Glorious Gidleigh — Steve Chivers Photography

Some say that a man is only as old as the women he feels! Well given that Mrs. C has spent the past 20 years basking between the magic ages of 39 and 40, I guess I have continued to feel extremely young at heart.

Another wise man once told me that ageing is just another word for living. As I look in to the bathroom mirror it would appear that I have certainly lived!

So as Mrs. C verges on becoming “a women of a certain age” (we have been married for 37 years and she tells everyone that she was a child bride) and given that we continue embrace the theory of “Carpe Diem” too its fullest extent, we decided to celebrate the occasion and book in to the wonderful Gidleigh Park Hotel, located just on the edge of the village of Chagford.

So we fired up the Polo, dialled Gidleigh in to the Sat Nav and headed across Dartmoor in search of paradise.

Now, I have neglected to mention that the wind was approaching 50 miles an hour and the rain was horizontal and coming across the moors like tracer bullets. Inclement weather can sometimes be an issue when driving across Dartmoor. However, regular readers will know that the Chivs have what is known as “Churchillian Fortitude” and basically this was a summers day for us hardy residents of Plymouth.

Now the problem with a Sat Nav is the propensity to blindly follow its instructions. As we headed through Princetown “Trixie” (yes that is the lady on my Sat Nav), instructed me in a polite yet domineering manner to turn left.

As an ambi-turner I immediately obliged only to immediately regret it! She had directed me down a country lane with grass growing down the centre of the road (always a bad sign in the West Country) that was only six inches wider than my car. As there was no turning point, the rain was getting harder and the light was beginning to fail I pressed on. Just when I thought things could not get any worse they did; we reached the bottom of the hill to be confronted with something that resembled the Sea of Galilee. The water stretched on for about 30 metres and there was no indication of how deep it was. I certainly could not reverse back up the road so “when needs must the devil drives” and I put my foot down and went for it.

Eventually and with some considerable relief on my part, we emerged on the other side relatively un-scathed and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Having crossed that particular rubicon we were greatly relieved to see the signs for Gidleigh along with another sign underneath which said “don’t give up you are nearly there”! Clearly there had been others who did not have our frontier spirit.

Then all of a sudden we turned a corner and there it was, our Xanadu, the Glorious Gidleigh Park Hotel.

As we walked through the main door I knew we had made the right choice. There were pairs of Dubarry Wellies of all sizes tucked behind the door, just incase we had forgotten ours (we had by the way).

Dubarry - Just in case you had forgotten yours.

We walked past the inviting lounge which seemed to have the words “please indulge in a rather superior brandy and then snooze” written all over it.

The ideal place for a brandy and a snooze

Then we were welcomed by Simon, our General manager and as if by magic our bags disappeared and we were sashayed in to said lounge to enjoy a plate of smoked salmon sandwiches and a couple of glasses of red. Yes we were both in our happy places.

Gidleigh may be termed as “old school quality” so photographically I tooled myself up in a similar vein with the Leica M10P and 50 summilux. I was in 7th heaven with the surroundings and mood lighting.

A bit of still life en route to the room

I believe that someone had spotted that we were in danger of spending the entire afternoon eating smoked salmon and drinking red wine. Not a bad way to spend a wet afternoon, when a charming young man appeared and offered to take us to our room.

As we walked in a smile came across my face. The room was beautiful and on the window sill was a decanter of Medeira and a flask of cold water. I assumed the water was there in case of fire so we proceeded to tuck in to the rather cheeky medeira, accompanied by some rather lovely chocolate truffles.

Madeira and chocolates - The flask of water was in case of a fire!

At this point I had a serious look outside the window and we certainly had a room with a view!

Room with a view - I spy a potential bench of contemplation

So reluctantly we tore ourself away from the Madeira, borrowed a couple of pairs of Dubarry’s and headed off for a walk through the grounds.

As you can see the grounds are absolutely beautiful. Everything is of course wet and damp, after all this is Dartmoor England although, the woodland is in fact almost like a tropical rainforest.

We managed our 5000 steps and headed back to our room, only to find that a bottle of Champagne had been placed on the dressing table with the compliments of the Management. That was going to make that long soak in a hot bath even more enjoyable!

Dinner was booked for 7.30 and Management had suggested that we might like to arrive a little earlier for an aperitif. Always polite Mrs. C and I duly obliged.

Dinner was absolutely delightful. There was no rush and each course was carefully explained by the Maître D’. I have included the menu for reference.

For the record, I started with the prawns, followed by the venison and ended with the cheese, all accompanied by a cheeky little claret. In addition there were various amuse bouches and pre-deserts and the whole culinary experience was quite fantastic.

Following dinner we moved back in to the lounge for coffees and petit fours and with a very nice touch our hosts sent a delightful message in celebration of our birthdays.

What a fabulous way to have a joint celebration of us both becoming personages of a certain age. Next morning we rounded things off with a traditional “Full English”; basically a pork-fest including wonderful black pudding and a local delicacy, hogs pudding!

Good things always come to an end and it was then time to fire up the polo and head back to Plymouth (this time ignoring Trixie and taking the A38 dual carriageway).

Ah, you thought I had forgotten. No blog can end without the Bench of Contemplation.

So that was a little Glimpse of us celebrating a major milestone in our lives. Still very much in love we continue to Carpe Diem and make the most of every minute together.

Lots of adventures to come so stay tuned and warmest regards from a wet and windy Plymouth.