Final leg of the 2012 tour ..

As October swings into its full autumnal shades of scarlet and ochre the funbus made its end of season pilgrimage to its adopted UK spiritual home in North Devon - the delight that is Croyde.

small but beautifully formed ..... just like me!

                                                     Its a smashing little place with a gift of a beach that just keeps giving. Whilst the rest of the country enjoyed typical dour weather we basked, yes basked in warmth; cloudless azure skies and genial bonhomie amongst the weird and wonderful fellow pilgrims who share our interest in good beer, good food, easy living and splashing around in the sea. Refreshingly these are not the beautiful people one associates with surfing but genuine lovers of individual freedom and more importantly, not caring what they look like in a wetsuit.

Well the water was good and the swell more than adequate for good runs and tumbles. The boards were well used and the only disappointment being that we had to use full suits instead of the shorties, which meant no bronzed forearms glistening in the sun as the sea water dries (we wish!!). As you would expect much gentle fun was had and we thoroughly enjoyed splashing around.

Having worked up a thirst and exercised mightily, it felt only right to avail ourselves of the services provided by the local hostelries, two were chosen and sampling began. We started at the Thatch with the famous and renowned St. Austell brewed Tribute ale. It was first brewed in 1999 to commemorate the solar eclipse and has been going strong ever since. We liked it so much we stayed with it all evening - even when we moved on to Billy Budd's. Just like the legendary Doombar we are pleased to recommend Tribute as a damn fine libation.

Good Ale here at the Thatch.

...and here at Billy Budds

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The added bonus of the final sojourn is the annual clearing of the van - weird and wonderful foods were discovered in the larder resulting in wonderful concoctions all swilled down with copious amounts of vin rouge as long lost supplies were found and consumed with much gusto! However the highlight were the mighty rib-eyes that the Bish cooked to perfection together with the piquant..very piquant! rice , onions and sweetcorn. 

Saturday morning was memorable as I could not find my Blackberry. I was torn between elation at being free from work but cheesed off that I was unable to communicate to the beautiful one and offspring let alone the wider world. We hunted high and low but to no avail. So using Bish's trusty Nokia I made the required calls to work and O2 to cancel the number. Having now returned to reality, a new phone has been sourced and I am back in the grip and control of work - alas!

Here are some snaps to prove we were basking in sunshine at the end of October. 

They do say the sun shines on the righteous !