What’s Next?

Published on by Paul Hickman

Well there is no caravanning for a few weeks as we have a couple of big projects underway at home.

We have removed and rehomed the greenhouse from the garden, we didn’t use it and it was in good shape, so that has gone to a local allotment where it will be more useful.

Next the old rotting she’d had to go. The greenhouse moved so that the shed had room to come down. Then the back fence needed replacing.

We now need to prepare the base for a new metal shed so that we can finally transfer all our crap out of the expensive storage unit that we rent currently.

The State Of Play At The Moment

So the plan is to have all that done before Easter. We wouldn’t want to waste any bank holiday weekend opportunity now would we?

Couple of items to buy and fit to the caravan also but I’ll tell you about those later.

TTFN

Les Brunelles – Longeville Sur Mer, Vendee, France

Published on by Paul Hickman

Date Of Visit: August 2013, 2012 & 2010 (3 Visits)
website: https://www.ms-vacances.com/location-camping-club-vacances/camping-longeville-sur-mer-les-brunelles/

What can we say? We love this site!
This was our first site in France and we think we found an absolute gem! The site was owned by Camp Atlantique who owned 3 sites in the Vendee, Les Brunelles being the “Flagship” There is an amazing pool complex which they upgraded with a new slide between our first and second visits.

When most UK campers venture to the Vendee they seem to gravitate to St. Jean De Monts. Its not surprising as there are loads of large campsites there and a well developed promanade/beach area. Many of the campsites deal with the likes of Eurocamp, Siblu & Canvas Holidays etc… which lots of first timers use to make the whole process easier. In fact booking direct with a French campsite is usually cheaper and is very easy. Just book and then find a channel crossing to suit your needs. We usually use the tunnel or Dover Calais as they are considerably cheaper than the longer crossings. Continue reading “Les Brunelles – Longeville Sur Mer, Vendee, France” →

Riverside Holiday Park,

Published on by Paul Hickman

Date Of Visit: March 2017 Unit: Caravan
Southport New Road, Banks
Southport, PR9 8DF
Tel: 01704 228886
Email: reception@riversideholidaypark.co.uk
Web: www.riversideholidaypark.co.uk

Riverside Touring and holiday Home Park

Date Of Visit: March 2017 Unit Caravan

WiFi on pitch : NO

Cost was OK not too excessive for what was offered on the website. We arrived in the dark and needed to phone the park warden who was a pleasent chap on the phone, told us to stay where we were and he would come to us. He arrived quickly and wasjust as pleasent in person. He gave us a map to our pitch and the other usual bumf about the site.

We had a Super Pitch, Electric, water and drainage on pitch. Pitch size is OK for us but they are not the largest I have seen. In the site info it tells you that you should pitch with the hitch facing the road and your awning should also be only on the hard standing. Your car should also be on your pitch in front of your unit. I can see why. The road is quite narrow which meant that reversing your van onto the pitch was not easy even for an experienced driver like me…. (I do it for a living).

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Cliff Top Caravan Park, Skirlington, East Yorkshire

Published on by Paul Hickman

Date Of Visit: May 2010     Unit: Tent

Cliff Road, Atwick, Near Hornsea, East Yorkshire YO25 8DF

Telephone: 01964 530404

Cliff Top is a basic site on the North East coast, and when I say “On The Coast” I mean it! Its called Cliff Top For a reason! The camping field is slowly eroding and a little bit more falls onto the beach below every year.

During our stay we survived a fairly big storm which destroyed quite a few tents and caravan awnings.

This is a busy little site. Facilities are limited to the usual toilet and shower block and that’s about it. However site patrons can use the facilities at the sister site down the road, Skirlington Leisure, which has a pool and club etc…

Continue reading “Cliff Top Caravan Park, Skirlington, East Yorkshire” →

Globe Vale Holiday Park, Redruth, Cornwall

Published on by Paul Hickman

Date Of Visit: August 2011 Unit: Tent
Paul & Louise Owen
Globe Vale Holiday Park,
Sinns Common,
Near Redruth,
Cornwall, TR16 4BH
web: http://www.globevale.co.uk/
info@globevale.co.uk

Tel: 01209 891183

We stayed here in August 2011 as it’s quite central to Cornwall. The price for a site in Cornwall was excellent costing under £400 for 2 weeks in high season.
The facilities were basic. Nothing wrong with any of them. Bathrooms were always clean and the site was immaculate. There was the usual shower/toilet blocks, a small play park for kids and a bar/restaurant which sold some tasty food.
There were plenty of statics on the site but the touring/ camping field was pretty quiet during our stay.

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Le Litteroral – Argeles Sur Mer, Roussillon, South West France

Published on by Paul Hickman

MS Vacences

Date Of Visit: August 2014      Unit: Tent

This was our first trip to the south coast of France. The company that owns this site also own Les Brunelles in the Vendee which we have visited 3 times and absolutely loved, so for our first venture this far we decided to stick with a company that we trusted to provide a high standard. We were not dissapointed! 

We had planned well for the long drive south or so we thought. We did not expect to get all the way to Perpignan, we had bought a small 4 man tent with the idea of pitching on the grass at an Aire, but as we got further south the ground looked rockier and dryer and not so comfortable so I decided that idea was a non starter. We arrived at the site at 8pm ish and had a quick look around. We then headed back to Perpignan via the local Intermarche for some food to find a hotel for the night. Should have booked in advance!

We arrived at site around 11 am and checked in, was given a pitch which tured out to have a tree stump in the middle, fine for a caravan but not for a tent. We were given the choice of 3 other pitches. We found one against the back wall that worked for us. It was a little cramped but we still had room to put up the 4 man tent to house the stroppy teenager while we had the 6 birth tent to ourselves.

The site has all the facilities that we expected.

  • Pool
  • Bar
  • Shop
  • Lanudrette
  • Sports Facilities
  • Entertainment
  • Kids Club
  • Access to the beach

Continue reading “Le Litteroral – Argeles Sur Mer, Roussillon, South West France” →

Our First D.A. Camping Experience

Published on by Paul Hickman

This weekend was our first experience at D.A. Camping. (D.A. is District Association, a kind of local branch of the Camping & Caravan Club)
D.A’s organise low cost weekend meets/rallies, any member of the C&CC can attend any meet arranged by any D.A. anywhere in the country, you’re not restricted to the D.A. listed on your membership card.
Anyway this weekend was the first meet of the year organised by Lancashire & Cheshire D.A., the one listed on our membership. So for the princely sum of £15.40 for the weekend we joined the gang in the car park of Helsby Community Sports Club. Yes that’s right we went camping in a car park! Sounds nuts but when you think about it you can camp anywhere in a caravan.
A caravan has gas or electric heating, gas or electric fridge, gas or electric hot water, 12 Volt lighting & water pump. So as long as you can get some fresh water and have a gas bottle your set to camp anywhere. Our van has a toilet and even a shower.

Caravan Car Park

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Le Chant D’Oeiseau _ Loire Valley, France

Published on by Paul Hickman

Date Of Visit: August 2015 Unit: Tent

LE CHANT D’OISEAU
49390 Mouliherne, France
Tel: +33 2 41 67 09 78
Web: loire-gites.com‎

Let Chant is owned by ex-pats Stu & Syb Bradley from Yorkshire. It was their 10th year of ownership in 2015.

The site is in the commune of Mouliherne Probably the closest largeish town is Saumur which is famous for its sparkling wines.

The site is small with only 10 pitches and 3 gites. A small pool, children’s play area, BBQ area, toilet & shower block and a campers kitchen which is a welcome addition for anyone who has only basic cooking equipment. There is a large “barn” which is a covered area which houses tables and chairs at which our hosts served a meal, pizza and fouee 3 nights a week. It also houses a table tennis table and a pool table. There is also a TV which shows the occasional film or cricket match.

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Camping Le Soliel, Angeles Sure Mer, Roussillon South West France

Published on by Paul Hickman

Route du Littoral
66702
ARGELES sur MER Cédex
France
Tel: +33(0)468811448
Website: http://www.camping-le-soleil.fr/

August 2016  Unit 6 berth tent.

This was our first visit to this site but our 2nd visit to this area and indeed Angeles Sur Mer.

We found this site on the internet actually on Google Maps, looking at the area in satellite view. The plus for this site was that is was closer to the beach than the first site we had visited in this area. In fact it was almost right next door.

The site boarder is in fact the beach. Can’t get much closer. There is a short walk from the site through the small dunes to the wide sandy beach. The site have added a blue carpet like flooring on the path through the dunes which makes the walk very easy and even pushchair/wheelchair friendly.

The site is as far as we can tell independently owned but is very well kept and is used by all the major European Camping companies, keycamp, eurocamp etc… It’s not a small site with over 1000 pitches and we expected it to be very crowded. It wasn’t even though the site was full it didn’t feel too full.

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Veryan C&CC Site Cornwall

Published on by Paul Hickman

Veryan Camping and Caravanning Club Site, Tretheake, Veryan, Truro, Cornwall, TR2 5PP
Tel: 01872 501658
Managers: Nigel Benn & Lynn Benn
Latitude: 50.2364 Longitude: -4.8985
Web: http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/campsites/uk/cornwall/truro/veryan

Date of Visit: October 2016

We arrived at the site at around 14:30 and were greeted by the warden. We had booked the holiday online and had paid a deposit only so the remainder was to be paid on arrival. We had been given a voucher by Glossop Caravans when we bought our van which entitled us to a free night.

After sorting that out we were offered our choice of pitch. October half term is not very busy so we had a wide choice. We opted for Hardstanding near the Bathrooms.

Our Pitch

Continue reading “Veryan C&CC Site Cornwall” →