Page 226 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

Coombe St; adult/child £5/4; The Drive » Head west
h10am-5pm mid-Feb–mid- 3 Dartmoor through Tavistock to pass
Oct) overflows with National Park through the Tamar Valley,
fossilised remains; look another AONB, on the A390.
out for belemnites, a Covering 368 sq miles, At Dobwalls, pick up the A38
plesiosaurus and an this vast national park and drive west along the
forested River Fowey to join
impressive locally found (%01626-834684; www. the southwest-bound A30.
ichthyosaur. Kids love the visitdartmoor.co.uk) feels Take the Victoria turn-off
lifelike dinosaur models, like it’s tumbled straight and travel northwest past
rock-hard tyrannosaur out of a Tolkien tome, Newquay Cornwall Airport to
eggs and 73kg dinosaur with its honey-coloured the Bedruthan Steps (62 miles
dung. heaths, moss-covered altogether).
Three miles east of boulders, tinkling
Lyme, the Charmouth streams and eerie granite
Heritage Coast Centre tors (hills). 4 Bedruthan Steps
(%01297-560772; www. On sunny days Dart- On Cornwall’s surf-
charmouth.org; Lower Sea moor is idyllic: ponies pounded coast loom the
Lane, Charmouth; h10.30am- wander and sheep graze stately rock stacks of
4.30pm daily Easter-Oct, beside the road, as seen Bedruthan (Carnewas; NT;
Thu-Sun Nov-Easter) runs in Steven Spielberg’s www.nationaltrust.org.uk/car
one to seven fossil- WWI epic War Horse. But newas-and-bedruthan-steps).
hunting trips a week Dartmoor is also the set- These mighty granite
(adult/child £7.50/3). In ting for Sir Arthur Conan pillars have been carved
GREAT BRITAIN 16 BRITAIN’S WILD SIDE
Lyme itself, Lyme Regis Doyle’s The Hound of out by thousands of years
Museum (%01297-443370; the Baskervilles, and in of wind and waves, and
www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk; sleeting rain and swirling the area is now owned by
Bridge St; adult/child £4/free; mists the moor morphs the National Trust. The
h10am-5pm Easter-Oct, 11am- into a bleak wilderness beach itself is accessed
4pm Wed-Sun Nov-Easter) where tales of a phantom via a steep staircase and
organises three to seven hound seem very real. is submerged at high
walks a week (adult/ Be aware too that the tide. Towards the north
child £11/6); local expert military uses live am- end is a rocky shelf
Brandon Lennon (%07854 munition in its training known as Diggory’s Is-
377519; www.lymeregisfossil ranges (p225). land, which separates the
walks.com; adult/child £8/6; Dartmoor is a haven main beach from another
hSat-Mon) also leads for outdoor activities, little-known cove.
expeditions. Book walks including hiking, cycling, The Drive » Drive east to join
in advance. riding, climbing and the northeast-bound A39, which
white-water kayaking;
The Drive » Drive west on the Dartmoor National runs parallel to the Cornish
the A3052 through the dazzling Park Authority (DNPA; coast, to the town of Lynmouth
East Devon AONB (Area of www.dartmoor.gov.uk) has in Exmoor National Park (94
Outstanding Natural Beauty) to miles in total).
Exeter and take the B3212 up detailed information.
into Postbridge, a small village in And there are plenty of
the middle of Dartmoor National rustic pubs to cosy up in 5 Exmoor National
Park (52 miles all up). when the fog rolls in. Park
4 p233 In the middle of Exmoor
National Park is the
higher moor, an empty,

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