Caravan Holiday

My brother Alex has had a caravan at Woodford, near Exeter in Devon, for many years. The current incarnation is his second, but we have never been there, thinking it a bit of a risk with Dan. This year, given a low budget, poor weather and very little help available at home, we decided to give it a try. After all, we can always bale out and come home. It's about 5 to 6 hours away.

We loaded the old blue Renault up with piles of stuff, including quite a few bits we didn't really need, but it has a good roof-rack. Jake and I pushed the tyre pressures up to compensate for the heavy load, and off we went; five people, suitcases, bedding, food, fishing gear and beach toys.

We actually made good time along the motorways, with the only hold-up at Avonmouth, near Bristol where James, Jo and Thea joined the M5 from their home in Bath, just minutes ahead of us. Dan was really good on the way, and we made only one stop near Worcester.

Webber's Caravan Park and camp site is only 10 minutes from the Motorway, close to Exeter and Exmouth. You get great views across the Exe estuary and it is convenient for the picturesque villages and small towns along the East Devon coast that are generally linked by tiny, narrow lanes with high banks and hedges. Not the place for a big 4x4.

The coast from Budleigh Salterton along through Sidmouth, Beer, Lyme Regis and beyond to the Isle of Purbeck is now a World Heritage Site, known as the Jurassic Coast. It is a march through time from about 250 million years ago to the present. Our favourite feature, discovered in pouring rain on our first day, is a bed of beautiful, hard, round crystalline pebbles embedded in the red cliffs around Budleigh Salterton. They form most of the beach material along here as they erode out of the cliffs. Born in 440 million old rocks from (what is now) France, they washed out as pebbles in a large river that flowed into a great, red desert in the Triassic Period. You can see intervening layers of desert sand and salt pans between the layers of pebbles. Further east lie the more famous Jurassic beds around Lyme Regis that are so rich in marine fossils. You can read it all like a book.

So our first day passed in torrential rain but left us with a deep affection for Budleigh Salterton, it's beach, cliffs (with nesting buzzards, fulmars and peregrines), cafes and galleries.

The Bath Stevensons were only with us for two days, so we decided to go west on our second day, which was dry and sunny. We could see a good beach across the estuary at Dawlish Warren, but, when we got there, it was crowded, overdeveloped and anyway, the tide was very high. We journeyed on around the point to the seaside resort of Dawlish, where my Mum spent many happy days. A curious feature along this part of the coast is the Great Western Railway that Isambard Kingdom Brunel built along the top of the beach. You get great views from the train, but it makes access to the beaches difficult. At Dawlish the track runs above the beach on an elevated wooden causeway. It's actually quite pretty.

Hanna had expressed the wish to see the Eden Project which is about 80 miles down the road into Cornwall. By coincidence, our friends the Lambtons were holidaying up the road on the north coast so we arranged to meet. By much greater coincidence William McGreggor, from Dan's school, who also has Angelman's Syndrome, was staying with his folks at Bodmin. We bumped into them all within minutes of arriving.

To be honest, meeting friends was the best part of it for me. The Eden Project is really a huge garden centre, set in an old china clay quarry. The most amazing thing is that someone had the idea and managed to get the money as well. Their marketing is up to Disney standards. The two big bubble-wrap domes contain a rainforest and a Mediterranean "biome". The whole place is devoted to plants and how important they are to us. There are a lot of conservation and greening messages, but we didn't feel these were taken very seriously by the business people there, particularly the caterers. The shops were very ordinary. Most of all, there was little for the very young or those with special needs. Kids more or less walk their little legs off looking for things to capture their interest. At least it wears them out! So, worth a visit once, if you get a wet day on your holiday.

For Dan, the best bit of that day was the American-style diner we visited on the way home. It was great. 'Far too much food though. It's called Route 38 and it's not far west of Plymouth.
For the rest of our week we stayed close to the caravan, visiting Sidmouth Folk Festival, and Beer where we met brother Alex, Deb, and daughter Lisa with her husband Juan from San Francisco. They were down our way for a wedding in Plymouth. We went on to spend the evening fossil hunting east of Lyme Regis.

On our way home (only ten minutes after leaving Woodford) we popped into Dart Farms. This operation started as a little farm shop and cafe, selling local produce and has grown into a popular stop off for motorway travellers. It's like L L Bean but mostly about food. There is a fresh fish shack where you pick your catch and they cook it for you, there's a deli and all kinds of kitchen related stuff. Upstairs is an out-door shop and the RSPB has a birdwatching centre and shop. I didn't get round it all. We need to copy the idea over this way, on the A1 perhaps, but we don't have the produce that they do in the west country. It's too dry over here and we mostly produce cereals. We don't have the fish either. But perhaps on a smaller scale? The local towns of Buckden and Stilton grew up around the 17th to 19th century coach trade selling local produce such as cheese and offering overnight accommodation and stables. They still do.

Anyway, a big thanks to Alex for lending us his caravan. We will be back!