Aaron's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘grand western canal’

Over the final Bank Holiday weekend in May, we stayed at a Lodge just outside of Tiverton. It was basically Kelly’s birthday present. The lodge was on a farm and was part of 3 other buildings that were rented out but we were on the end next to a large field with sheep and a pond. The farm also had a proper tennis court and a games room, so it was very nice really. The only problem that we had was that our Lodge didn’t look to have been cleaned down on the outside as it was covered in massive spiders webs and there were quite a few cobwebs in the corners of the rooms inside. Oh and the sheep woke us up at 4am each morning by ‘baa..ing’ extremely loudly! 😉 There was free wi-fi though, even though it was quite sketchy and kept cutting in and out.  We had a good weekend there though and visited several places. 

On the Saturday, we went into Tiverton and had dinner at a Wetherspoons before having a walk alongside the neighbouring river before heading to Wimbleball Lake, which was on Exmoor. The weather wasn’t great unfortunately but was dry enough for us to have an ice cream and go for a walk along the lakeside path. Ben managed to get stung along the way though so wasn’t very happy and Coby was moaning as he didn’t want to walk. So the usual then really! On the way back to the car, we had a look at the campsite and the boys had a play in the outdoor wooden play area for a little while, before we headed home. It had come out really hot in the evening, especially as we were trying to play Tennis, and then we started to hear the rumbling of thunder in the distance (which had been forecast). Typically, the thunder and lightning started as the boys went to bed, although Ben, who was in his own room, came out to watch it with me as he was a little worried being on his own. Aaron and Coby managed to sleep through most of it though. It didn’t last too long and Ben went back to bed, although it did come back a bit again in the night.

On the Sunday, we didn’t really know what to do as the weather was quite iffy and rained each morning, but we eventually decided to go swimming in Tiverton. It was a nice pool and the boys all enjoyed it there. We then ended up at Bickleigh Mill, just outside of Tiverton and had a look in there and had an ice cream. The weather was quite hot and sunny by now, which was typical! At the same place was the Devon Railway Centre, which is where we had hoped to go before we woke up to rain that day. The boys really wanted to go in but it was way too late for that so we decided that we would go there on the Monday instead, even though we had planned to go home in the morning. After leaving here, we stopped off at the Great Western Canal (as it was on the way back to the lodge) and had a very short walk along the canal and the boys played in a brand new play area there, before driving home for tea again. We did some packing in the evening and we all went to play Tennis again and the boys in the games room before heading to bed. Luckily, there was no thunder or lightning that night!

On the Monday, we had to be out by 10am but for some annoying reason, the owner came over to us at about 930am and asked if the cleaner could go in and strip the bed as ‘they wanted to get them washed and dried in the nice weather’. We weren’t very impressed by that but couldn’t really say no. So we eventually left at 10am, after making sure we had picked everything up, and drove to the Devon Railway Centre and spent the majority of the day there. It was boiling hot with not a cloud in the sky, so the weather was too perfect really! The place was really nice and we had lots of rides on the steam and electric trains and the boys had a good play in the soft play area. They also had a model village and a nice picnic area where we had our sandwiches for dinner. They had lots of little model railways in an old train carriage, which was great, but so hot in there due to the weather! We had to make sure we put plenty of sun tan lotion on all day! Whilst we were having our picnic, Ben got bitten by a horse fly, so he was in tears again. Luckily, Kelly has some cream on her to put on it. On our way out, we stopped in the shop and the boys bought something each with their money. It took ages for Aaron to decide, but he eventually settled on something! We then got back in the car and drove home.

We all had had a nice weekend and enjoyed the quietness of the lodge (apart from the sheep and thunder) and went to some nice places. The lodge was OK, although it had lots of cobwebs outdoors and a few indoors, and the farm was nice with the tennis court and games rooms. It was a shame that the owners were a bit strange though!

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. 😉