Cali has been back to Dulverton

We love the walking around Dulverton so booked another weekend at the Exmoor House Caravan Club Site at Dulverton.  After setting up on site on Friday afternoon we walked into town for a coffee before heading back when the sky started to get grey.  Unfortunately it started drizzling on Friday evening and rained on and off until we left on Sunday.

Pitch 12 Exmoor House - Steve with new camera

We didn't do the walk we had planned but it did mean that we had a very relaxing weekend and a chance to have a 'play' with our new camera.

The site is open until January, so we hope to book another weekend before the end of the year.

17-19 August 2018

Cali has been to Wareham

It seems ages since our holiday, so it was good to spend my birthday weekend in Cali at the Hunter's Moon Caravan Club Site at Wareham.  It's a lovely site that we visited regularly when we had our caravan, but this is the first visit with Cali.

Pitch 55, Hunter's Moon Club Site

We arrived on Thursday and spent the afternoon on site, moving our table and chairs to find some shade as it was so hot.  It was my birthday on Friday, so we walked from the site into Wareham which was an easy walk of about three miles.  We then decided to do one of the River Walks, which was a bit disappointing as there were very tall reeds between the path and the river so we didn't get to see many of the boats.  When we did get an open section the views were lovely.  When we got back to Wareham we found a cafe with air conditioning for tea and cake!

River Frome

On Saturday we decided to walk around Wareham Forest.  There are lots of footpaths and cycle tracks through the forest so we chose one walk so we could walk to the top of Woolsbarrow Hillfort.  It turned into a slightly longer walk than we had planned as there was a herd of cows across one of the paths that were rather too interested in us so we decided to find another footpath to avoid walking through them.  We enjoyed the walk and there were plenty of beautiful views, but as it was so hot we were glad to get back to Cali.

View from top of Woolsbarrow Hillfort

Sunday morning was spent on site reading the paper before we packed up and headed back home.  It was a lovely weekend and there are so many walks we can do from the site, so definitely we will luse again.  Hunter's Moon is open all year round so it's a site we can return to over the winter too.

2-5 August 2018

Cali has been to the Yorkshire Dales

We've just returned from two weeks in the Yorkshire Dales, staying on four different sites so we could walk to the various places we wanted to see.  The weather has been amazingly hot, although the flip side is that the waterfalls weren't as impressive as we had hoped.

Our first site was Thornbrook Barn, a private site at Ingleton.  We loved this site, there were only 29 pitches in a field on a sheep farm.  The site was well laid out, a lovely toilet block and everywhere was spotlessly clean.

Pitch 2 Thornbrook Barn

On the first day of our holiday we did am 18 mile circular walk taking in the summit of Ingleborough (one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks), a lovely walk with stunning views from the summit.

From Ingleborough to Ribblehead Viaduct

The following day we decided to have an easier walk to allow our feet to recover so we walked into Ingleton to complete the Ingleton Waterfall Trail.  It was beautiful although many of the waterfalls weren't at their best, Bazenghyll Gorce was one of our favourites.

Bazenghyll Gorge, Ingleton Waterfall Trail

After three nights we moved to the Hawes Caravan Club Site.  This is a large site and it was almost full, although we did find a good pitch on the edge of the site.  The site was very well maintained and was close to Hawes village.

Pitch 12 Hawes Caravan Club Site

One of our walks was to visit Hardraw Force, the highest single drop waterfall in England, although the dry weather meant we didn't see it at its best, and also had a lovely walk across High Abbotside.

Hardraw Force

We stayed at Hawes for three nights before moving to the Wharfedale Caravan Club Site at Threshfield.  This site was another large site and when we arrived there were so many free pitches we were spoilt for choice.  We started talking to a couple with a California who were packing up to leave and ended up having their pitch.  We both liked this site and although it was large, it was well laid out and the facilities were excellent.

Pitch 18 Wharfedale Caravan Club Site

The first day we walked to Gordale Scar and Malham Cove.  It was one of the hottest days to walk the longest of our walks - almost 20 miles.  Unfortunately both the waterfall and beck at Gordale Scar were dry, but the scenery was spectacular.

Gordale Scar

We walked via Janets Foss and Malham to Malham Cove - an amazing landscape and a fabulous view after climbing the 432 steps to the top of the cove.

 Malham Cove

View from top of Malham Cove

The following day after our long trek we had a short walk to Grassington and visited the Wensleydale Creamery - eating far too many cheese samples!

After five nights at Wharfedale we visited our final site, the Bolton Abbey Estate Caravan Club Site.  This was a lovely site on the Bolton Abbey Estate, smaller than the last two and set amongst trees. The facilities were a little dated, but spotlessly clean.

Pitch 25 Bolton Abbey Caravan Club Site

Barden Moor was closed due to fire risk, so we were unable to do some of the walks we had planned and spent most of our time walking through the Bolton Abbey Estate.

 Bolton Priory

The weather was still so hot it was lovely to walk through Strid Wood and along the river.  There were also some spectacular view points including Barden Tower, as painted by Turner.

Barden Tower from Strid Wood

It's been a lovely holiday and definitely an area we will return to in a few year's time as there is so much more we want to see.

30 June - 16 July 2018

Cali has been to Glastonbury

A couple of friends have recommended The Old Oaks at Glastonbury so we thought we would visit for Steve's birthday weekend.  It's a private site and a little more expensive than our usual sites (£68.00 for two nights) but the facilities are amazing - definitely the best site we've ever visited.

Pitch - Orchards 21

The pitches are allocated, but we requested a hardstanding with electric near to the facilities block.  We were allocated Orchards 21 - a lovely spacious pitch.  The whole site is beautifully maintained with a team of staff ensuring the gardens are kept to a high standard.  The site shop is well stocked with essentials and all the reception staff were very friendly and helpful.

Whilst there isn't a local bus service nearby, there are footpaths directly from the site which lead to Glastonbury Tor and into the town - which is the walk we did on Saturday.

From the bottom looking up ...

... and the top looking down

A fabulous site and definitely one to visit again next year.

8-10 June 2018

Cali has been to St Mawes

We booked a long weekend at Merrose Farm Caravan Club Site at St Mawes for the Bank Holiday weekend.  We had previously visited the site many years ago when we had our caravan, but thought we would see what the site was like with Cali.  The location is perfect, a short walk to the coast path and it also has a bus stop outside the main entrance with regular buses between Truro and St Mawes.

We arrived around mid-day on and had a lazy afternoon on the site.  On Saturday morning we caught the bus to St Mawes (every two hours - £5.10 return) and did a lovely circular walk to St Just in Roseland returning on the coast path to St Mawes.  

St Mawes at start of walk

The town was busy when we got back as there was gig racing as part of the Fal Festival, but we managed to get a seat outside the Rising Sun pub to watch all the activity.  The weather had been glorious all day, but very humid so it wasn't too much of a surprise when we had a thunderstorn overnight which lasted about three hours.  Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep.

On Sunday we walked to the coast and decided to walk both ways along the coast path, mainly because we wanted to see how many more walks we could do when we return to the area and also because the forecast wasn't too good so we didn't want to walk too far from the site. 

Portscatho

In the morning we walked along the coastpath to the headland beyond Portscatho, stopping off at The Hidden Hut - a fabulous beach cafe with amazing cakes.  We then retraced our steps and walked to Pendower Beach and a pot of tea at the Shallikabooky Beach Hut before returning to Cali.

Monday morning was beautiful and sunny so we had breakfast outside and a lazy morning reading the papers before heading home.

Pitch 34 - Steve preparing breakfast

We loved the site and we now know we can do plenty of walking in the area, either walking from the site or using the local bus.  Definitely a site for us to return to next year.

25-28 May 2018

Cali has been to Swanage

We've been back to the Haycraft Caravan Club Site for a couple of nights.  It's a site we visited last year and like it as we can walk directly from the site, as well as having a small station close by.  We arrived about 6.00pm on Friday evening and were surprised to have a choice of three pitches as this site is usually fully booked at weekends.

On Saturday we walked from the site through Langton Matravers to Worth Matravers and then took a path to the coast at East Man before returning to Swanage along the coast path.

East Man towards West Man

We had a potter around a couple of shops in Swanage and saw that Tilly Whims sold the 'Mac in a Sac' we had been looking for, so bought ourselves one each for our rucksacks.  As we were too early for the train, we went for a beer before heading to the station and catching the to Harman's Cross and walking back to the site.

We woke on Sunday to glorious sunshine, so decided to have a lazy morning on the site before heading back home early afternoon.

Pitch 40 - ready for Sunday breakfast

11-13 May 2018

Cali has been back to Godrevy

Even though we went to the Godrevy Park Caravan Club Site a few weeks ago, we decided to go back again for the Bank Holiday weekend.  It's an area we love - we know there's plenty of walking from the site and also a good bus service to both St Ives and Portreath (although it wasn't running this weekend as it was too early in the year!).

We arrived on a lovely sunny Thursday evening and pitched in a spot where we had seen a campervan parked on our last visit - it was sheltered with hedges on two sides and wasn't too far from the facilities block.

Friday morning started with a thick sea mist so we didn't have very good views as we walked from the site towards Portreath.  As the local bus service wasn't running we found a bench to sit and have lunch and then retraced our steps back along the coast path.  The sun came out early afternoon and it was very hot on the return journey.

Saturday saw more sea mist at the start of the day so we caught the bus to St Ives and hoped the sun would come out as we walked back.

Hayle across estuary

Unfortunately there was no sign of the sun all day, it remained very misty and quite cold - not like the weather the rest of the country was enjoying over the Bank Holiday weekend!

After two long walks we had decided to spend Sunday having a lazy day on the site.  We had another misty start to the day but when it blew away we had a glorious sunny afternoon before the mist rolled in again about 5.00pm.

Pitch 94 Godrevy Park

We had intended to stay until Monday lunchtime, but when we woke to more sea mist we decided to head home a little earlier than planned and set off mid morning.  At least it gave us plenty of time to get everything cleaned and ready to go away again next weekend.

Despite the weather we had another lovely weekend on one of our favourite sites.  

3-7 May 2018