A Bad Day - 15th Aug ‘25

This should have been the last day of a lovely few days in the sun. It turned out it wasn’t! Although it was nice and sunny and very hot again today!

To use a football cliche, this was a day of 2 halves. The first half was great. The second half, not so good!

It started with the normal breakfast and ablutions. We decided to have a game of football golf in Swanage and a final visit to the beach and then pack up and be on the road by 3.30 at the latest. 

The foot golf was great fun. Charlie won the first 9 holes, Harry won the second 9. Finners got a hole in one so everyone was happy. Apart from me of course but I’m the adult so it didn’t matter!!  It was really hot but much fun was had by all!

We headed for the car park by the beach / fun fair in Swanage. Amazingly we got parked and walked down a very busy beach front. It was absolutely rammed. We decided against a swim / paddle and headed for Wright on the Beach chip shop. The consensus - well 3 of the 4 - was they were the best curry and chips ever! Praise indeed from a group (especially me!) that have consumed a lot of chips!

At 1.45 we got in the car to get Brunnehilda packed up and on the road for 3.30pm. Then it happened…

I waited for a lady to cross the car park exit and swung out wider than normal. I hit a raised kerb in the road that I just hadn’t seen. A very loud noise and I realised immediately I had a burst tyre. There is no spare in the Volvo so we instantly phoned Assistance. I quickly sourced a replacement tyre from a Kwik Fit in Poole and we began our wait at 13.50. 

I won’t bore you (or me) with the sorry story but the eta of the breakdown lorry went from 4 to 4.30 to 5 to 7 to 9 to cancelled!! Mean time I was struggling to get back in touch with the assistance people. It was 31 degrees and I had 3 kids patiently waiting. We wasted a bit of time and then I decided to get a taxi with them back to the site. I came back to the car, discovered it wasn’t going to happen tonight and got a taxi back to the site. 

As everyone had a busy day booked the next day, Laura and George decided to make the 3.5 hour journey down to pick up the boys and leave me to sort out the car in the morning. 

They left the site at about 10.30 and I went to bed with a taxi booked for 7.45. Fingers crossed!!!!

PS Although the nice lady in the flats opposite says that particular kerb gets a lot of people and that I should write to the council, the fact is the only person to blame for the rotten end to a nice holiday is me!! The boys were perfect during the “crisis” and no one got hurt so …. Onwards and upwards. 

Not sure when the next Brunnehilda outing will be - probably Autumn with Di and Tilly as travelling companions this time. 

Corfe Castle, Studland Bay & Poole - 14th Aug ‘25

That’s much better - wall to wall sunshine with a temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees all day. Phew, what a scorcher!

The normal big breakfast and a rush to the toilet block before it shuts at 10.30!! I like the caravan club but I’ve always thought this to be a huge own goal - just when most people on holiday are getting up and want to ablute, they’re bloody shut!

The boys are taking it in turn to sleep with their old grandad! Harry got his out the way early and it was Finners last night. Charlie brings up the rear tonight. I don’t take offence at being someone to be avoided to be in bed with! I certainly wouldn’t want to!! Got to say though, Harry was a much less troubled sleeper than Finners.

Off on the short 3 miles trip to Corfe Castle. The first 2 car parks we tried were full - and this was before midday - so i headed for the one we had used before on the outskirts of the village. A short walk in to the castle entrance. The volunteer checking us in wasn’t as generous as some others. With my volunteer card and membership card she still made me pay for Twinnies!

We had a quick romp round the ruins - including a game of Jenga on the bailey. It was blimin hot so we snacked in the shelter of the very thick ruined Norman walls. A visit to the NT shop finished the visit. The volunteer here was much more friendly including a chat about the virtues of Corfe Castle and Canons Ashby.

The next stop was a beach - well it was pushing 30 degrees by now. The plan was to go over the ferry to Sandbanks but I was a little concerned if we’d get in the car park. So, as we were passing Knoll Beach on Studland Bay, I decided to pull in there. 2 reasons … I remembered it being a huge car park and it’s all NT land so free parking!

It was mobbed! When we came here with the family last time if you walked 50 metres you could be away from the crowds. We walk 150 metres and there were still more people than sand! Eventually we squeezed in and settled down. Charlie doesn’t moan about it but it’s clearly not his thing - understandable, why would a nearly 18 year old worrying about his street cred want to be on a beach with his grandad and 2 little brothers!

The twins and I went for a swim. It was gorgeous - although Harry took a lot of persuading to get in! By the time we had dried off the body language of the 3 of them suggested it was time to get off the beach. Bless them, they never actually moan or ask to do something else but it’s not hard to tell when they’ve had enough. 

It would have been rude to pass the beach cafe without stopping and having a drink and to share a plate or 2 of chips. Holidaying with these 3 is not conducive to any sort of diet - unless the diet includes obscene amounts of sugar and fat!

The short trip then to the ferry over to Sandbanks. The boys enjoyed the quick ferry ride and really enjoyed driving around Sandbanks looking at the amazing footballers houses on the water. 

We parked up at the multi story just by Poole quayside. We had a walk round the block including the shops and quayside. The Twinnies were up for a boat ride but their older brother did block this one so we settled for a drink in one of the many quayside pubs. The Jolly Sailer was not so jolly as by this stage in the holiday the boys were getting tired and the usual fun good tempered banter between them - especially Charlie and Harry - was getting a wee bit more fractious !

Actually, the main reason why we did that was that one of them was desperate for the loo. I gotta say, these boys go to the toilet a lot! As a 66 year old man, I thought I had some urinary challenges but blimey nothing compared to them! If I had a fiver for every time one of the Twinnies has wee’d against one of the car wheels, I’d have enough to buy a round of ice creams!

By this time they were getting hungry. They fancied Italian. We walked along the quayside a bit more and found a restaurant with a few Italian dishes on the menu. We ordered and everyone agreed it was a good choice. As was confirmed by the empty plates! Oriel on the Quay was definitely a success.

A quick go on the trampolines and then a visit to the legendary old fashioned sweet shop - Truly Scrumptious - before heading back to the car. 

Straight home for more cards (me and Twinnies) and more showering (Charlie). 

Lots of memories of Kim today. She loved Sandbanks / Poole and we did about half a dozen BH weekends down here with the family. Plus we had a nice stay in Brunnehilda just the 2 of us!

Plan to have a nice morning / lunch and then get on the road for home tomorrow afternoon. 

Monkeyworld & Lulworth Cove - 13th Aug ‘25

No sun today and it struggled to get above 18 degrees all day whilst back in the shire it was 28 degrees dawn to dusk sunshine. Oh well, at least I didn’t have the battle with the Twinnies to apply the suncream. 

It was a funny old day. Nothing was a real runaway success but we had a lot of laughs.

An early rise with a very big breakfast. The plan is to fill up on breakfast so we make it to the evening meal with just snacks. That sort of works if you ignore the frequency and size of the snacking!!!

We booked a trip to Monkeyworld on line with an 11.30 check in. It was a busy place. I think everyone had seen the forecast and decided it wasn’t the weather for the beach!

I’ve got to say, Monkeyworld was not a huge success and only kept us amused for a couple of hours. To be fair to it, it did exactly what it said on the can - there was a barrel load of monkeys and not a lot else. A couple of them were entertaining but most hadn’t read the email and were just sitting with their backs to the paying audience looking disinterested. 

The more we went round the more all 3 of the kids (and me to be fair) started to be critical of the reluctant monkeys and our fellow guests! I’m afraid these sort of places can bring out the snob in me - I can’t help but be thinking that more than 3 out of 10 are Reform supporters! And Charlie is so like his mum with his caustic, irreverent and funny put downs - the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! 

It was funny, the 4 of us wandering around a bit befuddled and bemused in a sea of excited guests. At one stage we were totally lost trying to find the exit - via the Gift Shop.

The Orang Utans were definitely the highlight but I was quite pleased to leave behind the kids pushing in front to get a better view, the “large” adults taking too long at the front and the swarm of mobility scooters!

God, that makes me sound awful - sorry. But the delightful thing for me was that the 4 of us walked round Monkeyworld as one. Clearly on a different planet to not only the monkeys but also most of Monkeyworld guests!

So the only way was up - turned out it wasn’t.

We were fairly close to Lulworth Cove so we headed off there. Kim and I had been during one of our pre Covid Brunnehilda trips. I remembered a pretty little village with a quiet beach / Cove! But that was in September! In August it was absolutely rammed and the beach was far from sandy! We sat on the pebbles for 15 minutes, it started to rain, we went back to the car (via the ice cream stall). To be fair, that bit was a success with Charlie saying it was the best ice cream he’d ever had!!

We decided to go back to Brunnehilda for a bit to lick our wounds and decide what next. Next was a snack and then a game of football in the field next to the campsite. Thankfully we got to 9-9 so the Twinnies accepted a draw and there was no agro / tears from the loser - we were all winners!!

The evening was more successful - we managed an enjoyable game of crazy golf in Swanage before a step back in time and dinner at a Wimpy restaurant. Charlie won the golf and the Twinnies thought the Wimpy was better than McDonalds so that was good!

Back to the van for more snacks, cards (me and the Twinnies), shower (Charlie) and a Disney dvd.

It sounds like an awful day but it really wasn’t. So much banter, so much fun and so alike!

Swanage - 12th August ‘25

Four months since Brunnehilda had an outing and this one didn’t start well!!

It’s the annual Brunnehilda trip with my grandsons. Quite surprisingly Charlie (aged 17 yrs 11 mths) wanted to go with his old grandad and young brothers! It was an especially difficult day for Charlie as he started it off at 9am by failing his driving test! So it didn’t bode well for a good day!!

While Charlie was getting his 3 majors and 4 minors, I was shopping at Tescos and getting to the van nice and early to do a bit of gardening! Like Sleeping Beauty’s castle, Brunnehilda was entwined in weeds and brambles. I took an axe and lopper to these in the seering heat and soon got her free. Then it was checking tyres and putting on the new plate. It took me ages to hook her up. I won’t bore you with how, but it definitely fits in the user error category. The first of at least 3 this first day! I think a gap of 4 months is enough for my caravan muscle memory to turn completely to flubber! 

I met Laura with the boys at midday and we hit the road. The 3.5 hour journey to Swanage ended up taking 5.5 hours. Thats with a 30 minute stop at Sutton Scotney where we used Charlie’s Roadchef discount card to get £36 of McDonalds for £12. Result - although this is where the day / journey started its descent into chaos.

The traffic was bad! Roadworks or the slightest misnomer meant there were lots of little queues. As soon as you cleared one you hit another. So all these little queues turned into one big one lasting about 40 miles. This is where I made my second unforced error - I let the sat nav take over. Like an excited puppy dog, it kept on pulling me off in a different direction to try and beat the jams. It didn’t work! Although we did see some nice countryside. All the stress may have saved me 45 seconds and used an extra gallon or two of fuel!

We arrived at the Haycraft Caravan Club site at 5.30. Pleasant enough check in lady and a nice clean busy little site. Only about 50 vans but very nice modern facilities. I filled her up with water and headed for the pitch. It was too challenging an angle for me to attempt to back her on. It was completely full, apart from my pitch and there was the usual audience of critical caravan owners (always male!!). I thought “sod it”, I’m going to swallow my Alpha male pride and motor move her.

This would have worked if the motor movers had worked. They sparked up a bit and then stopped. I changed the battery in the remote a couple of times before concluding that the problem was the main caravan battery. Problem is I now couldn’t disengage them . I tried to find the tool to manually do this but couldn’t! Meantime there were a couple of motor homes waiting to get by! They had to drive all over the busy pitches opposite to do so! I felt the laser light of a dozen critical eyes on the back of my head as I realised I couldn’t find the tool to take off the mover manually! While starting to despair I thought I’d try once more - it wouldn’t move but I did manage to disengage so at least we could push her on manually. That wasn’t going to work - you had to push up hill to get on the pitch - with just me, Charlie and Twinnies! Luckily 3 of my neighbours took pity on me / us and, after a lot of huffing and puffing we got her big German backside onto the pitch! I thanked my neighbours profusely and sent the kids to play football while I completed the set up.

Then we had user error number 3! I had her plugged in but couldn't make any of the electrics work! I stripped the wardrobe floor to find the fuses and electrical override- all ok. I dug out the user manual to seek help - none was forthcoming! I concluded that it must be somehow linked to my motor mover battery issue but then I realised … I hadn’t turned the main electric switch on at the door!! Something you always do first on a set up - muscle memory to flab! A very panicky 20 mins was over- just before I grabbed the phone to book a hotel!

The boys got back from their football playing as I finished a very long, stressful, hot and frustrating set up!

After a snack of chocolate and lucazade (the food of Champions!!) we headed out to Swanage for the evening.

Parked up FOC right by the beach - you wouldn’t get that in Cornwall!? The boys had a paddle and I sussed out Laura’s recommendation on local chip shops.

After drying Twinnies feet and squeezing out their soaking shorts (of course they got them wet!) we walked the 200 yards to the Fish Plaice. I remember going there before with Kimbo and all the family on one of our many August BH trips to Poole.

We ate it on the little square over looking the sea. Encouraging the seagulls to move on was an important element of our eating experience but the food was ok and most was finished. Although, I’ve noticed that no matter how few chips you order, there is always some thrown away! The seagulls eventually moved on.

Even though an ice cream was offered, we decided to get back to the car.

Charlie had another shower when we got back - he has 2 a day! Ironically the same number the Twinnies have in a month - between them!!

We played a couple of games of cards before transforming Brunnehilda into her overnight state. We were all knackered so went to sleep very quickly. A long and challenging day but happy to say we still managed to consume kilos of rubbish food! Oh, and the flush in the toilet isn’t working. Bring on day 2!