2011 Summer Holiday 2 - Forest Glade, nr. Cullompton

26th July 2011 – Tuesday: Forest Glade

Got up late this morning, and after spending some time sorting out the awning and buying milk and cereals for breakfast, we decided to have a little time in the pool before going shopping in Cullompton.  I realised I had left the CRIS kit for the new window with Lady Bailey and a couple of previous service documents, so I rang Lady Bailey to make sure he put them safely in my file.

New neighbours arrived.  They had only had their van since Sunday and had brought  their parents along to help them set up.

The pool at Forest Glade is housed in a sort of temporary cover and the plastic walls of the dome can be opened to give that outside feel.  The pool was serviceable but had obviously seen better days.  It was in a very warm building, but the pool could have been warmer and no doubt might have been a lot colder if the temperature outside was not as good.  It was just a little cloudy to start with today, but the clouds soon gave way to blue skies and another lovely warm day.  We didn’t see much of Cullompton, but Tesco’s sufficed for our shopping trip.  We stopped on the way back to take one or two photos just down the lane from the site, just to give an idea of what the area is like.  Forest Glade is midway between Cullompton and Honiton, but access with caravans is only really possible form the Honiton end.

After shopping we returned and had another go in putting up the windbreak, this time with much more success.  Anna went back in the pool and Carol went to watch while I started to listen to some music and ended up asleep under the shade of the properly erected windbreak with roof.

Another Cadac/BBQ for evening meal and a relaxing evening bought this very warm day to a close.

27th July 2011 – Wednesday: Forest Glade

We started the day with our first cooked breakfast and then a relaxed day doing nothing in particular.  My wife and daughter went up to the pool in the morning, then our daughter went up again after lunch.  I sat and chatted to anyone who happened to be about.  The family next door, who had only picked up their ‘new to them’ caravan last Sunday, we’re still trying to get their awning up better.  In the end I gave them a few better quality pegs and a loan of my lump hammer for which they were grateful.  They were only from down the road at Exeter and had come with their four children to try out the caravan for a few days.  The gentleman who was in the van two down the other way was here for the gliding And I loaned himne a 15 amp blade fuse as one had gone on his glider.  We barbecued on the Cadac for tea and spent much of the evening talking to the folk from Exeter.  We had another fine day with the weather after a little cloud in the morning.

28th July 2011 – Thursday: Forest Glade

Today was always going to be a slow pack-up day in preparation for our journey tomorrow to Redruth.  After our cooked breakfast we packed away the Cadac and started to dismantle things as soon as we had finished with them.  My wife and daughter went back up to the pool and when they got back, I went to Tescos in Cullompton to get the car filled up with diesel and for one or two essentials.  The day started out a little cloudy buy soon brightened up to be another warm sunny day.  Our daughter went back to the pool later on in the afternoon and my wife just watched.  It was pizza for tea on our laps outside and two young children from next door came and sat by me at the side of the van as they were having pizza too.   The kids and their parents were from Bristol and kept their van here in storage.  They didn’t bother with an awning.  A conversation after tea revealed that the mother was a nurse on a ‘neuro’ ward and the father worked in hydrolics and was in to drinking cider.  He was furnishing a bottle of Healey’s cider – made just a few miles from our next site.  When it started to get a bit cooler we went in the van and watched the ‘Paul’ video – in my case through drooping eyelids.