Verwood Caravan and Camping Club Site - Days 43 - 49 of our Autumn/Winter Tour

Verwood Caravan and Camping Club Site - Days 43 - 49 of our Autumn/Winter Tour 

This week should have been a fantastic one  because our 3 children and their families had hired  Caravan and Camping Club Ready Camp Tents on the Verwood site and we'd planned birthday celebrations and outings for the duration of their stay.  

On Monday 25th we had 2 birthdays to celebrate - Adam our eldest son was a big 40, and our little grand-daughter Evelyn was 6, so of course a party was in order and that took place on the veranda of one of the tents.  We feasted on steak pie and chips (along with a bevy or 3 🍻🍷) and this was followed by a slice of the gorgeous duel birthday cake that Vicky had made!

This side showed Adam's work Tools

And this side was Evelyn's favorite Ponies

On Tuesday we packed picnics and headed for Moors Valley Country Park which belongs jointly to Dorset Council and Forestry England.  Now, if I said it was busy that would be an understatement but it's also huge so it swallowed a massive volume of people without seeming to over populated!  

Back Row Ben, Sarah, Paul, John Vicky and Adam
Front Row Evelyn, Thomas, Jack, Louise and Max

Once there our initial target was the mile long play trail which has 10 wooden play structures with imaginative names like Giant Wood Ants Nest, The House of Baba Yaga, The Snake Pit, Hawk House and Spider to name but a few.  

And when all the play structures had been explored and our lunch had been scoffed while sitting on toadstools, both the big and little children kept on playing in the forest!

There was also a bit more exploring along the 200 metre tree top trail, riding on the miniature stream train and playing in the adventure play area. 

Where's Wally!

On Wednesday our adventures continued when we visited Longdown Activity Farm - an outing which was paid for by Great-ma Rose as part of a Christmas Present to us all.  Initially the weather was wet and windy and the farm was a bit muddy but that didn't slow any of the 'kids' down!

They enjoyed several rounds of feeding baby goats

And loved the time they spent in the barn with the little creatures

Then a good chunk of time was spent racing, swinging and climbing trees!

Before we rounded of our day by heading up onto the Moors of the New Forest to do a bit of pony spotting but unfortunately they were all a bit elusive . 

Thanks Great-Ma we had a lovely Day 😘

However, then sadly things went rapidly downhill😭!  On Thursday we'd planned a day on the beach at Highcliffe with a fish and chip lunch, and all was okay until we got there.  Once we'd all parked in the cliff top carpark we loaded up with all our beach gear (chairs, buckets and spades and warm coats) we set off in procession down a steep stair way that would lead us onto the shingle and sand.  Sadly, as we went Vicky lost her footing and fell heavily as she stepped down a particularly deep step, and immediately she became shocked and was in a huge amount of pain from both ankles.  To cut a long story short we had to borrow a chair from a nearby cafe and poor Vicky had to be lifted back up onto flat ground and an ambulance needed to be called.  But that wasn't the end of the trauma because the ambulance took 3 and a half hours to arrive and because of the strong wind it was freezing while we waited on the cliff top and Vicky was in agony.  

Once the ambulance did actually arrive she was whisked of to Poole hospital (on her own as no one was allowed to travel with her), but once there she had a further long wait in the back of the ambulance because there was no room for her to enter the hospital.  Then, to add insult to injury she was miss diagnosed and told she had a single tibia fracture and that she could weight bear on her other leg!  However pain made that impossible for her to do, but despite that, the hospital staff were still insistent that Vicky should leave even though they knew she was being discharged to a wet muddy campsite where she would have to negotiate at least 2 steps into the tent.   In the end common sense prevailed and they reluctantly agreed that she would have to stay overnight and it was a good job she did because the next day, after review by an orthopaedic consultant, her diagnosis was corrected and it was identified that she had fractures to both ankles.  This resulted in a second night in hospital while orthotic boots were fitted to both legs and assessments were made to ensure she could walk short distances. 

Finally after Max and Adam had had a sleep over in our caravan Vicky was discharged on Saturday at about 3 in the afternoon, and after her very determined effort to scramble up into Adams's van they made their 195 mile journey home where hopefully her recovery will be rapid.

And finally, I'll just tell you quickly about last night and today (Sunday)!  After the traumas of the last couple of days we were very much looking forward to our extra hours sleep, however the very rough weather had other plans for us.  The night started fairly quietly but by 3am the wind was buffeting the van and the rain was hammering down with a very high level of ferocity.  John said 'don't worry' but I didn't take his advice and I more or less stayed awake for the rest of the night.  However, when morning came we were still in one piece but that may not have lasted if John hadn't leapt out of the van when a particularly strong gust dragged the pegs out of one end of our awning resulting in its air-beam legs bowing and bending alarmingly😱.  

It then required me to hold it down while John hammered in more long pegs but the wind was determined and even dragged them out several times before we finally won the battle.   And what a battle it could have been because a bit later we red reports that told of winds in excess of 87 mph at exposed locations on the Isle of Portland in Dorset and gusts of 60 mph across Hampshire Dorset Wiltshire and Sussex.  This, along with monsoon style rain made our night and early morning scary and that had nothing to do with Halloween 👻 

Needless to say, once the rain had stopped and our canvas was dry the awning was soon packed away which was necessary anyway because we're moving again tomorrow, and this time our destination will be Great Malvern!

Bye for now 😙

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