Everyone tells me how lucky I am to live in a wonderful place like Victoria Falls and that it true. Not everyone has the chance to live just 10 kms away from one of the natural wonders of the world.

However, I come from Tiverton, Devon and was lucky enough to be brought up just that same roughly 10 kms (perhaps a little further) from Exmoor and how well I remember that beautiful place. The heather and the bilberries spring immediately to mind. Picnics with my family overlooking the Devil’s Punchbowl, clambering over the stones at Tarr Steps and that wonderful drive over the moors to Lynton and Lynmouth, always asking my parents about the terrible floods and loving the ride from Lynmouth up to Lynton on the cable railway!

Or, over the moors and to Saunton Sands – miles of sand, great for swimming and surfing in the summer, wild and windy in the winter but lovely at all times. The allegedly haunted Saunton Sands Hotel high up on the cliff – “can we go there” – “no darling we’re having a picnic” And my mother’s picnics were wonderful on Exmoor.

The treat of treats? The drive back from Exmoor to Tiverton and stopping for ice cream in Dulverton, and oh what wonderful home made ice cream it was!

Talking of bilberries us kids used to compete as to who could pick the most! Who had purple lips from eating not packing? Me! Home and my mother’s wonderful bilberry and apple pie with clotted cream for dinner dessert! Wow! Those are some memories!

Richard Chanter

Director
Chanters Lodge, Livingstone,
Zambia

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