Exmoor

Katie and I spent a few days in north Devon last week. We stayed in a cottage in a small village just south of Exmoor. A combination of poor weather and chemotherapy related fatigue meant that we didn't get out and about as much as we'd have liked but it was still an enjoyable trip.

The moor itself doesn't appeal too much to me but the coastal scenery is stunning as are the river valleys and coastal forests of the area. The trees in the forests are festooned in moss and lichen with lots of ferns and bracken covering the woodland floor; they remind me of the temperate rain forests I've seen in some other parts of the world, notably British Columbia.

Katie and I last visited Exmoor in 2009. At that time we were in training for the gorilla trekking trip we made to Uganda in the September of that year. We were spending as much time as we could walking in order to build our stamina and Exmoor provided some great terrain to practice in. This time around I found myself struggling to walk more than a short distance; the last round of chemotherapy took more of a toll on me physically than I initially realised. As the week went on I did make a recovery and on our last day we were able to take advantage of some rare sunshine to walk through some of the most beautiful English coastal scenery, the photo below is typical of the view:

I'm due to have my next treatment on Monday though that assumes that my white blood cell count will have recovered sufficiently, something that remains doubtful given the experience from the previous two chemotherapy cycles.