlock we headed along an old Toll road. I presume this is a private road as you still have to pay a toll to use it. The charge for cars is £1.50 but it’s only 50p for motorbikes The road could do with a bit of repair work but that makes it all the more fun to ride on a 1200GS – it’s almost like riding off road!

Lastly was the Exmoor crossing, and it was considerably shorter than I had expected it would be. The highlights of the moor included my first river crossing. I was a little nervous as I didn’t know whether the section in the river would be slippery or not, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about. Also, one of the roads went through a farm yard, in which were a couple or terrier dogs. I started off being careful so as not to run them over, but then one of them tried biting my foot (thankfully I was wearing biking boots), after which I stopped caring and sped up – I don’t think I ran them over but I didn’t stop to check.

All in all it was a fun day out and proved to me how versatile the R1200GS is. It’s just as comfortable riding through the towns as it is tackling river crossings, although the latter is more fun by far.