Away with the Grand children!

As we had promised to take Izzy and Freddie away in the caravan we booked two nights at Northam Farm, Brean.
Amy brought the two children up to us at lunchtime, and they had no idea that they were coming away until they saw the booster seats being put into the Freelander"
Well we set off with two very excited children, and traveled the M4 / M5 route down to Brean.
We were soon on site and Izzy and Freddie 'helped' us set up.
We had fish and chips for supper and then all went up to the Club!  (not one of our usual activities), where the children enjoyed the entertainment!
We left at 9.15 and all collapsed into our respective beds!

In the morning we all enjoyed a proper English breakfast, whilst we decided what to do as it was raining very hard!
We decided that the Seaquarium in Weston-Super-Mare was the place to go.  www.seaquarium.co.uk 
I have to say that it was an amazing place, and we all really enjoyed our visit.
The rain had now abated so it was back to the caravan and the children could play outside,

The playground. Photo taken by Izzy

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, so after another hearty breakfast it was off to the beach, where the children played and had ice creams.

Izzy, photo taken by Freddie.

Freddie, photo taken by Izzy!

We returned to the caravan  and cleared up, leaving the site at 3.30.  We drove home up the Weston road and through the centre of Bristol,  therefore avoiding the inevitable Sunday chaos on the M4 and M5.

A thoroughly enjoyable week end but also a very tiring one!

Cholwells CL, Woolaston, South Devon.

Well we drove down to South Devon on Wednesday 24th August, taking our usual route, stopping in Wells for lunch at Clive's Burger van.
We found the site easily and set up on the farthest pitch from the road, with views over Thurlestone Bay. Water and Electric were supplied to each pitch.

On the Thursday we drove over to Teignmouth to meet up with Angela and Alan. We had an excellent day with them, having lunch at Teignmouth Golf Club.   We then drove back through Brixham, crossing on the ferry at Dartmouth then along the coast road through Start Bay where we were a couple of weeks ago. 

This tall ship was in Dartmouth for the regatta.

I popped into Kingsbridge on Friday morning to go to the bank, and discovered that we could get free WIFI at the information centre and it was very quick.  We then spent the rest of the day sat in the sun reading as it was very hot.

We spent time watching the harvest being brought in!

James, Jade, Jack and Josie were staying in Kingsbridge for their summer holiday, so we met them for lunch at the Seven Stars.
In the evening we got a taxi into Salcombe and went to the Fort for Dinner and it was very good!

It was very wet and windy overnight, but the sun soon came out so we went out to explore some villages that we do not know so well. We first went to Aveton Gifford then on to Loddiswell where we came across Loddiswell station, which was on the Kingsbridge branch line. The station is now a self contained holiday property.  www.loddiswellstation.co.uk
We then continued across the South Hams through Marliegh to Slapton beach, where we sat and enjoyed ice creams in the burning sunshine!

These trees on the skyline looked to me like giant Hedgehogs moving along.

We made a mistake on a burning hot August Bank Holiday by arranging to meet Jade, James and his parents at Bigbury Bay.  After a few minutes driving we ground to a halt through the pressure of traffic. We turned back to the caravan to sit and have coffee. Mean while Jade and company headed for Start Bay.
We had to collect Jade from Slapton to get her and deliver her  to Totnes Station for the 3.50 train to Bristol as she was attending a wedding the following day.
On the way the main road was totally blocked at Hallwell,  as a Land Rover had hit a bus head on.  We turned round, and using our local knowledge quickly found ourselves another route through some very narrow lanes with grass up the middle.  She got her train!
On the way back the road was properly shut, so we used our diversion again.

The mist over the Kingsbridge estuary!

Another caravan had arrived on site. It was driven by a very smart 87 year old man with his wife. He informed me that he had just ordered a new BMW X5 and a new Swift Caravan!  Forward thinking at his age.

We made our first visit of the summer to Hope Cove for morning coffee, then back to the caravan where it was so hot.

Inner Hope at Coffee time!

Salcombe was our coffee destination on the Wednesday, and then we went to Kingsbridge for a little shopping.  It was James's dads 60th birthday, so we all met up at the Crab shell in Kingsbridge for dinner!  We had a very good evening, but were not at all impressed by the menu, so will not be going there again!

We cleared up on the Thursday and had a good run home for a quick turn around as we were off again in the morning!