Aaron's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘diggerland’

During half term, Ben, Aaron and Coby all went to Diggerland for the day with Kelly and some of their friends and their families. They all had a great time, as you can see from the below picture! They came home extremely worn out but loved the day. Ben was allowed to go off with Annie and Jake and go on the rides they wanted to go on, as it is a safe enough place and they didn’t want to hang around with the smaller ones! 😉

The gang at Diggerland

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, we again decided to camp at Diggerland. It was nice and cheap last year, which is what we were after, even though the facilities were extremely basic. Unfortunately, the facilities didn’t look to have been updated or fixed from last year, so we were really disappointed with them and won’t be going back again, even with the cheap price.

We arrived on the Friday after work again and set about getting the tent up as quickly as possible as it had been a day of heavy showers. We just about managed to get the tent before some heavy rain came in but I still got drenched and muddy as I was sorting out the guide ropes during the rain whilst everyone else was inside sorting their bits out. So, once finished, I dashed off to clean myself up in the shower whilst Kelly warmed up our Spaghetti Bolognese for tea, which she had made earlier in the day. We had to sit and eat inside the tent due to the weather, but it was nice and yummy. The weather did clear up a bit later on in the evening, so the boys were able to go out and run about and play on the grass before coming in for bed.

On the Saturday, we went to Combe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park, as the day was dry and sunny. It was nice and hot as well in the sun! We had a great day there looking around the animals and viewing the animatronic dinosaurs, but the best part (as the last time we went) was the Sea Lion show. We also had some nice food there for dinner. We stayed right until closing time and then drove back via B&M, as we stopped in to get a bluetooth speaker so we could listen to music properly instead if from our phones. The evening was lovely so we were able to eat our tea outside and the boys had a good play around. It did come in very cold though so, unlike last year when we were sat out till quite late, we ended up in the tent practically as soon as it got dark. It had been a very nice day though.

Sunday was different weatherwise, as it had been forecast to be horrible with heavy rain and wind all day long. They actually predicted it correctly as well, but we went prepared by taking some games to play. We had decided beforehand that we would have a quiet day on the Sunday anyway, so this was fine. We stayed in the tent all day and played Scrabble cards and normal cards, and watched things on the laptop. It was actually a very nice day! Just after tea time, the rain finally stopped and it came out dry so we were able to go for a little walk down the adjacent path to the fishing lakes at dusk. We had also started packing our things up during the evening as we had to be off the pitch by 12pm on the Monday. It was still cold that evening and the tent and surrounding grass and gravel was drenched and very muddy. It was difficult to stop the much from coming in the tent after we had been outside. 

Monday morning was spent packing our things away and taking the tent down. There were massive puddles under the tent on the ground sheet, and it was all muddy and horrible as well.  It was dry whilst we were packing up, which was useful. Unlike last year, when there was loads of children camping, there were none really this time, so the boys didn’t have anyone else to play with, which was a shame, so by the time we left, there were only a couple of other tents still in the field. 

We had had a good weekend, even if the facilities were quite shocking this time, but we won’t be going back again anytime soon. It was definitely much quieter this year but that was maybe due to the forecast for the weekend with the heavy rain on the Sunday. It probably put a lot of people off. We didn’t mind though and had some fun inside the tent and still managed to go somewhere on the Saturday anyway. 😉

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, we camped at Diggerland in Devon for the 3 nights. We couldn’t have picked a better weekend weather-wise either, as it was roasting throughout though not quite as hot as when we camped at Monkey Tree. We all had a great time and enjoyed every minute.

When we first arrived on the Friday evening, the electricity wasn’t working for some reason, so we were worried that all our food was going to go off. Luckily though, it seemed to turn itself on after about half an hour of the cable being plugged in, so we were quite relieved.  We got the tent up quite easily between us whilst the boys were already making friends with some of the other children who were camping or caravaning as well. It was great really, as we could keep an eye on them but not worry about them as they were happy playing. Whilst we were putting the tent up, the Red Arrows flew over as well, so that was an unexpected treat!

On the Saturday, we had tickets to go into Diggerland for the day. It was another hot day and we were sweating! Diggerland was good fun and it was actually quite quiet, so we didn’t really have to queue for very long on any of the rides. We all had lots of goes on various diggers – Kelly, Ben and Aaron even had a go at driving a full size digger around a dirt track – and had great fun. We had bought dinner from the cafe there (burger and chips) which was nice enough and stayed until closing time. Unfortunately, as the day went on, Coby got more and more teasy as he had a late night the night before and it was so hot, so he was shouting and crying a lot. Just before we left, we went in the shop as Gramps had given the boys some money to spend, so they all bought something each, so were happy with that. We had all had a nice time and were quite surprised that we spent the entire day there as it wasn’t really a very big place but, as there were no queues, we were happy to go on the rides multiple times.

We then walked back over to the campsite (which was just beside the main car park) and cooked up some food to eat. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at the tent whilst the boys played with the other children again.

On Sunday, we didn’t really have anything planned, but it turned out to the hottest day of the weekend, so we decided to go for a ride to see if we could get a small, cheap paddling pool for the boys. We weren’t able to find one anywhere, but we did end up in Taunton at the Grand Western Canal and had a lovely walk along it.  We didn’t know this was there but will definitely visit it again properly. Whilst walking along, a barge came along that was being pulled by a big Shire Horse as apparently this is the only canal where horses still pull the boats along. It was very interesting and the boys loved seeing the massive horse! We also had an ice cream by the canal and it was just beautiful really.

We eventually made our way back to camp and relaxed for the afternoon. A lot of the people on site had left for the day so it was very quiet for us, which was great! I had a game of football with the boys and they played with some water guns that they had bought earlier that day, so the day ended up passing quite quickly. We had some nice food again for tea, cooked on our gas BBQ, and relaxed for the evening. The boys were again playing with their new friends by this time and stayed up playing until nearly 9:30pm (the same as he last two nights!). It was the best evening of the weekend to see the stars but it was much colder as it was a clear sky.

On the Monday, we had to pack up and leave the site by 12pm, so we got up and had some food and then started putting away our camping gear and tent into the car. It was absolutely roasting again so Kelly and I were both sweating buckets doing it! We managed to get it all packed again a little after 12pm, but we didn’t really rush it (due to the heat!). A lot of the other visitors on the site had left by now apart from a family that the boys had made good friends with, so they were happy playing with them until it was time to go.

We had all had a lovely weekend and had some good fun.  Again, we were very lucky with the weather, although it was too hot really in the sun! The facilities were quite limited and basic but it was only a cheap camp site and perfectly fine for what we needed, so we will probably go back again at some point next year. 😉