Dorset Days

It was a spur of the moment decision to come away again this weekend. We had been away last weekend and still had Malibu Molly on the drive.

But where to go? One of our favourite directions was last week when we went to Suffolk. So this weekend I looked at maybe not so far and that was to Sussex and Hampshire. 

Nothing really leapt out and called "stay here".  Of the places we have been before none were open at this time of the year. Mostly they open in mid to late March.

I extended to researching westwards. Dorset is next. 

I came across the Caravan Club site at Hunters Moon near Wareham. The cost for two nights is £68. Hardstanding. Decent loos and wash facilities. Terrible 4G signal and intermittently rubbish WiFi. 

The free internet gives one hour sessions with an incredibly low bandwidth. After an hour you can login in again. But it's flakey at best. There is a premium option at £5 a day. I didn't risk that given the poor quality of the free one! As club members shouldn't we expect free WiFi without limitations? Even supermarkets have free WiFi better than this!!

There is constant debate on the price of Club sites and some are pretty eye watering especially in the summer. It appears the Club has fallen in with much of the holiday industry with "dynamic pricing". It seems that as soon as the kids holidays start prices go sky high. Club?

The drive down on Friday took us around 5.5 hours. That included a stop to untangle Reggie from this lead, a lunch stop at Cobham Services and a loop around Wareham as the TomTom missed out a right turn a couple of miles away from the site.

Once on site we set up and settled in for the night. The usual snacks and cider, and dinner.

We couldn't use the TV as it couldn't get decent enough WiFi either directly or hot spotting from my phone.  We did get a few vlogs watched on Claire's phone.

We did have another Truma problem. With the temperature hovering around 2° to 4°C all day, of course, the frost protection had kicked in. As soon as I switched the water heating on. It emptied the tank. I am getting to be expert at emptying the under bed storage and the floor to access the valve!

Reggie seems to have worked out that he can't sleep with us, but still wants a pee break at 4am and again at 7.30am.

Saturday 

As a result of the weather. Rain. And Reggie's nocturnal pee visits, we were late up. It was gone past 11am when we finally set off for Corfe Castle. 

Parking in the car park by the National Trust "Castle View" visitor centre. There were a couple of other vans there and I chose the coach parking. I had already emailed and had a reply to say this was okay.

The walk from the parking around the bottom of the castle mound was around half a mile. Crossing two roads on the way.

The scale of the site incredible. Once at the top of the path it exits onto a square off a square. The NT tea room is on the left and the other visitor centre ahead. We had lunch in the tea room before venturing into the castle.

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https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/corfe-castle

It is immense. So much of it destroyed and huge sections blown away and many have tumbled down the mound into the moats.

Afterwards we walked back to the van. It was only around 2.40pm. After cleaning and drying Reggie's feet we set off.

Swanage. I set the TomTom for a car park. It started to rain and we decided to have a drive through along the seafront. 

In February there was loads of space to park. But not for us. "Caravanettes" are specifically mentioned on the signposts NOT to park at any time. Not even in the day to go on the beach. Never. Not even in the winter when their town is almost deserted.

They don't want me. They don't want my money. 

So we set the TomTom for the site and came back to the site. 

So. Winter camping? Not something we have done much of. If it hadn't been raining or simply drizzling this weekend would have been much better.