We stayed at White Gill House with Ken and Barbie (yes really) and they certainly were terrific hosts (nothing doll-like about them at all) with a lovely property and a huge conservatory for us guests to use.
We knew it would be good when we walked up to the entrance and found a slate personally welcoming us and our accompanying party of 'The Smiths'.
Barbie and Ken were keen to usher us in so we could get our boots off and relax over tea and crumpets in the conservatory, but we were so enthralled with this welcome sign we wanted to stay outside a while and enjoy it. The outside became even more interesting when we heard some very loud squawks and discovered blue and gold macaws sitting in a tree just a few feet away. They have apparently gone rather wild after the death of their owner, and while a novelty for the guests, are a bit of a pain for the locals, being both noisy and fruit thieves.
We all found it rather amusing that Gio was reading 'A Parrot in the Pepper Tree' while parrots/macaws were sitting in an apple tree just a few feet away.
Barbie was a little worried about us getting meal as there was a big horse fair on and the town was very busy as a result. She helped us book a table at The Indian restaurant, The Mango Tree, where we'd enjoyed a good meal on the first night of our holiday, before catching the Pack Horse bus out to start the walk. We had to wait until late, but that wasn't really a problem as we'd had our crumpets and a complimentary sherry to keep us going, and it also meant we had time to have a pre dinner beer in the Black Bull.
While in the Black Bull, one of the guides who was leading a party of C to C walkers gave us a bit of a scare, when he started talking about the specific 'Blue route' that we needed to follow over the moor of Nine Standards rig the next day, as opposed to the 'Red route' which is used at other times of the year. We knew nothing about these new erosion control routes, and only had one route on our rather old strip map. We therefore had some internet homework to do before setting off the next morning. It didn't stop us enjoying our curry and a good night's sleep though.
Lots of love, Wooly, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx
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