Creatures of Habit

We have become a little guilty of re-visiting campsites - we've been to the Chertsey Camping and Caravanning Club Site three times, the Chichester Camping and Caravanning Club Site twice and now we have been to the Morn Hill Caravan Club site three times.

Morn Hill seems to be our default place to go for a one night stay in the Cali.  There are several reasons for this I think:

• In our experience so far the Caravan Club sites don't seem to have the two-night minimum stay rule at the weekend (unlike the Camping and Caravanning Club sites)
• It's not too far from home, this is especially important in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic
• It's relatively inexpensive in comparison to some other places in the area
• The site is open and airy with lots of lovely grass

When we arrived the site was full - this was the first time I've seen that sign outside (thank goodness we booked) and so instead of being able to choose a pitch we were shown which pitch was ours and this time it was in the lower section of the site.  We hadn't actually stayed in that part before so it was like a new adventure (sort of) ! 

The fish and chip van was parked up there as well and I remember seeing the sign for it during our last visit but had totally forgotten and it would have been perfect for our dinner that night (and avoided a detour to the supermarket) but we decided to be a bit healthier and eat the food we had brought with us.

As it was nice and warm we also managed to sit outside for a while and say hello to a few other people around us. The dogs enjoyed a bit of fresh air too.

I love how quickly we can be parked up and ready for the night especially in these summer months.  If there's no rain forecast we don't bother with the Cali topper and we also find nowadays that we don't need to roll the awning out for a one night stay, unless by some miracle the sun is beating down on us and we need to shelter from it (a rarity in the UK!) 

We did make a pact though that we need to explore new campsites and places to stop for the night - there is too much to explore for us to continue being creatures of habit like this!

Cheeky Stopover On Our Way Home

Having spent six and a half lovely days in Weymouth we weren't quite ready to go home so we stopped off at the Caravan Club site in Morn Hill on the way back just for one night.  We had been there before for one night without the kids but we wanted to see how the kids enjoyed it as this site has no playground and not much to do but the large open grassy areas and the peacefulness of the site has a certain appeal (we think).

The facilities are excellent and kept very clean and we found out that a fish and chip van comes every Friday (just a shame our visit this time fell on a Thursday!)

We were given a choice of three or four pitches as we were the first of the "one-nighters" to arrive and so we chose one right outside the reception/shop and made sure we were facing the right way to try and catch any sunshine that we could and fortunately it did come out for a little while!

We had a lovely BBQ for late lunch while the dogs did some sunbathing.

For dessert we treated the kids to some yummy New Forest ice creams that they sell in the shop onsite.

It wasn't an action packed stay at this sight but we find all the pitches to be nice and spacious and despite being near to a main road it is not as noisy as you would expect.

The kids enjoyed playing some games both inside the Cali and outside and the ice creams went down well.  When asked if they would like to go back to this site there was a resounding yes and I'm sure it won't be long before we are back.

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!