Pilton Festival

Pilton Festival, known locally as Green Man Day, has been previously reported on in this blog. Held on the third Saturday in July it is an event which draws crowds no matter what the weather, but yesterday, in temperatures approaching the thirties, it was jam-packed.

In years when my children were younger it was a day of expense, as almost every fairground ride and kerbside stall had to be visited. Now, they have grown out of such things. Now, the best thing about the day is the live music. There are three music stages aptly named 'bottom', 'middle' and 'top'. The best, and the one that pulls in the crowds, is the Bottom Stage, and band that everyone talks about the most, 'The Liquidators'.

My 12 year old spent the day with friends spending her own money. My 16 year old, who wandered around with us, was quite happy to be bought a Hockings ice-cream but nothing else drew her eye. We wandered around for a while, then bought beer from one of the local pubs and stood about with the sweaty masses listening to 'The Liquidators'. When the heat got too much we came home again. Typically British - we moan when the weather is crap and still moan when it's glorious!

Tarr Steps

This is a beautiful and popular picnic spot on Exmoor and we came here to day to enjoy the sunshine along with many other people. I have never seen Tarr Steps so crowded.

Tarr Steps can be found easily by driving through Dulverton and following the signs. There is a large car park with a visitors centre half way down the hill to the river and then you have to walk the rest of the way. We decided we'd try and follow the Google maps suggested route today, via North Molton, and ended up approaching on entirely the wrong side of the river where there is no car park and no access to the official one unless you want to drive through the river. Driving through is perfectly possible, if you have a 4x4, but not if you are in a Citroen. So we drove back down the road for about a mile, until we found a small clearing to park in and walked from there. It was a nice enough walk, but not the one I was planning on.

The nice walks around Tarr Steps take you through woods and fields and along footpaths, not roads.

We enjoyed our picnic though. The dog had a lovely time chasing a stick into the water. She even got the hang of letting it go again so we could throw it some more. There was hardly a space available on the grass there were so many people there - and lots of other dogs too. The cafe was doing a roaring trade, as was the ice cream van. We stayed for a couple of hours, until the children started moaning that they were too hot, then returned the same way we came.