We’ve reached the end of our full time season and are enjoying a well earned break in the beautiful village of Corfe, at the campsite owned and run by Mark & Lisa, franchised to the CC&C.
The campsite is tucked discreetly at the foot of Corfe Castle, up a narrow lane towards Church Knowle. The final approach is down an even narrower lane but don’t be alarmed – you can see from the top to the bottom, so there is no problem with access and the reports of potholes are greatly exaggerated. Yes, there are a few but we’ve seen much worse! The road condition is completely out of the site’s control despite their best efforts, so it just adds to the character of the place in our opinion.
The pitches are good, with the hard standings enclosed by oak sleepers and most pitches edged by small bushes. It is in woodland, so you get a nice country feel to it and nothing is uniform so it has a unique quality to it. There is no light pollution so star gazing is a possibility and as the TV signal is poor, hopefully people are able to use their imagination and amuse themselves in something more creative.
You are able to walk into Corfe from the site and it takes about 15 minutes. The walk begins at the site entrance and takes you along fields rather than having to walk on the road, great for dog walkers too.
On our first day we walked in and had a meal at the Greyhound Inn, a Ploughmans for two at £16. We’re going back again on Friday as they have live music on – it will be our last night and the food was good so it will round the week off nicely.
Tuesday saw us take the Steam Train into Swanage (http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/), a journey of about 20 minutes. It costs £10.50 per adult return and was really good fun. All the staff seemed to really enjoy their job and it reflected in their helpfulness to the customers. From the happy chap in the ticket booth who couldn’t get the machine to work, to the ticket collector who was very bubbly, to the station master who looked pristine in his uniform, everyone made the experience a pleasant one.
We disembarked at Swanage and headed for the seafront. The seagulls were having a whale of a time, collecting the scraps left behind from the scores of people eating fish and chips. Lots of children were fishing for crabs along the front, along with quite a few adults.
Dean won a teddy bear for me from the arcade – something we used to do in our misspent youth when we first got together. Happy days!
After lunch we strolled along the front people watching then made our way back to the train station to return back to Corfe. The weather is not supposed to be good tomorrow so a day reading, knitting and blogging are on the cards…