Blackdown Yurts

If you’re all fired up by your wildlife haven stay, you’ll have a fine feathered time at Yarak Birds of Prey Experience, 20 minutes’ drive away; book in advance to spend some close-up time with the kestrels, hawks and golden eagles. Those more moved by earth-movers and excavators can expect rides and rumbles aplenty on the assorted heavy plant machinery at Diggerland Devon (15 minutes) while a similar distance away (and utterly the opposite type of gig), Children of the Forest take kids and parents on woodland quests involving foraging and tracking, den building and campfire cooking. Whichever stretch you’re heading for, and whatever you’re intending to do on it, the coast is about 45 minutes’ drive away. Exmouth is the sandiest, and therefore most suitable for bucket and spade activities; Sidmouth’s favoured by rockpool explorers and surfers, and the bit between Lyme Regis and Charmouth is a magnet for fossil hunters. If you haven’t managed to extract an ichthyosaur, visit the one at Charmouth Heritage Centre, a shark/fish/lizard-like beast chipped out of the cliffs by a local expert in early 2016; further fossilised finds can be perused at the Dinosaurland and Lyme Regis Museums. Brought your boots? Link up with the South West Coast Path for clifftop rambles anywhere between Exmouth and Lyme Regis, or head into the Blackdown Hills for higher wanderings, taking in pastures and woodland, deep valleys, ancient ruins and abandoned mines.