A Soggy May!
This story happened on: 11/05/2012
Every year my husband and I set off for a different part of the country in our motorhome with our trusted travel pal - Trigger! We don't have much luck with the weather on these trips, having done Wales (which we believe is welsh for rain), Scotland (again scottish for rain), so this year headed to the sunny south - or so we thought. We do prefer to stay on CL sites and this was the grand plan. Heading down the East coast towards the Norforlk area and then tour around that area and head back up to the North East in a nice round trip. No route planned, no sites booked - great. Well we did book the first night on a CL site on the East coast, near Mablethorpe. We arrived to find that the site was pretty much waterlogged but we did manage to pitch up on the only bit of hard standing and as we were the only ones there it was no problem! Never did see the owner so had to post the money through her letter box!!!! Quite a nice little seaside place, if a bit dated we managed to get a good walk along the prom - I think the dog was chuffed she didn't get too wet.
On we moved headed for the lovely sunny south! If you do this route please, please, please take the coast road around the edge of this area. Some of the scenery is just stunning - very, very flat and in a lot of cases below sea level - which as a northerner is weird - as we are used to hills around us!!! We thought we were doing generally okay with the weather - it seemed to rain either overnight or when we were driving and stopped when we did - this is probably where our luck ran out! We headed along the coast in the rain. I believe it is one of the best ways to see the country, poodling along at a nice pace, stopping where you fancy for a bite of lunch and a cuppa, check the map and off again - oh and a toilet break for the dog!
As I said we prefer to stay on CL sites but given the amount of rain that was still coming down and the sogginess of the ground already we decided to go against our usual choice and headed for the safety of a Club site at Cromer. What a pleasant surprise. As ever "it does what it says on the tin" - you know that they are always clean and tidy. We stayed for one night and walked into Cromer for a nice Cromer Crab! - this was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Not many places served this and those that did closed at 5pm!! We found a lovely little bistro run by a brother and sister and they couldn't be more hellpful, friendly and chatty.
We then carried on trecking around, or was this paddling, and ended up staying at another 4 Club sites after that! When we set off for this trip, after 3 years of motorhoming we only had 1 club badge - one trip later we have jumped that up to 5! Never thought I would say that. We stayed at Cromer, Great Yarmouth, Uttoxeter, and Castleton sites. Each one was very friendly and helpful - definitely reinstated my faith in these sites. Although I do find them a bit regimental and an awful lot of rules etc, but they are always there as a safe haven!
We have really seen so much rain I think that my feet are now webbed and I can walk on water now - or is it just through it!!
Our last night before returning home was the Losedale site at Castleton. This is such a lovely situation for a site. 5 minutes walk into Castleton, along a footpath - this is really important when it's being that wet! The local pub is dog friendly, has a log fire, good menu for food and real ales! I now realise that it's not clever to try each of the local brews although it did seem like a good idea at the time. LOL
A lazy start before a quick pack up and set off for home - a couple of hours later that's it - holiday over! Next holiday is on a plane to guaranteed sunshine.
We still had a great time, and you make your own fun regardless of the weather. Even the dog learned to literally nip out very quickly and do her business so she didn't get too wet!
I will try to upload some pictures of this trip at a later date. We are quite crafty with the camera and try to only take pictures which don't show the rain - it makes things look a bit better than they really were.
Phillips
Caravanner