Bideford Bridge Rotary visit Woody Bay

posted by Dave Tooke on Sat, 13/10/2012 - 16:56

Received this from our Commercial Manager and General Factotum, Dave Tooke - it certainly gives an insight into the amount of rain currently falling in North Devon and indeed elsewhere!

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As something a little different from the norm, you may like to put on the website this report from a party of Rotarian visitors to Woody Bay who visited us on Thursday.

Dave Tooke

Subject: Visit to the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway

David – thank you so much for your help yesterday, the trip was thoroughly enjoyed by all. I’ve attached my ‘summary’ - also copied to Bideford Bridge Rotary Club - for your amusement.

I will no doubt see you at some point soon

Roger Levick

Rotary Visit to the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway

Yesterday, a total of 15 hardy Rotarians and wives/partners/mistresses sojourned to Woody Bay Station, where we were shown around the Engine Shed, and had an interesting brief on the Railway by a very knowledgeable ‘volunteer’ called Nigel Thompson. They also have an older steam engine for sale which many decided that would be a suitable addition to Trevor Stanbury’s Milky Way (I’m sure Trevor will be suitably impressed that so many are interested in progressing his business interests)

David Tooke (the L&B Railway speaker at Rotary in April) who helped organize the trip was also on hand to offer other information on volunteering, funding, and how plans were progressing on land purchase in the future.

We were then able to board the train where we steamed down the existing track (1 mile of it), and then came back to a welcome cup of tea and toasted tea cakes – thanks for my tea Alan (Price)

That’s the nice bit and sounds great

however………………………………….

The day coincided with the equivalent of a bucket of water being poured over each individual every 10 seconds, and the alleged views over to Wales from the train, were limited to several very wet sheep trying to keep their heads above water in the fields. That, plus the steam generated inside the carriage (Rob Walker?) and the resultant misted up windows, meant that the sole source of entertainment was David James and Mike Nurse lovingly stroking the wide leather straps that held the windows in place – I can only imagine that it was some form of childhood memory or fond imaginings that gave them so much pleasure.

Even Mike Aitkin’s dog wasn’t too impressed with the rain, and looked totally miserable as Chrys ‘made’ him get out of the car, presumably so he behaved inside it – I don’t think Mike was too impressed with the amount of water that he brought back into the car.

In my travels, I have seen many rivers in ‘spate’, yet yesterday was the first time I have seen the A39 in ‘spate’ – the amount of water on the road was unbelievable – and driving back to Barnstaple ensured that my old Landrover was the cleanest it’s ever been underneath. The several cars who didn’t quite make some of the deeper parts will no doubt dry out at some point. I can only hope that every Rotarian arrived home safely – the evening news pictures of Clovelly in flood just shows how much water actually arrived over us all.

The consensus was that if Alan Glover had been a member of the party, then maybe the weather would have been much better, what that says about my spiritual relationship with him above, I’m not sure!

I have absolute assurance that the trip to Castle Drogo on the 13th November will be a dry bright crisp day – according to the Daily Star long range forecast which I am assured by Mike Cane has always proved accurate in the past.

Roger