West Country Holiday, Somerset July 2006 - page 2
Continuing on our West Country holiday with a walk
across the rather breezy Brean Down to Brean Fort, an enjoyable evening
meal in the holiday cottage washed down with some stimulating(!)
Somerset cider, and a wonderful steam train ride on the preserved West
Somerset Railway to Dunster and Minehead.
This is page two of three.
Somerset 1
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The sun was back on day three in Somerset so we headed to Brean Down to
walk along to the old fort. Here's Belinda taking a photo and
contemplating the zig-zag path up onto the peninsula. Ooo ar!
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Mike has our new camcorder in
hand and stopped for a breather halfway up the climb to Brean Down
peninsula. We're looking back towards the beach and, way in the
distance to the left, Burnham-on-Sea. The road here took us past
endless tacky holiday camps and caravan parks which was rather sole
destroying, but we refreshed ourselves on arrival at Brean Down with a
good cup of coffee in one of the two cafés.
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On the top of the very windy Brean Down in Somerset's West Country we
walked across the peninsula for about 1½ miles until we got to...
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...Brean Fort, where we enjoyed our picnic lunch while looking out
across the Bristol Channel to Weston-Super-Mare and the South Wales
coast.
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Built in 1870, Brean Fort was last used in WWII to defend Barry,
Cardiff and Bristol. In 1900 a soldier blew himself up in a huge
explosion when he fired his rifle down a ventilator shaft into the
magazine store!
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Mike's hiding somewhere in those old barrack quarter ruins at Brean
Fort, but it's difficult to tell one old ruin from another really (only
joking!). There's Brean Fort links in our tourist resources section.
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We returned along the old military road on the north side of Brean Down
and were rewarded with some terrific coastal views of Weston-Super-Mare
and got some great video shots
too.
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Back at beach level we couldn't resist a cooling ice cream after our
pleasant Brean Down walk in the hot West Country sunshine - mmmm,
nice! How did we get this shot? - check out our camcorder review.
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We also couldn't resist stopping by Rich's Cider Farm on the way back
to the West Country cottage and, er, buy some to try! How much
have you had? Ooo ar!
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Cheers! At the holiday cottage we knocked back some of the Rich's
Somerset cider (video clip)
while we cooked a delicious chicken dish, then washed it down with some
more cider. Then we had a bit more cider, then, well a bit more
and... oh well, might as well finish off the cider then! Ooo ar,
Ooo ar, Ooo ar!
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Day four and it looked like the hot sun was back to stay so we took a
trip on the heritage West Somerset Railway from Bishops Lydeard, near
Taunton, to Dunster and Minehead. The fare was £12.40 for a Day
Rover ticket and the journey a little over an hour.
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In the steam train's restored carriages we studied the West Somerset
Railway pamphlet and decided to stop off at Dunster as it promised a
more leisurely tourist experience than (we'd been forewarned) tacky
Minehead, the train's ultimate destination.
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Dunster station was an easy ten minute walk from town past some quaint
houses. In Dunster we looked around the shops, the castle grounds
and just chilled before seeking somewhere for lunch and found...
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...this attractive café in the centre of Dunster before...
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...returning to the station and carrying on up to Minehead. Here
they filled the steam engine with more water while we took a quick look
at Minehead (the forewarning was accurate!) before steaming...
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...back to Bishops Lydeard on the next West Somerset Railway train
through the lovely West Country countryside. On the next page of
our Somerset holiday: Cheddar Gorge and
Glastonbury >>>
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Somerset 1 | Somerset 2 | Somerset
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