Escape the crowds at a CL

Everywhere gets booked up during a Bank Holiday weekend and Caravan Club sites are no different. Just as we left Coniston the pitches were filling up as quickly as they were being vacated. Time for us to escape the crowds. We chose to spend the weekend at a certificated location on our way south.

The CL that we chose was Cliftons Farm (an organic dairy farm) in Lancashire. The extended camping area accommodates about 10 caravans, motorhomes or tents and sites alongside the farm. Pitches overlook a pond (home to the resident ducks), fields (home to the farmer's cows and hens), orchards and fruit bushes. There are currently two toilets, one of which is an outhouse and the other in a neighbouring outbuilding alongside a shower, dishwashing facilities and games room containing a table tennis table (no bats). Maybe the facilities aren't the usual Caravan Club standards but they are fine and there are plans to build a newer toilet block in the near future; a basic shell of a building is sitting waiting the next stage of construction.

Being on a farm meant that we were surrounded by animals. The chickens roam around the campsite freely and you can hear the ducks and geese quacking and honking. Being interested in animals, we asked if we could watch the cows being milked and were welcomed along to watch the herd of 45 Jersey and Brown short horn cows wander along the street into the dairy. We were even lucky enough to see a newly born calf, that had been born out in the fields earlier in the day. The shop on the site stocks a fresh supply of milk (raw), cream, ice-cream, duck, hen and goose eggs and freshly grown produce.

Leaving the motorhome behind we headed out on bikes to explore the local area - there are quite a few different cycle paths to explore if staying longer. We cycled about 4 miles miles to the Beacon Hill visitor centre, a popular spot for families out and about during the bank holiday weekend before returning back to the peace and quiet of the farm - a very relaxing bank holiday weekend.