Moving from North to East Devon & Sidmouth - 1st Aug ‘19

As Franki Valli so aptly put it ... “Oh what a night?”. Although not for Franki’s reason. Ours was purely Grandchild based. Charlie has a scary habit of sitting bolt up right and talking in tongues. Finners seems to have a central point of balance around his belly button and then, whilst fast asleep seems to go around like a Catherine Wheel - indeed it is so distressing the last time I witnessed anything like it was a scene from The Exorcist. But the most genuinely worrying MacArthur junior evening activity was poor old Harry. He had a massive coughing fit and ended up wheezing quite badly. Kim moved into bed with him and ... you guessed it - broke the Dinette bed again! Needless to say, it was far from a restful night.

Which was unfortunate as today was moving day and involved lots of effort and a small amount of stress. Up at 8am and 2 1/2 hours packing up, taking down and Twinnie herding got us ready to leave with more than enough time to enjoy a coffee and a bacon roll from the camp shop.

A 90 minute journey got us to our next campsite, The Mallards (near Exmouth) at 1.30pm. An altogether smaller affair with just 5 pitches and some very questionable facilities!!

Laura arrived at 4 just as we were putting the finishing touches to Isabella. I’m much happy with the look of her this time- which I guess was due to the fact it was a nice flat pitch. Kim managed to keep we’ll clear of falling poles so all in all it was a bit of a result.

We were all starving by this time - fancy that?? - so we went the 10 miles to Sidmouth. It’s only when we got there that we realised it was the place that my parents went to every year. Indeed we tried to eat at their regular hotel but we were told they were too busy to accommodate us as we wanted to eat outside. As it happens that was quite a lucky break as we walked .next door to Dukes and had a fab meal. I had the Brixham Fish Pie which was excellent.

There is a week long Folk festival going on so the place was buzzing. We watched some Morris Dancers before buying more ice cream and heading for the shingle beach to throw stones for a bit. The Twinnies are in their element with a whole beach of pebbles to lob.

Stocked up at Waitrose on the way home and got settled down for bed before 10. Kim and I are sleeping in Isabella tonight. Leaving Laura to face the horror show that is sleeping with the MacArthur boys!!

As promised, here are my pros and cons of Damage Barton Caravan site:
+ The view was bloody amazing
+ The gorgeous walk from the campsite down to Lee
+ The office and shop staff are super friendly
+ The facilities are spotless
Conns
- Sloped pitch
- Long walk to the chemical toilet disposal point
- Not enough toilet cubicles. Had to queue most times and everyone knows what you are queuing for!
- Other campers not as friendly as a CL site
- The mirrors in the wash rooms are sizeist. Why put s 9” mirror up to cater for 5’ to 5’9” folks - in a gents toilet!? Put it at 5’5” to 6’2” and cover the majority of the male population!