So this afternoon we decided to leave our car sitting where it is, and try walking along some of the public bridle paths and footpaths through the woodland areas.
Some paths have gravel, concrete, or bitumen, sometimes there are steps or stiles to climb over.
At the bottom of our hill we came across this Gatekeeper's Cottage. It was closed, but through the dusty windows we could see someone sitting at a writing desk ... a dummy for the displays that are open in summer.
There were several small lakes - ponds, really - and lots of these very unfriendly plants with massive (prickly) leaves.
The ducks seemed very glad to see us, all twenty or so of them came across the water at us like exocet missiles - but we had nothing to offer.
This little robin hung around like he was trying to get our attention - in all the stories you are supposed to follow the robin ... but when he headed into a dark corner behind the big prickly leaves we decided we weren't in the stories.
And then the path led right through this house, with the gate that is closed at dusk - these days that would be around 3pm.
Then we came to Cockington Village. I gather in the summer this place is a tourist Mecca. Everything closes between September and Easter.
It's certainly very rustic. We had been walking about an hour, it was 3-ish and it was getting dark - time to head back up the hill to our place.
