Bude Weekend

This weekend we took the van on a surfari to Cornwall and the town of Bude.   It's about a 5 hour drive down there and we set off after work and arrived just after 10pm.  We stayed at the Bude Holiday Park with about a dozen mates. 

The holiday park itself is big with loads of static caravans, a children's play area, an outdoor heated swimming pool (which we declined to try out) and lots of pitches with and without electrical hook ups.   They had a lot of washing and toilet facilites which were all in pretty good nick.  And they let in groups which most smaller campsites won't.  Plus they let you turn up as late as midnight and check in.   But that's where the good points end. 

The campsite was full of "interesting" people who really should have been wearing burbery, the bar was so bad that we went in there to pay for our stay up front on the Friday night and never went near it again after that, even choosing to pass on watching the Elvis impersonator who couldn't remember the words. And the security guards?  Oh my god.  Nazis.   We've finally found where all the ex-prison camp guards have been retired to.

Anyway, not letting the prison camp guards put a damper on our first night we set up camp and everyone piled into the two T5's we'd taken down for the weekend and had a few beers and talked of how the waves were going to be 3' and glassy this weekend.  Before we knew it the early morning hours were slipping away and it was decided to crash out.

Marshy, another T5 owner and surfer

Saturday dawned cold and cloudy but with no hint of wind.  It might be great down at the beach.  We all piled down there and drove into the car park.   Hmmm.  Not exactly 3'.  More like 18" on a set.  But it was clean enough and if the sun had been out it would have been lovely.   Still about half of us got in the water and had a splash about.   The others set off on a 9 mile trek along the coast path to Crackington Haven.  Some even walked there and all the way back again! 

The gang at Widemouth Beach

We stayed down at the beach all day, doing two sessions and in the afternoon the swell had picked up so we were getting maybe 2' waves on the bigger sets and still pretty clean.  Trouble was it was about 5 to 10 minutes in between sets and with the water at a chilly 9 degrees it was a long wait for each wave. 

That evening it was back to the campsite via Sainsburys and bar-b-que time.  We all huddled in the leigh of the van and made a circle to defend outselves against the prison guards.  

Bar-b-que in the evening...

Fortunately they seemed busy elsewhere in the prison camp this evening and we didn't see them.  It probably helped that the rains started to fall before midnight so everyone beat a hasty retreat and hit the sack before they realised we'd been enjoying ourselves on their watch.   Oh, but not before we'd celebrated Cecile's birthday with a few bottles of champagne and some cakes and candles!

...which became a campfire after dark

Sunday was another cold cloudy day but this time it was blowing a hooly and onshore too.  The swell had picked up to about 3' on the sets but it was very blown out.  Still, we'd come this far and even though the conditions weren't great it was still time to get in there and catch some waves.

Emil

It was a pleasure to the able to change out of my cold wet suit in the back of the van, standing up as we had the roof up, and Mrs. Blakey even greeted me with a fresh cuppa made from our new 12v kettle as I got out of the sea.  Bonus!  

The two T5s side by side

Getting out of a sandy soaking wet suit in the back of the van did mean I left puddles of wet sand everywhere but the practical kombi floor means that a quick sweep through the next day and a damp cloth and it's sparkling like new again.  Very useful.

Local boy Glaz

After our Sunday session we said goodbye to the others and went and visited our great friends Glaz and Frances who live down near Bude and have just had a new baby.  Then we headed off home, dropping in at my sister's pub the Peter Tavy Inn on the edge of Dartmoor where my brother in law delighted in taking the micky out of this blog.   But he's clearly reading it!!!

My sister's pub on Dartmoor

From there it was a simple 4 hour cruise home down the A303 and once again I was pleased at just how easy it is to drive the van for long hours at a stretch.  Got home after 4 hours without a break feeling fresh as a daisy with none of the usual fatigue I'd feel after the same drive in a car.    I do need to invest in cruise control though - I really miss it on the long drives.

All in all a really enjoyable weekend although it would have been even better had the weather stayed as it has been all week.

Oh and as for the campsite, I'm giving them 3/10.  Probably about 6/10 for the campsite itself and -3 for the nazi guards.