Thursday 3rd July 2025

We loaded the van for a week away and after work we set off south, heading back to Little Acre Holiday Park.

It took around 2.5 hours, straight down the M74 and onto the M6, heavy rain stalked us the entire journey.

There were also a lot of roadworks which slowed us a bit, but we pulled off at Junction 36 and it’s a very short journey from the motorway to the campsite.

We pitched up on Pitch 22, and we weren’t very level, there were a set of Milenco levelling blocks on the grass, but we tried our own and they didn’t level us enough, the door was still sliding shut pretty fast.

We tried the provided levelling blocks, and they improved things a bit, but we were definitely not level.

We popped over to the Crooklands hotel again for dinner.

Gayle picked the garlic mushrooms on toast, and a steak ale and mushroom pie with a shortcrust pastry which was apparently lovely…really nice having a shortcrust lid for a change.

I went for the black pudding stack with poached egg and peppercorn sauce, with a gammon steak and chips and pineapple fritter for my main.

The gammon wasn’t my favourite, I had an amazing gammon steak on Mull, and this was a bit thick and not very flavourful…and no sear at all, the chips were nice tho'.

All that was washed down with Caffreys and Aspalls Cider…

After dinner we wandered along the Lancaster Canal as far as the Westmorland Showground, then turned round and headed back and straight to bed.

Friday 4th July 2025

We woke around 5am, we knew we had to get on the road early, but we still spent time discussing 80s memories of Fox’s glacier fruits and mints.

A quick breakfast of Wolfy’s porridge and tea/coffee and we pulled out of the site just after 7:30am.

We stopped for a quick break at Welcome break Chorley, I bought some Werthers filled centres and Murray Mints £4 a pack…

Around 10am we stopped off at Moto Frankley just outside Birmingham and picked up breakfast from Burger King, after a good break it was back onto the M5 - we were making good time.

We continued on the M5, it was pretty busy and congested and then stopped at Sainsburys in Taunton for a sandwich, I picked up a Bacon, brie and chili jam sandwich, and Gayle went for Coronation Chicken.

It was already hot outside, but we were onto the A358 for the last 60 miles or so, fortunately the air con was great and we had some Answer me this and Criminal podcast episodes to catch up on.

I noticed lots of caravans on the road, more than we usually see, and plenty of motorhomes and campervans heading south (and north).

We arrived at Durdle Door around 3:20pm and were shown to our pitch (pitch 84) by a really friendly and helpful member of staff.

We set up our chairs and table and got out the awning and had a couple of cold drinks, Gayle wandered off and returned with a couple of ice lollies.

Around 5pm we ventured in the direction of Durdle Door, it was fairly busy with tourists - it’s right outside the campsite and after getting our bearings we headed back and read for a bit.

I put some burgers and sausages on the grill at 6:30pm and we had a really nice dinner with ‘slaw and Spanish-style potato salad, but it wasn’t as good as Gayle’s potato salad.

After that, I headed off to wash up dishes (very nice, even had a mixer tap!!) and we relaxed reading ’til bedtime…we were pretty tired after a long warm day.

Saturday 5th July 2025

I woke up at around 6:30 and it was a grey overcast morning, it might have rained as there were spots on the over cab window.

We were both over for a shower first thing, not the best we’ve seen, but pretty good nonetheless

I had picked up a pack of Peggy Peg crocodile clips, and the Croc-adapters which slide easily into our awning rail and provide a really great way to hang out towels to dry, we used these most days and I can definitely recommend them.

Out with the Cadac and I cooked up bacon and fried eggs for breakfast with a nice cuppa tea.

We tidied up and headed off towards Durdle door for some photos, it’s very nice, but we’ve been to Fidden farm on Mull and that’s quite a high bar, it was also extremely windy.

One of the nicest beaches we’ve been to in England for sure, but probably edged out by the Northumberland coast.

We headed over the Coast path towards Lulworth Cove which is is a good walk, it wasn’t too busy and there are pretty good views of Durdle Door.

We wandered around before grabbing a light snack from one of the food shops on the street down to the cove; a quick cuppa coffee and a slice of coffee and walnut cake definitely set me up for the return journey.

Gayle had a can of Cawston apple drink and a cheese and bacon quiche which turned out (unfortunately) to be a cheese and tomato quiche which was apparently very nice nonetheless.

It was a grey and threatening day, and it felt like rain wasn’t far away so we opted to return to Durdle Door back over the coast path.

We took a couple of runs at the hill back, returning to the shop in between for a bottle of water but finally we made it up and over the hill and back to the van.

The chalky paths make your boots quite white and so we had to get the boot buddy out to give our walking boots a bit of a clean.

The Apple weather app said the winds were gusting to 33mph but it was relatively sheltered by the van and we had a relaxing seat.

It rained briefly and was pretty chilly so we ended up in the van watching FUBAR which we found pretty enjoyable!

It was an afternoon spent relaxing by reading, quite chilly tho’, we’d booked a table for 6:30pm at the “Man o’war” on-site restaurant, they were starting a session of bingo at 7pm, and we were sitting in the middle of it.

Gayle had a ham and pineapple pizza, and I had a spicy beef and chorizo pizza, both were pretty good (I had some chipotle chicken quesadillas too), but we felt under pressure to eat up before the bingo started, so we headed back to the van and watched some TV until bed time.

Sunday 6th July 2025

It rained quite heavily overnight, it woke me around 3am and I checked that the leg of the awning was tilted enough for runoff and judging from the noise, it was good.

We were up around 7am, to a grey and very muggy morning.

Straight over for a shower, and after a bit of cereal for breakfast (we brought a container full) we headed off in the van to meet my brother and his family at Corfe Castle.

We parked up at Purbeck park and ride and walked the short walk to Corfe castle, paid our entry fee and met up.

It’s mostly ruined but affords views over to Poole Harbour and something else we came to see…the Swanage Railway.

After exploring the castle we wandered down to the railway and got a coffee and slice of Dorset apple cake which was amazingly good, lovely and moist cake.

We boarded the 12:02 steam train to Swanage which isn’t a long ride but was fun, we’ve never been on a steam train.

After that we wandered the town of Swanage and finally the sun came out.

Swanage is a really nice little town.

We had fish and chips in Harlees, well I had sausage and chips, Gayle had a steak and kidney pie and chips, very tasty even if the sausage wasn’t battered.

We wandered along the beach front in the sun before joining the train back to Norden station, saying our goodbyes and heading back to Durdle Door.

We pitched up again and relaxed in the shade, it was a fun day 😀

The weather was breezy and warm, and the signs were that it is to get warmer.

We had a very nice French cheese selection with paprika flavour Jacob’s bites which were a recent discovery at Dunbar washed down with Sangria, very nice.

It was quite chilly so we headed in to watch Life on Mars and Galavant before bedtime.