The Italian Adventure - Part 3: The Way Home

After spending a wonderful weekend in Lake Como for a beautiful wedding it was time to start the journey home.  We had two nights to break up the journey on the way back but we had learned a few things from the journey down that helped us out on the way back:

• It is much wiser to input your final destination into the sat nav (even if you are not intending to drive there in one blast) and then find suitable stopover points along the way thus avoiding going off route too much
• Electric hook-up when stopping for one night isn't compulsory when you're doing so much driving as the batteries have plenty of time to charge up to easily get you through the night
• If in doubt stop off at one of the service stations to stock up on your essentials just in case you don't find a supermarket near to where you are staying, or worse, they are closed.
• Wine tends to be cheaper than beer in France and Italy if you are fond of an alcoholic beverage as we are.
• Spend a few moments taking in your surroundings and enjoy the adventure

For the journey home we decided to power through Switzerland and get through as much of France as we could before stopping but sometimes things don't go entirely to plan.  We encountered some of the heaviest rain we had ever seen as soon as we crossed the border from Italy into Switzerland.

Then we came across a wall of traffic while trying to enter a tunnel (even though the diversion we attempted fully backfired on us as they had closed all the entrances onto the motorway that we tried).

About an hour later we arrived at the tunnel entrance and we were on our way again.  We couldn't figure out why but they were only allowing a few cars through at a time - we think this might have been because our sat nav had directed us through the new San Gotthard tunnel which is over 35 miles long!

Several hours of driving later including a service station stop to pick up some much needed  (and wonderfully local) wine we arrived at Les Portes d'Alsace Campsite which was approximately one mile from Saverne.  We found the site as it was listed on the Camping and Caravanning Club and Caravan Club websites but unfortunately there was no discount to be had and we paid around 24 Euros for our pitch with electric hook-up included.



Much to my surprise, this campsite didn't seem to have a restaurant or bar onsite (or maybe we were too tired to notice?) so we cracked open a bottle of the local wine we had purchased and settled in for the evening.



The campsite did seem to have a nice swimming pool though.



If only we hadn't been so tired and time-constrained otherwise I would have loved to spend more time exploring Saverne.  Still, we have noted it down as a place to re-visit in the future.

The next day after catching up on some much needed sleep we drove all the way to Calais and stayed at a lovely campsite called La Bien Assise.  We had our apprehensions as this site was so close to the port but we needn't have worried, it was part of the Les Castels group just as the lovely campsite we had stayed in as our first stop on the way down.

We did manage to get a discount here as we only have a small 'camping car' and we were only staying for one night.  They gave us a nice pitch with electric hook-up included for less than 20 Euros.



We met lots of nice people here who were either starting their adventures or going home and it was an especially important night for us as England were playing Iceland in Euro 2016 so to find a bar with a TV showing the football was very welcome (it was just a shame about the result!)



The campsite was very close to the Eurotunnel terminal and we took advantage of that by going shopping at the Carrefour Hypermarket before our crossing and picking up some bargains (and lots of wine!)

We really enjoyed our adventures through France, Switzerland and Italy and we are really looking forward to another visit in a couple of months time for another wedding but our destination will be Lake Garda for that adventure...

May Half Term Fun - Part 1

For May half term we packed up the Cali with us, the kids, the dogs, plenty of food and drink, clothes and games and set off to East Fleet Farm for 6 nights.  I cannot recommend this place highly enough, it is (so far) the best campsite we have been to with the best facilities and every photo on the website is actually how it looks in real life.

It was the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend when we arrived and the place was extremely busy but somehow it seems to function so well that we didn't really notice.  There are an abundance of showers and toilets (with an extra block that opens up during busy times) and plenty of washing up facilities, a laundry area and family shower rooms.  Everything was kept very clean.

We had a hardstanding pitch with a large grass area next to it where we could play swingball...

...or be an observer while escaping from the sunshine under the parasol with the dogs...

As this was our longest stay so far in the Cali we resurrected some of our old camping gear that we had decided to hold on to and set up a sort of 'base camp':

We found our Outwell kitchen unit to be particularly handy and it was great to have the extra outside space in the awning for food preparation and storage.

Even though we were very close to the fantastic playground, there is a games room near to the reception with all sorts of games and various exercise equipment which the kids very much wanted to explore.  The walkie-talkies that my husband had bought for them turned out to be essential for this sort of thing as it is a fair walk to that area depending on where you are staying in the site.

There is an on-site shop selling all sorts of camping equipment, games and essentials so we purchased a flag pole and windsock - this acted as a great identifier to the kids of where our pitch was so they could always find us (and we managed to find a VW one!) :

We spent the first couple of days getting to know the campsite, playing games and enjoying the start of our holiday.  It was perfect.

Weekend in Bognor

Suitably impressed with the Caravan Club site we visited at Morn Hill, we wanted to try another one of their club sites and so we opted for the Bognor Regis site called Rowan Park.  

The campsite was lovely and very clean with nice facilities.  We booked a hardstanding pitch and once again we were able to choose between a few options available.  I much prefer being able to choose our own pitch, I find it frustrating that the Camping and Caravanning Club Sites don't allow this.

We didn't want to put all of the awning sides up but we needed some shelter as the weather forecast wasn't looking great so we went for this option:

It worked out very nicely and gave us just the right amount of shelter and storage area but it was still quite nice and light inside the van, where we unfortunately had to spend most of the weekend due to the weather.

We did venture into Bognor though for a bit of seaside walking - we went quite early on a Saturday morning and had the place to ourselves.  It was lovely and certainly exercised the dogs nicely!  To walk into the centre of Bognor from the campsite takes about half an hour and there is plenty to do there.  If only the weather had been nicer!

There is a retail park just opposite the entrance to the campsite with a Lidl, Home Bargains, McDonalds etc so food and supplies are never too far away.  We did find it quite noisy at night though with lots of 'boy racers' on the main road outside the campsite.

The people were all very nice and friendly on the campsite and we met lots of other dogs too.  We made good use of our new wi-fi gadget by watching the rugby and having a few beers in the van.

We would love to come back to this site in nicer weather so we could see a bit more of Bognor but we had a nice relaxing weekend so all was not lost.

Caravan Club and a New Gadget

With this new camper van addiction of ours slowly taking over, we decided to join the Caravan Club to give us more options of places to stay.  Our first Caravan Club site experience was at Morn Hill and it did not disappoint.  This is a lovely campsite - it's by and large quite peaceful but some of the pitches are adjacent to a main road so I can imagine it getting rather noisy during peak times.  

There is a lovely shop on site selling all the essentials and (more importantly) ice cream. Also, you get to choose your own pitch - even if you are staying for one night!  OK, so during busy times they do reserve the right to allocate a pitch to you for a one night stopover but it wasn't busy on this occasion so we drove around the campsite and chose our pitch.

It was perfect for us and the sun came out to play so we had a lovely day BBQ-ing in the sunshine and enjoying life.



We also tried out our new gadget - an EE Osprey 2 Mini-Mobile Hotspot.  This beauty gives us 50GB of data to use every month for just £30 per month (it was a half price when we signed the contract - usually £60 per month!) The 4G speeds are quick and it allows us to watch TV on our computer without eating into our personal data plans on our mobile phones.  This will come in handy when the football is on!

Castles and Cider

Bank holiday weekend with no kids...it's off to Corfe Castle we go.  This was to be our longest stay in the campervan since we bought it - three whole nights and we were so excited about it.  We booked the Corfe Castle Camping and Caravanning Club site.  It looked pretty in the pictures and it was somewhere we had never been before.  When we arrived we were totally overwhelmed by the beauty of the place.

The site itself was quite small and hilly, our nicely secluded hard standing pitch was about half way up the hill but had been levelled out well and the weather was promising to be quite good so no need for the awning sides either.  We just rolled out the awning, put the Cali topper and thermal windscreen on and we were ready to start our holiday.

The facilities were very clean and all contained in one block which was at the bottom of the hill so they were a bit of a walk from our pitch but as the campsite was quite small it wasn't too bad. Imagine our delight when the fish and chip van arrived at 6pm - it was just what we needed after the long drive and it was delicious.

We didn't get much of a lie in the next morning as the sun was shining and it seemed like too good an opportunity to go for a run and explore the area.  The hills were quite challenging (it was a bit like running on the spot in some places) but the views made it worthwhile and hey, it's all good exercise!

We took the dogs for a walk up Bucknowle Hill which overlooked the campsite and the town of Corfe (and most of the surrounding areas) - we could see the sea from up there and it felt like we were on top of the world.  Looking down at Corfe Castle was pretty spectacular as well and we noticed that there was a special Viking event happening there for the weekend.  Great fun. 

It took about 15 minutes to walk along the footpath into the town of Corfe from the campsite. 



It is a lovely and very picturesque town and it was buzzing with lots of bank holiday activity including a beer and cider festival at The Greyhound Inn with live music.  There were some lovely unique shops which we enjoyed browsing and a convenience store where you can purchase the essentials.  Needless to say we parked ourselves at the beer festival for a few hours enjoying the atmosphere (and lunch!) and sampling the local ciders.  When we went back the next day it was extremely busy so we tried a different pub and we weren't disappointed - it was called The Castle Inn and is well worth a visit.  If you're feeling brave have a pint of Old Rosie cider in the lovely beer garden.



As usual we learned a bit more about our Cali and how best to enjoy it:

- You can strap the interior table to the headrest of the bench seat and turn it into an extra work-top, like this:



- We don't need to set up a 'base camp' when the weather is nice - it's perfectly acceptable to simply roll the awning out as and when you need it and not bother with the awning sides.

- It's nice to have the fridge stocked with lots of food and drink but it's also nice to appreciate the local food and drink and take advantage of the yummy fish and chip van (where available) and the pizza van (although we managed to restrain ourselves from that one!) 

We really took our time, relaxed and enjoyed the camper van - we also met two other Cali owners at this site so it was nice to hear about their adventures.  It was the perfect relaxing weekend we were hoping for and we would love to go back to this campsite and explore the surrounding area further. 

Singing in the Showers

After much searching and discussion of which campsite we should try next, we found this nice place in Henley-on-Thames called Swiss Farm.  We wanted to go somewhere with good facilities, good dog walking and a nearby pub. As soon as we arrived we knew we were in for a treat, the campsite was clean and seemed well-organised with an onsite bar and restaurant. Also, Henley town centre was only a short walk away.  The price included wi-fi which was of a decent speed with good signal quality and a TV connection was also included for those with TVs in their units.  We noticed straight away that there were a lot of large units at this site including some spectacular RVs. 

As soon as we arrived, the kids raced off to play in the playground which had a good range of equipment for all ages and certainly kept them well entertained.  The pitches were all spaced out nicely and we were in a little section containing around 8 units. It didn't take us long to get set up and the weather was quite nice but we were all pretty tired so it was early to bed for us that night.  

In the morning, we had a wander around the campsite looking at all the different units and pitches.  There are two pretty large fields that looked nice for the tent campers during the warmer months.  The shower and toilet block was immaculate and nicely heated.  As an added extra they play music inside the block 24 hours a day.  I found this to be a nice touch and the music wasn't loud enough to hear outside so it wasn't a disturbance.  My step-daughter loved singing along in the shower (not sure how everyone else felt about that though) and we all agreed that it put a smile on our faces.  It also made those late night trips to the toilet when it's pitch black outside a bit less scary.  The washing up area was also labelled as a veg prep area (nice idea) and it was kept very clean and tidy.

My husband took the kids to the onsite restaurant for breakfast as a treat and then we all went for a lovely long walk through Henley town centre and then along the River Thames before deciding on a place to go for lunch.  



There were so many lovely looking pubs but having the dogs with us does limit our choices somewhat.  We decided to go to a pub called The Little Angel which was situated near to the river.  This turned out to be a great choice with delicious food for us and a great kids menu (the selection of wine wasn't bad either!)  The portions were enormous and the quality of food was very good. 

The weather was getting warmer and warmer so we walked back to the campsite and enjoyed a few drinks in the sunshine at the onsite bar while the kids enjoyed themselves in the playground.  We even managed to watch a bit of the Rugby!

There were some fields overlooking the campsite where we discovered we could walk the dogs and so the kids and the dogs had a good run-around there before bed.  There were also some pigs kept there and you could get pretty close to them so we all enjoyed saying hello (even the dogs!)  We thought this was a lovely feature and took the dogs there for another run-around the next morning even though the weather was pretty miserable and markedly different from the day before.



Packing up took no time at all and we were soon on our way home.  The camping experience this time felt really relaxed and enjoyable and we didn't feel like such complete amateurs. 

It was lovely to have an onsite bar and restaurant but we found ourselves not doing so much (if any) cooking so we returned home with a whole load of leftover food that we had brought with us and few less notes in our wallets!  

We will definitely be back to this site but can see it being very busy here during peak times.

Riverside Walks and Cooking Fails

Who says that you have to travel a long way to find a good campsite?  We decided to try the Camping and Caravanning Club Site in Chertsey as it was not too far from home, the reviews were good and the site was situated right on the River Thames.  The thought of some nice long walks by the river with a selection of nice pubs to try out along the way was too tempting to resist.  

We faced our fears and wound out the awning for the first time since purchasing the camper van.  It was very straight forward but we found that it flapped around in the wind quite a lot.  After a bit of research on the VW California Club forum we discovered that if you wind the awning back in a bit then it tightens it and stops the flapping around.  We laid a groundsheet down underneath to catch the mud from our shoes and the dogs' paws (can't believe we hadn't thought to do that sooner) and quite liked the look of our set up with the roof up and the awning out.

Feeling very satisfied with ourselves for finally winding out the awning we also thought it would be a perfect time for us to try out our new Cadac Safari Chef Deluxe and do some cooking under the awning. We are still not brave enough to cook inside the van and also don't fancy the idea of sleeping in our kitchen.  I guess that when the time is right we will use it but until then we are happy to cook in the great outdoors.

We pre-made a chilli con carne at home and brought it with us to heat up on our first night at the campsite.  Nice and easy!  However, showing our usual signs of cowardice, we totally wimped out of using the Cadac and instead took out the old reliable Outwell Appetizer Single Burner cooker.  Well, this turned out to be an epic fail as it was quite chilly outside and there was a particularly chilly breeze coming from the river so after about 25 minutes on the cooker our chilli was lukewarm at best.  We tried to ignore our rumbling stomachs and keep it cooking for another 10 mins but in the end hunger got the better of us and we ate our slightly chilly chilli.  Lesson learned.  

Since our last camping adventure my husband had the rear windows limo-tinted so this was another new thing to get used to.  I am personally not entirely keen on this as I find it makes the interior too dark.  At night time it is lovely but during the day I miss being able to appreciate the blue sky and sunshine from inside the van.  It is great for privacy and I'm assured that during the summer months it will prevent the inside of the van from heating up too much when the sun is shining on it but for now I remain not overly enthusiastic about this.

Despite the chilly riverside air, the weather was nice and dry so we managed to get and about with the dogs and enjoyed some lovely long walks along the Thames.  

You can walk along the towpath to Shepperton in one direction or towards Laleham in the other direction.  We decided to walk towards Shepperton and found a lovely pub to go for a bite to eat and a couple of pints called The Thames Court. 

The pub was around a 25-30 minute walk from the campsite and you can either walk along the road before picking up the towpath later on or walk alongside the river the whole way.  Needless to say if you walk along the river you are probably adding another 15 minutes onto the journey but we found it to be very enjoyable and it certainly wore the dogs out!

This campsite had a very homely feel to it. The facilities were excellent with a heated toilet and shower block, which was kept very clean and the washing up facilities were good too with plenty of hot water.  There is a BP petrol station over the road from the site with a Spar shop - perfect for the essentials, topping up with a few treats or buying a morning newspaper. 

We are looking forward to coming back to Chertsey.  Maybe next time we will be a bit braver with our cooking?

Fishing, Awning, Mud

We managed to fit in one last camping adventure of the season last year but we needed to be fairly close to home so we returned to Horsley Camping and Caravanning Club site http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/campsites/uk/surrey/easthorsley/horsley  for some fun and fishing.

This was our second visit to Horsley so we were quite familiar with it and the kids were very much looking forward a fun weekend there.  They are especially fond of the playground and the indoor games room.  I was looking forward to it for two reasons: 

1. It was my birthday;

2. My husband had bought me the Outwell awning specifically designed for our tent as a birthday present.

My husband, the kids and the dog were already at the camp site with the tent and awning pitched up by the time I arrived after work.  The pitch was quite muddy though and so everyone was getting quite mucky and as I had the majority of the food and drink in my car everyone was pretty hungry and thirsty too!  We wanted to have an electric hook-up and with the last minute addition of our awning we had to camp in a slightly muddier part of the site than we had originally booked.  However, I quickly unloaded the contents of my car and got stuck into the unpacking.  

The tent was now enormous with the new awning and the extra space inside was fantastic.

After an early night we all awoke feeling much better and decided to do some fishing at the on-site lake.  We caught loads of fish, made some new friends and generally had a great fun day.

It was getting chillier throughout the day so after having hot showers and a nice warming dinner we all cuddled up under blankets in front of the electric heater and watched some television.

All in all a fun weekend but maybe a little too cold and muddy for us to enjoy it as much as did our last visit.  I have no doubt that we will be back though!

Gorgeous Pink Sunsets

After much deliberation we decided to go to the Cotswolds for the August Bank Holiday weekend.  We wanted to do something special as it may have been our last weekend of camping for the year and we didn't have the children with us so it was only going to be for the two of us and our dog. 

We found a beautiful camp site called Ashspring Caravan & Camping http://ashspringcaravancamping.co.uk/ which is located in Great Rissington close to Bourton-on-the-Water.  Ashspring used to only accept caravans and motorhomes but with their new toilet and shower facilities and expanded site they can now accept tents.  When we arrived on Friday afternoon we had a good selection of pitches to choose from but we were faced with two challenges: the undulating,  uneven ground which made it hard to find a suitable area large enough to accommodate our tent and the distance to the electric hook-up when we eventually decided on our pitch.  However, with a few adjustments we soon overcame these challenges and focused on settling in.

After exploring the camp site and a bit of the local area while walking the dog, we cooked a nice curry, poured a few glasses of wine and enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets we had ever seen. We felt like we were in paradise.

The toilets were perfectly clean, the showers were coin operated but not expensive and the washing up sinks were cold water only.  This may seem basic to some but we found it to be perfectly adequate.

The next morning started off quite cold but soon warmed up and so we set off with the dog for a walk to Bourton-on-the-Water.  It took us about 50 minutes to walk there but we do a lot of walking and this didn't seem like a long way for us.  We completely fell in love with the town and spent a very enjoyable morning there.  

There was a lovely sewing shop called The Bourton Basket which had a surprising variety of stock and I managed to get some needle and thread specifically for tents so that I could fix one of the hooks which had fallen victim to my step-daughter’s slightly clumsy touch!

We returned back to our tent in time for some lunch and then wandered over to the local pub for a few pints of the local ale.  The local pub was called The Lamb Inn, it was approximately 10 minutes walk from the camp site and it did not disappoint.  When we returned to the tent, it was time to relax outside and enjoy another wonderful sunset in this beautiful place.

The air started to become slightly chilly as the night drew in and so we were happy to call it a night, retreat into the tent, put a few blankets over us and cosy up in front of our electric heater while playing cards and listening to the radio.

On Sunday morning the rain came and we knew that apart from our planned Sunday lunch at The Lamb Inn (I had phoned the week before to reserve a table) we were going to be largely confined to the tent.  Two very wet adults and one very wet dog arrived at the pub for lunch but dried off in front of the fire and settled down for a luxury meal.  It was probably the best roast dinner we had ever had and the perfect way to round off the weekend.

I will always remember our weekend in the Cotswolds for all the happy memories, the wonderful camp site and for not forgetting anything!

Spectacular Hilltop Views

One of my fondest memories of last year’s camping expeditions was our weekend spent in Watlington at White Mark Farm http://www.whitemarkfarm.co.uk/.  This was our third camp site visited in one week (after Hill Cottage Farm and Sandford Holiday Park) so we were rapidly running out of energy and desperately needed some rest and relaxation.

We set off with the addition of our dog (who had been on a holiday of his own!)  We didn't have an electric hook-up at this site, which wasn't a problem. We made sure to pack extra batteries for the radio and take along our portable battery charger for our gadgets.  We were also careful to make sure that the cooler was plugged into the car to keep our refrigerated items cold for as long as possible before we had to revert to is more traditional use as a cool box.

We were applauding ourselves on our careful planning and organisational skills, despite our exhaustion, and nothing was going to stand in our way of a lovely weekend.  About 45 minutes into the journey (when we were nearly there) and after trying to shake off the feeling that I had forgotten something, I realised to my horror that I had left a few important bags at home.  I could actually see them in my mind’s eye waiting for me just inside the front door.  After the 90 minute round trip back home to collect said forgotten items I eventually arrived at the camp site. It was just as I had expected it to be, if not better! The tent was already up  when I arrived (my husband still thinks that I forget things on purpose to avoid putting the tent up) and after some swift unpacking we were settled in.

The weather was absolutely glorious with a very hot weekend forecast so we decided to go exploring.  The camp site itself was wonderful with lovely clean facilities.  The washing up area had complimentary washing up liquid and scourers which I thought was a lovely touch.  Watlington itself is a lovely town with a nice pub down the road from the camp site and an abundance of restaurants and shops all within easy walking distance.  We couldn't have asked for anything better.

We awoke the following morning to the birds chirping, the sun shining and feeling wonderfully refreshed.  There are plenty of red kites flying around that are easily visible from the camp site and a curious white mark up on the hill overlooking the camp site.  We enjoyed some breakfast while taking in our lovely surroundings.  I remember my husband running back to the tent,  after what seemed like only a few minutes away walking the dog, with an excited look on his face.  He told us all to put our hiking clothes on as he had just found a great place for us to explore.  We hurriedly got dressed and set off on our adventure.  

We climbed the hill towards the white mark and beyond until we felt like we were on top of the world.  The views were incredible and we were all amazed at how far we could see. 

When we eventually returned to the camp site it was time to prepare for the arrival of our guests – Nana and Papa.  We started to prepare a feast for lunch.  Unfortunately our cool box had not held up so well in the 30 degree heat and we had to pop out to the local shop to replace a few things but it wasn't much of an inconvenience and certainly didn't make the day any less enjoyable.  The sunshine did become very strong so in the absence of a parasol we had to make use of our spare awning and create a bit of shelter.

 

We all talked and laughed into the afternoon and strolled over to the local pub for a bit of exercise and a nice pint (or two) before waving goodbye to our guests.

We were so sad to be packing up the next morning and wished we could spend more time at White Mark Farm.  Not only was our lovely weekend coming to an end but also our week of adventures had come to an end.  Our spirits were low as we packed everything up, the only plus side was that we had managed to do it all before the rain came along.

Congratulating ourselves once again on our good planning and organisation we set off towards home.  It was all going so well until I looked over at my step-daughter and realised that she wasn't wearing her glasses.  A quick phone call to my husband confirmed that my step-son was also missing his glasses.  Uh-oh, we were going to have to pitch the tent up in the garden at home in the rain to find the glasses that I had obviously left inside and hope that they weren't broken.  

In one final stroke of luck, the rain stopped for just long enough to allow us to quickly lay the tent out on the grass, climb in and retrieve the glasses (all perfectly fine inside their cases) …phew!

Holiday Park Fun

Now that I have overcome my "camping season is over" blues I am going to be looking back at some of our other adventures in 2015...

We stayed for four nights at Sandford Holiday Park http://www.parkdeanholidays.co.uk/dorset-holidays/sandford/sandford-holiday-park.htm straight after our weekend in the New Forest in August 2015.  We were looking forward to the range of activities and entertainment on offer to keep both us and the kids amused.

On arrival, we found the tent pitches to be very small and, in some cases, the ground was so uneven we couldn’t understand how a tent could be pitched over it. Our original pitch (number 293) would have just about accommodated the tent and maybe one of the cars but we didn’t want to feel squeezed in.  I went back to reception to ask for a larger pitch and they moved us to pitch number 221, which was much bigger so we got to grips with pitching the tent up. 

This was the first time that the kids had experienced the pitching up of the tent and they found it great fun getting inside and the pushing the sides up while daddy pumped the air into it.  We then asked the kids to look through all the paperwork we had received on arrival and read out what was on during our stay while we unpacked. 

We were quite overwhelmed with the range of activities and entertainment on offer so we decided to go exploring.  The main plaza area consisted of an outdoor swimming pool, an indoor swimming pool, two playground areas, a convenience shop, a bar/restaurant area, an arcade and a showtime entertainment club with its own bar and an upstairs bar area which also contained a children’s soft play. We sat down, had a drink and took it all in but being totally exhausted we retreated back to the tent for dinner and some relaxing time.

The camping facilities on offer at this resort were average at best and not very clean.  Some of the toilets in the ladies were missing toilet seats, toilet paper was not always guaranteed, the showers looked like they hadn’t been cleaned for weeks and hand soap was a rarity.  My husband also made similar comments about the state of the gents toilets.  The washing up area had plenty of sinks but no plugs, if you wanted a plug you had to go and ask for one at reception and pay a £5 deposit for it.  However, we put that to one side as this adventure was all about the kids and fun.

Being a very lively and busy resort there were no quiet times, so evenings could be noisy and early mornings tended to be even noisier with quite a few small children running around playing on their bikes and scooters from as early as 6am.  There are three levels of kids clubs at the resort, Tot Stars for the under 4s, Star Landers for 4-10 year olds and Freestyle for 10-15 year olds.  Tot Stars was always on first at around 9am, followed by Star Landers at 11:00am and then the Freestyle activities would be later in the afternoon.  The kids absolutely loved the Star Landers club and as our tent pitch was an odd number they fell into the ‘Lizard’ category.  This was a running theme throughout our stay as the two main characters for all of the kids clubs and entertainment was Lizzie the Lizard and Sid the Seagull.  

The evening entertainment was great fun with Bingo on every night for the adults and there was always something for the kids to participate in and enjoy, including a very special “Wow Factor” event featuring performances from children of all ages with a variety of skills and talents to showcase.  Needless to say this was one of the highlights!

My highlight was having our first electric hook-up.  What a difference it made to be able to plug in our cooler (a Waeco G35 Thermoelectric) and not worry about melting ice and food going off.  The cooler definitely came into its own during this trip and I can highly recommend it as it keeps everything nicely chilled and you can also switch settings so that it keeps your food warm if required - just remember to check that it is on the right setting before plugging it in ;-)

The kids still say that this was one of their best holidays because of all the fun activities on offer but I’m not sure we will be hurrying back…

Happy days...cold nights

Last weekend's camping adventure was to Hill Cottage Farm in Fordingbridge. The drive down was a long one but, as I had collected the kids, my husband had arrived before us and, once again, he had pitched the tent up and unpacked pretty much everything in time for our arrival.  How lucky are we? 

Just before this trip we were worried about the possibility of rain and very aware that we don't really have much in the way of outside shelter from the rain.  So we decided to purchase an easy camp awning which fits perfectly onto the front of our tent and serves as a great shelter.

Our inspiration came from this website, which is full of great tips and ideas http://www.getoutwiththekids.co.uk/camping/camping-tips/how-to-keep-the-rain-off-using-a-camping-tarp-kit/

On arrival the campsite seemed well organised with clear directions to reception and the pitches are numbered so it was easy to find ours. Our friends had arrived earlier too so after a few finishing touches from all it was time to start enjoying ourselves.

There was a playground for the kids, clean toilets, clean showers (behind reception) and a washing up area. All of the facilities were well maintained and there was electric hook up options for those who wanted it.  The night times are lovely and quiet and the view of the surrounding fields and woodland is very peaceful.

We decided to go to the local pub in Alderholt http://www.churchillpub.co.uk for dinner and a few drinks. It was an entertaining 10 minute walk through the woods and we were not disappointed when we arrived. There were games for the kids to enjoy and plenty of delicious food options for kids and adults alike. When we arrived back at the camp site we tried to stay outside for as long as possible but it was absolutely freezing and we were very tired so decided to have an early night. 

The next morning we awoke to lovely warm sunshine and in no time we were cooking breakfast and the kids were playing in the playground. We took a stroll through the woods again, this time to pick up a few essentials from the Co-Op in Alderholt and then we stopped in at the pub for a cheeky lunchtime pint and then headed back to the campsite to settle in for the rest of the day.

We were dying to try out our other recent addition, the Outwell Roast Gas BBQ with side table so dinner time couldn't come around quickly enough for us:

This BBQ was another last minute purchase and proved to be very useful. The side plates are great for extra surface space but they can also be folded in and used as cooking plates.  Another plus point was that the kids didn't have to wait too long for their food to be ready.

We all had a lovely time playing games, chatting and dancing into the evening until once again it became too cold to stay outside. One thing I have learned about camping in the New Forest is that the nights are freezing!

Once again the RAVPower portable charger proved to be extremely handy as we didn't have electric hook up and the BBQ proved to be our most useful recent purchase but we do need to purchase one of those electric mosquito bats and a heater would be very useful for those cold nights!

We are getting better at packing up now though and while we were sad to leave, we were looking forward to the next stop...Sandford.