Hi all,

Saturday 16th marked 3 months to the Saturday since I picked up my Fabia from the dealership in Newport. Therefore I decided to take advantage of the good weather and do a commemorative road-trip and took the Fabia into West Somerset and up onto the vast wilderness of Exmoor. Good weather and some great photos: thought I would share some of the photos here and provide a bit of commentary also.

Having left he M5 South at J24 I made my way into the south of Bridgwater and found my way onto the A39 through Wembdon which took me through Nether Stowey and round to Williton: a good road for travelling on and mostly 60mph limit which allowed me to open the engine up a bit. I then took the A358 to Minehead. It was already nearly lunchtime by the time I got there (my fault for setting off from home later than I had planned) so, after buying some lunch at a store in the town, I headed up to Selworthy Beacon which overlooks Porlock. The first photo came from here.

After enjoying a quiet lunch I went back into Minehead and through the town to join the A39 near Bratton. En-route to the A39 I deviated slightly to Woodcombe, where many happy summer holidays were had over the course of 19 years in a cottage that my Dad used to rent from a work colleague until she sadly sold it. Woodcombe is a place I like stopping off at when the chance arises and I immerse myself in the memories it holds.

On joining the A39 near Bratton I headed through to Porlock and then down the lane to Porlock Wier which is the setting for these next two photos: the first one with Selworthy Beacon in the background.....

..... and the second one with Porlock Bay in the background looking over towards South Wales. On this one I am not sure as to the identy of the white thing above the car's roof on the horizon. I am guessing Aberthaw Power Station which does have a white-roofed building among its setup.

I then headed back through Porlock and turned right next to Doverhay Car Park. This lane winds its way to the hamlet of Horner: take a right turn at the T-junction and carry on along the lane through Luccombe and Wootton Courtenay and you come eventually to a T-junction with a road called Harwood Lane. Go left, travel a short distance and you come to the junction with the A396 between Timberscombe and Wheddon Cross. I took the right towards Wheddon Cross and then, at Wheddon Cross, I took the B3224 road to Exford and, after travelling through there, made my way over the hill, past the crossroads known as Chibbet Post and down to Landacre Bridge. This is a place I have known since I was much younger when summer holidays contained picnics here and lots of paddling in the water. There is an old bridge here (not sure how old) which, with the sun out, made the perfect backdrop for this photo:

After this I made my way back past Chibbet Post and through Exford and headed back to Wheddon Cross. I very nearly didn't make it to Exford though: as I was crossing some moorland between Landacre bridge and Chibbet Post some ****** in an oncoming camper van chucked a large glass bottle that landed on my side of the road and, of course, broke. Fortunately I managed to stop in time before I got to the glass: picked up the larger bits (later disposed of in a recycling bin in Taunton) and used my foot to move the remaining glass to the side of the road out of the harm's way to any passing car's tyre(s). Regrettably I failed to take the camper van's plate number.

Crossed the A396 at Wheddon Cross and carried on to Taunton via the B3224 during which I came across this fairly self explanatory sign which I randomly took a photo of.....

..... and, at Bishops Lydeard, joined the A358. Then through Taunton and onto the M5 back up to Bristol and home.

A good day and perfect weather.

Dave

Edited 17 October, 201015 yr by DaveHarries

... I came across this fairly self explanatory sign which I randomly took a photo of.....

Lep, sheep don't make very good tractor drivers

Nice one Dave, can't beat a little road trip from time to time, nice clean car

Thanks, Leeland, for your comments on the Fabia's condition.

Its fuel economy is impressing me quite a bit. I was away for a long weekend from 8th - 11th October and put £40.50 of Diesel into the car before setting off. Over the weekend I managed 262 miles on just a fraction more than half a tank. Mostly driving on A-roads and a bit on the M5. Good trip and very pleased with the smoothness of the drive while was on the A303.

Dave

Edited 17 October, 201015 yr by DaveHarries

Absolutely! Well altered.

Dave

I was around that way not so long back, it is really beautiful, with some lovely scenery, and some very nice roads to go with it too!

Nice photo's too, I especially like the one with the bridge in the background, good job!

Nice pictures Dave

Steve

I was around that way not so long back, it is really beautiful, with some lovely scenery, and some very nice roads to go with it too!

Nice photo's too, I especially like the one with the bridge in the background, good job!

Yeah great scenery: I like stopping and watching the ponies when I am up there too.

The green tones of the grass on the pictures was helped by the fact that I have a 'Natural Green' setting on my camera: makes a real difference to the quality of a photo. The bridge picture is now my profile photo on Facebook.

nice clean car

Not so now: took it down a rather muddy lane in North Somerset (between Clapton-in-Giordano and Clevedon) on 30th October and Fabia now needs a wash. Will spend time on Friday cleaning the car up a bit prior to its - and my - first Briskoda meet (WSM, 6th November). A briskoda.net sticker arrived in the mail today and now adorns the car, just above the tax disc.

Dave

Dave

Edited 1 November, 201015 yr by DaveHarries