Steve has now retired and although his official retirement date was 9 June (his birthday) he finished work on 28 May. We had a couple of days at home before heading off for the first of our retirement adventures - this one included three sites we've previously visited plus one new one.
Our first site was Exmoor House Caravan Club Site which is one of our favourite local sites. Although we travelled on Bank Holiday Monday the traffic was fairly light. We chose a lovely pitch backing onto the Mill Leat, which was in a small cul-de-sac of just three pitches. It was a very hot afternoon so after pitching we stayed on site for the afternoon.
On Tuesday the weather was very hot and sunny. We walked along the River Barle and across Anstey Common. This was a walk we've done before which meant we didn't have to do any map reading so had an easy, but long walk.
The following day saw a damp drizzly morning so we stayed on site - Steve spent the morning reading and I got my craft box out. By lunchtime the rain stopped so we went for a walk to Brushford.
Thursday saw a cloudy but warm start to the day. We walked along the River Barle, over Court Down, Higher Stockham Wood and back to Dulverton. We had walked sections of this walk before but also found some new paths.
On Friday we drove to Cheddar Caravan Club Site and had a very long journey as the M5 was busy and traffic was slow moving. We chose a lovely sunny pitch and after setting up stayed on site for the afternoon planning our walks for the following few days.
Saturday was a very hot sunny morning. Steve walked into town to fetch the newspaper and croissants for breakfast. We walked from the site along the top of the Gorge and through the Nature Reserve returning along Black Down. We had started this walk on our previous trip to Cheddar, but rain had stopped us from enjoying the last part of the walk. There was no rain this time and we had some spectacular views from the top of the down.
On Monday we had another warm day, although it was cloudy. We decided to have an easier day and walked along the Strawberry Line (an old railway line) to Winscombe returning to the Reservoir to walk the remainder of the path around the Reservoir and then back to the site.
Tuesday was another very hot and sunny day and we had a good journey to Devizes Camping and Caravan Club Site. The C&CC site allocate pitches and although the pitch was okay, it wasn't one we would have chosen as it was under a tree meaning Zeb got covered in tree sap and bird poo! We had a mid-holiday tidy up and then a lazy afternoon on site.
Wednesday was Steve's birthday and started with him opening his cards and presents. We had a walk along the canal, past Caen Locks to Devizes - this is a long, but easy walk along the canal. We visited Tea Inc in Devizes for tea and cake before returning to site.
The following day we wanted to walk the canal from Bradford on Avon back to the site. As there wasn't a direct bus route we booked a taxi instead. Bradford on Avon was described in our walk guide as a mini Bath, and it didn't disappoint us. After walking around the town for a while we walked back along the canal stopping for a beer at The Barge Inn on the way back. The day had been mostly hot and sunny with one small shower when we were able to take shelter under a canal bridge. Earlier in the day we had ordered fish and chips to be delivered to the site to celebrate Steve's birthday!
On Friday we walked back to the Caen Locks and had a pot of tea at the Locks Cafe before walking around the Diamond Jubilee Wood for a few hours and then returning to the site to sit in the sun.
Saturday was another travel day to Corfe Castle Camping and Caravan Club Site. We had an easy journey and had an allocated pitch at the top of the site adjacent to the rear gate leading to the path to Corfe Castle. It was another very hot day so we spent the afternoon on site.
The weather was even hotter on Sunday and we walked from the site to Creech Viewpoint for lunch and then returned to site. The walk was only nine miles but seemed a lot further due to the heat. We were both very tired after the walk and had an early night ready for the next day's walk.
Monday was another scorching hot day and we walked along the East Hill ridge to Swanage. It was another nine mile walk with a very steep climb to the ridge. After pottering around Swanage we caught the bus back to site.
Thankfully Tuesday was a little cooler as it was quite cloudy. Steve had put together a walk from the site along part of the Poole Harbour Trail to Wareham. We were a little too early for the bus so had a beer at the The Quay Inn before returning to site.
Wednesday saw the end of our trip and we returned home for four nights before heading off on our next adventure to Cornwall.
The weather was perfect during the whole holiday and the walks from each site were very different. Exmoor House is one of our favourite sites and we felt we could have stayed there longer as there is so much more walking we can do from this site. The Cheddar site is also very good and there is also so much more to do in the area that we will return again next year. Devizes is lovely, but we felt ready to move on as we had done enough canal walks and were getting fed up with cleaning Zeb every day so the bird poo didn't stain the paintwork! The Corfe Castle site is in a lovely location, but we were disappointed with the site. It's run as a franchise and didn't seem to be very well run. I'm sure we will return one day as the walks from the site are very good, but it's not top of our list.
31 May-16 June 2021
