Sidmouth's Donkey Sanctuary & hidden beach | The secret locations of Travelling BP #2

This is the official first BP to the new series ''The secret Locations of Travelling'' still debating on the name but lets roll with it for now!

Firstly what you should expect in this blog post & similar blog posts to come, so each location that I talk about, is mainly to show the photos I've taken at them but I may also include things such as the locations history or what the place does etc, but also why it's classed a secret location.

HISTORY LESSON & THE CURRENT STAGE!

The Donkey Sanctuary was founded in 1969 by a lady called Elisabeth Svendsen, MBE. The aim is to make a difference to the lives of donkeys but also people all over the world.

The success of the sanctuary's previous five-year strategy has given them a solid foundation to build upon & during this time they have successfully

• provided sanctuary to over 7,000 animals on the farms 

• attended over 1,300 welfare complaints

• increased the number of countries in which they work and support projects from 27 to 38

• increased the number of donkeys in foster homes from 1,500 to nearly 1,900 in the UK and mainland Europe

• launched a new hospital that will give vital care to donkeys and mules for several decades to come

• launched a new Gift Shop, restaurant and Visitor Centre at their Sidmouth sanctuary to cater for the 350,000 people a year who come to see and learn about their work in action.

All information above has been required from their website - https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/

So there is a little background to them & how well they are currently doing! It's by far a well known location for a day out & the donkeys are by far great animals to see.

We first took a stroll around the donkey area, where one just happened to be having a snooze.

But not only do you get to see a range of donkeys, but the views straight away stand out!

We then came across this massive donkey, and I mean it was bigger than me almost, definitely bigger than Chloe, we noticed it was surrounded by children at the main area but noticed it's little shed at the back, we headed down towards there where to our surprise it came to us.

We then had a little friend join us too

Oh & if you haven't noticed lets not forget Chloe stole my jumper...

Couldn't tell if she's just really happy to have my jumper or wants a hug

I think we can all appreciate a little weirdness too, right...

on a serious note, that bundle of weirdness above mean's everything to me & already I was having a great day!

We then came across some of the younger ones in the sanctuary

Continue on and expect lots & lots & lots more donkeys! There was a lot, so you won't get bored! & even if you come here and aren't so keen on the donkeys, there's some great walks you can do, or even pop into the restaurant or shop!

Personally I've been here a few times & I wanted to take Chloe down one of the walks that headed onto a beach because I've never went as far as walking onto the beach before, take in mind it's a long walk down & this is one of the many reasons why im classing this as a secret location. Although the beach its-self is separate from the sanctuary, it does provide a great walk down & easy access to it.

Lets get to the walk

Im not to sure either, who Chloe wants to hug but it isn't me 😂 anyway this is part of the steep walk down, what as you're probably thinking we later did regret it but it's worth it so be prepared!

Everyone loves a sign picture, but as mentioned, there are a lot of walks you can do & getting to this point marks you back to the sanctuary or down to the beach.

You're looking at maybe a 10 minute walk down to the beach from this sign so knowing us you have to stop for photos

Rather fabulous right

And then some modelling, I can't tell you enough how beautiful she is!

Okay, we are finally approaching the beach so stay with me, the beach as well it's not easy to access from other sides, so we only had these 2 people besides us that were on it & I found the perfect photo opportunity

At first we were just planning to take a stroll, & then Chloe started picking up stones as you can see here

And focused very hard on building stone towers, what there was already a few that had been created

While Chloe did that I took some snapshots around us

And then we just went ''lets go in the water'', beach almost to our selves so let's go in the water

Take in mind that we had no towels & to be honest we had total forgot, & well this next photo pretty much shows that feeling once we remembered

The best we had was a tissue, to wipe each other feet & that was challenge to balance at the same time, I won't show the photos to that 😂

And that pretty much sums up our trip to The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, and yes the walk back up the hill also almost killed us, we were sweating back up but it was worth it in the end, we also went into the cafe and got some drinks & they have a shop we went around too, also the maze to what my surprise I've realised I didn't take any photos of, but the maze is well worth it!

And provided a great trip out!

Instead of heading home we headed down to the more touristy side of Sidmouth , did some shopping where we made a bracelet for Chloe's sister, for her birthday!

We ended it of with some food & walk along the side walk to the beach.

This has been the first blog post to this series & hopefully you enjoyed the story of our trip or at least enjoyed viewing the photos! If you want more of these please let me know! or let me know what I can improve on, I highly recommend visiting all the places in this blog!