Father and son head to the West Country

Somerset_FatherSon Points of View...

Father and son Graeme and James Spratley head to the West Country for a spot of bouldering, mountain biking, surfing and male bonding…

: Written by: David; Last Updated: 07 Jul 2014

Dad says...

A few days of activities on Dartmoor and Exmoor – just the thing for a middle-aged father and his 15-year-old son. As he sat bored and silent in the car as we headed west, I wasn’t quite so sure that this male bonding lark was going to be as simple as I had thought. Just to wind him up I carried on listening to Radio 2.

Moretonhampstead is on the edge of Dartmoor, and was the base for our brief visit, and is pretty in the way that Devon villages are, although I sensed a touch of the Royston Vaseys – possibly because of the man I saw eating his evening meal from the top of the rubbish bin outside the local Co-op store.

Next morning, stuffed full with a ‘traditional English’, James and I had a bouldering appointment to keep. At last, I’d find out what bouldering is. Driving over the cattle grid onto Dartmoor was like driving to another country. The topography changed almost immediately from chintzy Devon to a bleaker, treeless landscape.

Hounds Tor is the location for the book and the film The Hound of the Baskervilles, and boulder strewn, it served as the rendezvous location with Mark, our instructor. Scrambling over boulders, I thought ‘I can do this’, but that was just the warm-up. Mark then got out some special bouldering shoes, except he didn’t have my size. They fit like a second skin, and give superb grip. The only other kit you need to boulder is a crash mat for when you fall, and powdered chalk for grip. No ropes, belays or other clobber.

It’s very easy to get started, although I found that wearing the wrong shoes, it wasn’t possible to go beyond simple moves. James took to it very well, so Mark said, but I think he was just being kind. Boulder climbs are called ‘problems’, and although you are never more than a few feet off the ground, there are some incredibly tough challenges. It’s good for the appetite too and back down in the Hounds Tor car park, refreshment is available from the ‘Hound of the Basket Meals’ mobile cafe. Brilliant!

Next up was Croyde for a spot of surfing. James and I have been a few times before and had been taught by the excellent Surfing Croyde Bay school. There is nothing like bobbing around on the ocean waiting for a wave, even if you can only stand up for a few seconds.

And so on to Exmoor. The thatched Royal Oak in Winsford, Somerset was built in the 12th century and has four-poster beds. With great food and a friendly bar, it’s little surprise that it was recently in The Independent’s Top 50 B&Bs in Britain. The only downside was having to share a room with an amobea.

Our next activity was mountain biking. I love a bit of mountain biking, but James less so, as it resembles hard work. Rob and Helen run a B&B called Highlands, near Minehead, which offers special weekend mountain bike packages. We were both impressed by the standard of kit available for guests: our Marin bikes were worth about £1,500 and as we found out, they could take quite a pounding. Off we set, downhill into Minehead itself, along the sea front, and then suddenly heading sharply uphill into the trees above the resort. A fairly steep climb eventually revealed stunning views over the Bristol Channel, before Rob led us through the Somerset countryside along more steep climbs and hairy descents, followed by even steeper climbs.

By now James was getting tired and pining for his Playstation 2, but Rob, grinning – in hindsight, grinning sadistically – assured us there was ‘only another mile and a half to go’. We heard this three times over the next two hours. At a certain point, James begged me to stop as he couldn’t go on. Oh joy! Like a good father I told him not to be ridiculous and get on with it. Eventually we got back to base, and Rob, still grinning, looked as fresh as a Wimbledon strawberry. We were done for – but what a ride. I suppose I can even say I had a great time with James. Bonded by exhaustion!

Continued...

Somerset_climbingBolder James says...

Reluctantly I went on a ‘bonding’ trip to Somerset and Devon with my dad. He thinks he knows everything about outdoor pursuits, so I was a bit bored listening to him ramble on in the car. He also tries to wind me up by putting Radio 2 on, so I made sure I had an iPod earphone in the ear he couldn’t see.

Our first activity was bouldering, with a great instructor called Mark Garland. It started off sunny but like most ‘summer’ days it was windy and inevitably started to rain. But the bouldering was great fun – there are great places to climb in Dartmoor. You definitely have an advantage if you have good strength and power, so I struggled to start off with, but eventually started to take to it pretty well, according to Mark. Dad was a bit moody because I was better than him.

Bouldering is climbing, but at a lower height – between three and five metres. Looking for routes can be puzzling because you need to take the ones that you are comfortable with. Chalk gives you the extra grip that you need to get up the rock.

To make it a lot easier you need climbing shoes that are just like a sock because they are so tight to your skin; it helps to wear a size smaller than your shoe for them to work perfectly. Mark gave me a pair of climbing shoes and I found it easier with them on. He didn’t have a pair for my dad and he was complaining because he kept slipping and blaming it on the shoes he was wearing.

After climbing, we went to Croyde Bay to surf. I have been before, but a few years ago. Although the weather wasn’t so good, we still had an excellent time because it doesn’t matter if it rains – you’re going to get wet anyway.

That night we stayed in a really old B&B. It was really nice apart from having to share a four-poster with a strange old man!

The thing I remember most about the trip, though, is the ‘challenging’ bike ride that we went on. The main reason it was so challenging was having to put up with my Dad, who thinks he’s a pro bike rider! Our guide Rob gave us two great mountain bikes with full suspension and gears, and they certainly made the ride much easier. We started off from his house and we took a route through the town and up into the woods.

This is where it started to get difficult; it was uphill for a while then got steeper and steeper the further up we went. We ended up going for a 20-mile bike ride and the funny thing was that Rob always said, ‘it’s just another mile to go’. The most relieving bit of the day was when we finally arrived back at Rob’s house a couple of hours later, exhausted.

I enjoyed the whole trip, despite aching from the bike ride. It proves you don’t have to leave Britain for a good holiday. And I guess Dad was okay!

Useful Info...

Accommodation

Cookshayes Guest House, Moretonhampstead.
Web: www.cookshayes.co.uk
Tel: 01647 440374

Royal Oak Inn, Winsford.
Web: www.royaloak-somerset.co.uk
Tel: 01643 851455

Activities:

Dartmoor: