Day 2: forty walkers ready to set off from Barnstaple!
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Barnstaple’s verdict…
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First gig of the tour!
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John Jones and the Reluctant Ramblers: on stage at the North Devon Beer Festival in Barnstaple.
The advantages of playing a Beer Festival…
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…and this is what awaits the thirsty Ramblers when they come down from Exmoor… Playing a Beer Festival has certain benefits…
North Devon Beer Festival – Barnstaple Pannier Market
This is where JJ and the Ramblers will be playing later tonight.
Day 1: Exmoor – the tour begins
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And the walk is underway! Shoulsbury castle trig point. Highest point of the day on Exmoor (472 metres). Heavy showers but short & intermittent followed by bright sunlight. The ground saturated & heavy going. All 40 walkers have done amazingly well so far.
(Meanwhile, the van team – who spent the morning swapping Oysterband instruments and gear out of the van and loading walking tour gear and PA – have arrived in Devon and are having the first debate of the tour about whether the jam or the cream goes on first. Practical tests inconclusive, further study required).
JJ and the band in the Western Morning News
Walking and Gig updates
Only two days to go now…
Details of the final Saturday walk are now given here.
Ivybridge has been awarded the accolade of a Walkers are Welcome Town status. Members of the walking club are joining us on the Friday and Saturday. Click here to see their brochure.
On the Wednesday evening at the Drewe Arms, two Morris sides will entertain us before the show. They will gather at 6.30 and take it in turns to dance until 7.45. See here for more information.
At the end of the Thursday walk, in addition to tea and cakes in Holne Church, conservator Eddie Sinclair, a long time friend of John and the Oysters, will be in the church to introduce the medieval painted rood screen that she has restored.
The Thursday evening show at the Barrel House in Totnes is sold out.
Meet you soon!
JJ interview in the North Devon Journal
JJ walks to Oysterband’s Bristol gig: day 4.
Sitting in the Devil’s Pulpit overlooking Tintern Abbey…We’ve walked for four hours this morning, a very tough walk but it took us through beautiful beech woods with the sun coming through the leaves and the scent of wild garlic.
Yesterday was beautiful countryside and a good walk during which we saw a hare as well as the snake.
Now we have about five miles to go to Chepstow and then a couple of miles across the bridge where I will get picked up for the return to my other life. I’ll be back with Oysterband this afternoon and I promise the Bristol audience that I will be there this time: showered, changed and on stage tonight! JJ
John Jones and the Reluctant Ramblers 