Ending Up Anywhere

I had until 3.30pm to come up with a plan for our holiday. At that time I'd be collecting Tony from work and we'd be heading towards Folkestone and our booked Eurotunnel crossing. Our original plan to visit Normoutier had been scrapped due to a week of wet and stormy weather affecting most of France. Even the back-up plan hatched the previous evening needed to be unraveled having seen an updated weather forecast. Northern Germany and Denmark appeared as though they'd enjoy great weather and so I began investigating possible destinations taking into account the time it would take to travel and likelihood of there being semi-deserted beaches. We'd been looking forward to a beach holiday for far too long to be prepared to compromise. Eventually I was drawn to the Zingst peninsula on the coast of Germany which promised several similarities with Noirmoutier. Connected by bridge to the mainland the peninsula was island-like, it had miles of sandy beaches on ...

There's a better option for saving on campsite fees and that's the Best Deal Camping Card. While booking a campsite in Germany this week their booking form asked if I had a discount card and in the drop-down menu, alongside the usual ACSI card, I noticed something called the Best Deal Camping Card. Before I completed the booking I opened a new browser window to investigate and found I could sign up for free and have use of the card immediately in my email inbox. There's an app you can download showing the 500 sites across Europe at which the card is valid and the app doubles as the card to show at the site reception (or print the card that was emailed to you). Benefits over the ACSI card seem to be that no annual fee is payable, you don't have to wait to receive your card in the post, it's not restricted to off-season camping and it guarantees you electric hookup and no additional charges for showers or an awning. Checking in at our German campsi...

The day started out misty so we made it an exploring-by-bike day. It's quite useful to get the lay of the land on the first day. The whole peninsula is a cyclist's paradise with a plethora of cycle paths crisscrossing the flat terrain. We cycled to Prerow and loved it's cute thatched houses. We walked along the pier and then enjoyed fat bratwurst in a bread bun from a beachside vendor. We carried on cycling to the National Park on the north-western tip where the lighthouse was just visible in the mist. As we started heading back towards our campsite the sun started to peep through the clouds and so we ventured from the cycleway, over the dune to the beach where we dozed for an hour or so. Our final pit stop was Netto to replenish the stocks of wine and beer with as much as we could carry between us in our rucksacks. I'd say we've earned a few beers for all of today's peddling as we sit in dappled sunlight under the trees next to Cleopatra

It's May half term and for several weeks our plan was to visit the small island of Noirmoutier off the Vendee cost of France.  As our holiday got closer and we began looking at the long-range weather forecast we were disappointed to discover we'd have a whole week of thunderstorms. The rest of France was expecting the same. Fortunately we hadn't booked the campsite and so our plans could be changed. We carefully checked the weather many times and I even started researching Denmark or considering the possibility to write off our Eurotunnel crossings and go to Scotland. On Thursday, the evening before we were due to travel, we decided the south of France was worth a risk. We'd have rainy portions of a couple of days but otherwise the forecast had improved somewhat, and so we planned to drive to Provence. On Friday morning I looked once more at the weather outlook to find it was back to five days of rain. It was back to the drawing board. By about 9am I...

Mark Farm is a Camping and Caravan Club Certified Site, a members-only site for five units. It's a generously-sized field for so few campers and has electric hook-ups plus two toilets and a shower, all for £14 per night (£18 in winter months). The site is located towards the eastern side of the Dengie peninsula in Essex, sandwiched between the River Crouch to the south and the Blackwater to the north, both of which are tidal. To the east is the North Sea. When I booked by phone a day ahead I was given the key code for the facilities block and asked that, if I didn't see anyone to pay, I should put the site fee in a post box on the noticeboard. We arrived at 6.30pm and after setting ourselves up for our stay, decided to walk to nearby Tillingham where there is a choice of two pubs. The quickest route is through fields and the initial walk is quite muddy in wet weather. We approached the village through the church graveyard and immediately spotted the Fox an...

We're getting back into the routine of weekends away again. Society was our chosen destination this weekend because the best of the, already great, weather was promised in north Norfolk. On this visit we finally remembered to bring our wellies and so, before leaving for home, on Sunday morning we walked across the salt marshes/ mud flats out towards the sea. Despite being next to the sea, you can't actually see the water from High Sands Creek campsite because of the vast expanse of mud flats. And one wouldn't dare to try to walk across without a tall pair of boots. Not far into our exploration we came across a pair of boots swallowed almost all up in mud, the owner hopefully having made it out barefoot. That certainly encouraged us to tread more carefully. Having reached sand and finally the sea, looking back it was near impossible to tell in which direction we'd come. In the distance a sand bank had dark grey blobs I'm inclined to beli...