Lovely little site
I telephoned Vera to make a booking. Having left a message on her answer phone she rang me back later the same day. I in turn had to ring her back as I was out strawberry picking at the time. Anyway, we managed to get booked in at short notice. Vera advised that, if it was wet on our arrival, we were best to drive in as close to the dyke as possible, but fortunately it was nice and dry. However, just as we were choosing where to pitch up the rain started. It didn't amount to much, but was just enough for us to have to get our mats out to stop the wheels spinning on the grass when we mounted the blocks. The field is very uneven, especially where we pitched as there was a dip - but fortunately our blocks levelled us nicely. We opted to chill after our arrival. We could have ventured to watch the cricket at Thaxted Cricket Club in the adjoining field but it was just as relaxing sitting in the sun listening to the leather on willow. We use our bikes to get around when we stay at CLs and on day one we cycled to the lovely market town of Saffron Walden, which was hosting a music festival on the Sunday. We hung around for a couple of hours before getting back on our bikes to continue our ride - which took us through some lovely villages including the very pretty village of Finchingfield - a 33 mile route. The following day we again got on our bikes and we cycled another loop of the lovely Essex countryside, covering just over 25 miles. We met Vera later that afternoon. She's a very friendly, chatty lady. As we were the only outfit remaining on the site on the Monday she told us we could leave when we wanted to on the Tuesday - but we had onward travel arrangements so we did a leisurely pack up on the Tuesday, and were gone by 11. As for the reviews remarking about the site being on the flight path from Stansted, we barely noticed the planes when we stayed. We couldn't understand the negative feedback in that respect. The site is also just off a minor road, which at times could be busy (people commuting to/from work), but other than that it was fine. We would definitely look to stay again. Vera's site is very well cared for and very reasonably priced. So many CLs are choosing to up their prices these days and unfortunately, unless needs must, they will not be on our radar.
