Camp as a Row of Tents

Spending time together

Second May bank holiday of the year, what to do?  I had an idea....

Every week at school we do our Weekend News, the children write about all of the exciting things they have done.  Every week the children tell me about going to the beach, and one place kept being mentioned; Swanage!

I checked it out and it looked worth a visit.  So I planned our visit, we would camp in a campsite just by Corfe castle,each pitch was in the woods and had a fire pit.  It sounded idyllic, and to make matters even better you didn't need to book.

All sorted, GO booked the time of work.  Astrid (our lovely little car) was given her annual check up.  We packed our things and headed off to Swanage.  

I just gave the campsite's website a quick shufty.  I had been chatting to a parent the day before about our break and she had told me she was going to a similar place at the same time, but that she had had to book as it was a bank holiday.  The website had a new red box in the corner, that hadn't been there the last time I had looked.  BANK HOLIDAY - BOOKING REQUIRED -LIMITED SPACES!  Ahh!  I sent an email, it'd be fine...  I even managed to joke with GO about how, when I book a holiday it

never quite goes to plan, if only he knew.

A34 was jammed, all the way from Winchester to Bournemouth was moving at a snails pace.  Thank goodness for the new sat nav.  Avoid all motorways I commanded and she did.  Taking us through the lovely Hampshire countryside.  Eventually two hours after we should have arrived we got to the Swange Ferry.  It about three minute journey, not long enough to do anything (that didn't stop our neighbour from smashing her car door into the car) except read the adverts.  I noticed one for a campsite, not the one I wanted but I made a mental note, maybe next time if this one is rubbish, I thought to myself.

As we made our way to the campsite in the woods, I realised we had no fuel.  Making a quick decision I followed the signs for Swanage, surely we'd find some diesel there.  I pressed the button I the sat nav and off she went.  

It was a bit hairy navigating the windy roads,  not to mention all of the cyclists you had to serve around.  I was very relieved when the road became quite suburban.  Welcome to Swanage said the sign on the left.  On the right was a sign for the campsite I had noticed on the ferry.  As GO filled us up, I made an executive decision.  "There's a campsite round the corner.  I'm so tired after all those traffic jams.  Shall we just go there?"  GO agreed it had been a long drive.  So we followed the signs for te campsite, found a spot and set up the tent.  

It wasn't in the woods, it was on a hill overlooking the fields of Purbeck.  It did have fire pits, and at night the stars were so bright GO and I lay and gazed for hours.  It was one of the most romantic and relaxing experiences of my life.

On the other hand the nearest toilet was half a mile away, I even added it to my route on my map.

Camping always makes you appreciate what you have at home.  It was lovely to get away, but it was great to get back.

Making Friends

Look we're twins

Gorgeous views

Four years one, we can still strike the same 'beach pose'

He is so lovely

Just after this we saw a sand tornado!

Try to look cool while ants crawl up your leg

This place was so calm it was almost creepy

Pottering around Blenheim

My little Train spotter x

G.O and I are making the most of our Blenheim Palace, we decided that as he didn't start work until 4pm today and the weather was grotty we would go and have a look around the house.  We arrived and I managed to park Astrid (the car) as close to the house as we were allowed, by squeezing it next to a tree. No two mile trek to get back to the car when we are ready to go home.  We headed up to the big house chatting away, happy with my craftiness and forethought (one step ahead).   

We love train rides, just not ones without a return journey.

We passed the train tracks, G.O loves trains (real ones, not toy ones, but a train is a train) so I said, if it was still in the station as we approached we should take a ride.  In my mind I though it would be lovely to take a ride around the palace and gardens before we went in to the house. 

 

So we hopped on board and paid the grand ole fee of 50p,and headed off around Blenheim.  I was very excited and videoed the entire journey, as we passed the car we gave it a wave, then we went through a tunnel and every one gave a 'wooo'.

Model of Woodstock Village

 

I was just getting comfortable when the train began to slow down as it pulled into a station outside the children's garden.  It took a while before I realised that this wasn't a trip around the palace and gardens, or even a round trip, we realised that our destination was the children's garden and it would be nearly an hour before the train would go back up to the big house. 

It was amazing

We reasoned that there was probably a way to get to the house from the gardens, so we would go in anyway.  As we walked though the gate I saw a sign for a butterfly house, then I saw a sign for an adventure playground, then a mini village then I saw the sign for the maze.  I was beside myself with excitement.  I had only every been in one maze and that was so easy I found my way through in about ten minutes. 

I got lost, but some how managed to win!

This maze however wasn't going to be worked out in ten minutes.  There were so many routes that led to the exit, some involved longer distances but you still managed to get to the exit quicker as the shorter routes had unavoidable detours.  I tried my best to follow G.O, but I would blink and he would disappear. I was slightly concerned that he had to be at work and I was lost in a maze, but he didn't seem at all bothered. At one point I was calling him and from the other side of a hedge I heard him giggling and shuffling away, sod!  Eventually I reached the statue at the end of the maze, which was when I realised that for all his bravado and giggling, I had beaten him.

Not a big butterfly lover, and these were BIG butterflies

I was thrilled and made sure he knew it, must to his annoyance.  To calm him down, not really,  I suggested we visit the butterfly house, to which G.O looked at me with concern.  I don't really like real butterflies, in theory they are beautiful, graceful creatures, in reality they flap around you and for some reason they always land on me.  I managed to make it through the butterfly house with only one butterfly landing on me.  I didn't freak out when I saw about half a dozen butterflies the size of my hand and a couple that from a distance looked like leaves.

They look so lovely in pictures, it's just they are so fast in  real life.

We left the butterfly house and as we started to go into the vestibule I saw a photo that I recognised.  It was of the Duke of Marlborough and three of the children from the little village school. As part of a class project they had designed a poster and won a prize.  Part of the prize was to go to the Palace and have tea with the Duke before they collected their prize.  There for all to see was the photo, part of me felt proud that I was connected to the school.

Earlier as I had waited for G.O I had spotted a building called Pottering about, I wandered in a saw that it was a crafty workshop.  I had wanted to take a closer look but I had seen G.O heading off to the model village, so no pottering for me, I thought.

As we left the vestibule it brought us, quite fortuitously into the workshop.  We spotted a plate similar to the plate the children of the little village school had made for us when we got married.

It was the that I had a brilliant, even if I saw so myself, idea.  We would choose and decorate a plate for G.O brother's wedding, we would ask one of the ladies to write their names and wedding date onto the plate and that would make up part of our gift to them.  So we got to work, I am no Emma Bridgewater but I think that the plate looked rather lovely.  We kept the design simple, different colour and sized spots, and were both able to take part in the process.  We even edge the plate to give it a more professional finish.  We handed it in and now have to wait 7-10 days for it to be glazed and then we can collect it. That will be visit number three to Blenheim and we will be half way to getting out free visits.

We had an hour or so before G.O had to be at work so we stopped off at the garden café, normally its just a case of tea and scones for me, but I was famished and they had pizza. So we order to small pizzas, not expecting much from a shed kitchen I was pleasantly surprised when they delivered to the table, two of the yummiest pizzas I have had in a long while. 

Plate decorated, pizza scoffed, maze defeated (next time I think we should do a time trial) we set off for the car.  It was then that the realisation dawned on me.  My earlier attempt at nifty parking and forward planning,  had in fact meant that we were now as far away from Astrid as it was possible to get, only parking in the drive of the palace would have been further away.  Oh well it wasn't that far to walk....