North Devon Camping

My big sister turned 30 this week! To celebrate we both took the week off and headed to our lesser visited part of Devon - the North. 

Tuesday, 30th June 2026

We based ourselves in North Morte Farm campsite by Mortehoe, where we set up the tent with gorgeous sea views - a very happy Caitlin. 

The lovely wee Mortehoe. 

Spot our tent. 

Sunset!

My first present to Cait was matching contour-design fleeces. They fit surprisingly well, considering to get the design I had to order children's XL. 

Wednesday, 1st July 2026

On Wednesday we walked around Morte Point, and saw seals!

Rocks

Seals

The point. 

Also sheep.

And cows (not pictured). 

A big food shop then chips for dinner!

Thursday, 2nd July 2026

On Thursday we headed out for our first activity of the week - coasteering. This essentially involves walking around the coast and jumping off rocks. Cait loved the sea and threw herself straight in - throwing herself off rocks was not quite as strong as her enthusiasm for sea swimming. See videos...

That evening we visited a longtime friend of Caitlin's for dinner. I was very excited to meet their gorgeous guinea pig (and of course their lovely baby). 

This is Persephone. 

And the baby is Matilda.

That evening we enjoyed the sunset. 

Friday, 3rd July 2026

Time for our second activity day - surfing! The day was sunny, and we remembered to put suncream on this time. We learnt some lessons from our hand-only sunburn from the wetsuits the day prior. 

We had a lesson at Saunton Sands, which was brilliant. It was Cait's first time and my ~4th time, and the waves were excellent. Straight and long, just right to get us standing up. Lots of fun, and lots of seawater swallowed. 

I treated myself to an ice cream (of course) before heading back to the campsite for a mooch. 

Cait continued with her amazing watercolours.

Goodnight from Floof. 

Saturday, 4th July 2026

On our final full day we had a lie in (I finished my 2nd book of the week) before heading over to Woolacombe for Cait to try her hand at surfing again whilst I got sand everywhere. Turns out she's not a surfing prodigy (sorry Cait) - Saunton Sands' waves were just really that good!

Sunday, 5th July 2026

Happy 30th birthday Caitlin!!! 

We were hosted at mum and JC's new house in Cullompton and treated to their brand new BBQ - scrummy in the sun! Mark came down from Cardiff & dad over from Exeter for the day. 

Mum and I learnt that sparklers are not all created equal, and 3s burn out much quicker than 0s, so they weren't quite in the photos. Maybe she'll perfect the method for my 30th. 

Back to Cardiff to unpack and clean my camping gear - fortunately my wonderful dad was forced into let us borrow his tent and will be drying it at his house. 

Salzburg 🇦🇹

 Last week I visited Salzburg with some friends, mostly motivated by one friend's obsession with The Sound of Music... 

Friday, 5th June 2026

We travelled via Bristol airport to Munich airport, then 2 trains to Salzburg before arriving at our accommodation at 1am. I'm surprised it all went so smoothly!

I was intrigued by this English translation - Kiss & Ride anyone?

Saturday, 6th June 2026

Our first full day in Salzburg started with breakfast outside on the patio. The day mainly consisted of finding The Sound of Music locations - fortunately we revised for this (see blog - The Sound of Music).

Salzach river. 

The 6 of us - from left to right: Beth, me, Ellie, Helen, Alice and Kerry. 

Salzburg reminds me of Cardiff in one way - they have lots of little alleys and squares almost alike to our arcades.

Kollegienkirche (Catholic church). Very white inside but I liked the clouds. 

Possibly mountain drinking water? I also like their green pedestrian lights. 

Bürgerspitalkirche St. Blasius (another Catholic church), with lots of beer drinkers outside. 

I had Mark choose our magnet from afar - thank you Mark for taking pity on my indecisive brain. 

Our main stop of the day was Mirabell Gardens - known in the film for the Do Re Mi song steps and archway. 

Lastly we headed partyway up the Kapuzinerberg mountain for the views (not pictured). 

Sunday, 7th June 2026

On Sunday we took a bus most of the way up Gaisberg, getting off the bus at Zistelalm (if you can see it on the tiny map). 

It was about 2km almost directly uphill - my calves were aching for days!

Once at the top we had some gorgeous views of Salzburg and its surrounding mountains. 

We enjoyed a quick snack at the top. 

We decided that the quick hike up hadn't been quite enough for us, so I suggested descending as well - you're welcome, friends.  

Austrian flags painted on the trees along the route.

Partway down two of our group stopped at a bus stop, and the rest of us proceeded to walk fall all the way back home.  

At one point we passed a field, perfect for frolicking in. 

More views!

You can see the mountain we descended from here - the one with the pointy thing on top. And a cool looking house. 

That afternoon we headed to a local lido and had a lovely refreshing swim - no photos unfortunately!

At some point in the day there was a height analysis (as you do), followed by a delicious dinner. 

That evening we wandered out to see some of the squares in the Old Town. 

Außenorgel - outdoor organ. 

This was my favourite square - Petrusbrunnen. 

Kapitelschwemme sqaure with the Golden Kugel Kunstprojekt - a man stood on a gold globe. Mark played chess against a local when he visited here briefly - and won. 

Dom zu Salzburg (Salzburg Cathedral).

Residenzplatz

Monday, 8th June 2026

This was our super sunny day of the trip, so we took the bus to Mondsee lake. A gorgeous small town with a stunning lake. 

This is the church Maria got married in. 

Gorgeous views in the sun!

We found a lovely place where we paid 5€ to swim in a small area with inflatables, docks, and general things for me to grab onto, as well as toilets, changing spaces and an ice cream shop. 

I'm usually very nervous about swimming as it's not a strong skill of mine, but I felt safe here so was very pleased. 

Kindle reading time!

Tuesday, 9th June 2026

A more rainy day for our last day, so we headed back into Salzburg to visit Hohensalzburg Fortress. This included a trip on a funicular!

View from the top. 

Cute wee windows. 

The Salzburg Stier (bull). 

We enjoyed the walk back down too. 

We had dinner out that evening in an Austrian restaurant - I had dumpling soup and some others had some locally brewed beer (sorry dad - I'm still not a beer fan). 

Wednesday, 10th June 2026

Our day home consisted of lots of chunks - first we got a train from Salzburg to Munich. We popped out in the rain for an hour to have a quick look around Munich. 

We waited for this clock (Rathaus-Glockenspiel) to do its dance. Very exciting stuff. 

We then got the S-Bahn to Munich airport, flew to Bristol airport, then took a bus back to Cardiff. Time for sleep!