We had a week's holiday with the kids and dogs scheduled for the first week of summer holidays and we couldn't decide whether to go back to one of the sites we had been to and liked before (see my previous post on being creatures of habit) or to find somewhere new and exciting to explore.
After much deliberation and campsite research (OK, a LOT of research) we settled on Hayling Island. We found a campsite which we thought would suit us all called Fishery Creek. It seemed to be close enough to all the seaside action but quiet enough to get away from it all and have a good night's sleep.
As luck would have it we arrived on a very hot Saturday afternoon to a very pretty campsite and a lovely pitch overlooking the creek. We had booked to stay for 5 nights and so we needed to set up a bit of a base camp. While we were doing that, the kids found and unpacked Twister to keep them amused for a while.
When we were all settled in we decided to go for an explore to see how far away everything was. It turned out that pretty much everything was on our doorstep thanks to a footpath running along the side of the creek which acted as a shortcut. It took no longer than 5 mins to walk to the nearest shops, take-aways etc and a further 3 mins to walk to the actual seafront. There is a lovely ice cream parlour which we stopped off at on the way to the seafront called Pepperelli's. They must have had about 50 flavours of ice cream and sorbet there so we were spoilt for choice. I opted for Champagne and Strawberry, my husband opted for Millionaire Shortbread and the kids went for Cookies and Cream and Chocolate Ripple. Yum yum.
We walked all the way to Funland (approx 25 mins walk from the seafront area nearest our campsite) to see what it was like. The kids had been there before a few times but my husband and I had never actually been there or indeed anywhere on Hayling Island. We were quite impressed with the variety of rides on offer and decided to come back and explore it properly later on in the week.
On the way back we found a lovely pub called The Olive Leaf which was approximately 15 mins walk from the campsite where we could all have a cold refreshing drink (including the dogs). They had a lovely bar/restaurant area inside but we opted to sit outside in the shade in their small garden area. The place had a lovely friendly feel to it and we had a feeling we would be coming back.
The weather was too hot to be out exploring though so we headed back to base to relax and have a BBQ. We played games, ate far too much food and laughed all afternoon.
The kids went to bed quite early after a busy day but we stayed up watching the sunset and chatting away. It's beautiful evenings like this that make you truly fall in love with the camping life.
In true British fashion, the weather didn't quite hold up the next day so we decided to re-visit that lovely pub The Olive Leaf for lunch. We were all pretty jealous of my step-son's burger:
Having said that all the food was delicious and we all finished our plates. The lovely thing about this place is that they do pretty much everything on the menu in a smaller portion for the kids as opposed to having an actual kids menu where sometimes we find the portion sizes can be a bit small for a 7 and 9 year old. Also they are very dog friendly with their own pub dog - a lovely Boxer.
As the weather was pretty chilly and windy we were hoping that Funland would be quite quiet (and we needed to walk off our lunch) so after going back to the campsite to change into some warmer clothes and jackets, we headed off along the promenade to enjoy ourselves for the evening.
It was really quiet, there were no queues for anything and the kids loved it. If you arrive after 5pm you can purchase a wristband which costs £7 per person and you can go an as many rides as you like, as many times as you like until 8pm. You can also bring the dogs along too - although beware of them eating enough fish and chips off the floor to keep them going for a week!
The kids had a great time but we were all getting a bit tired so we called it a day at around 7pm and walked back to the campsite to relax and have an early night.
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