Camping at River Dart Country Park

The view from our tent

Well it's been a busy few weeks, my parents came to stay for 3 weeks (more of that another day), my aunty and uncle came to stay in a caravan on my driveway for a couple of days at the same time, then just when everything was back to  normal at the Bungalow, it was holiday time!

We went to River Dart Country Park 2 years ago for a lovely camping holiday, we booked again for last year but we had to cancel last minute, so we were looking forward to returning with our friends for a bit of rest and relaxation and maybe a bit of the sunny weather we had the pleasure of over the last week or so.

School were kind enough to have an inset day on the Friday, allowing us to set off early and avoid the traffic nightmare we had last time. We aimed for an 8am departure and made it for 9am which for us was brilliant especially as there had been no early packing and we'd had work and dancing and the guinea pigs had to go on their holiday!

Tree climbing on the lawn

The journey down to Devon was uneventful which is what you want and after a couple of stops we arrived at River Dart for around 2pm. It was just as we remembered green and leafy, surrounded by trees and river. We parked up for a remarkably easy check in - about 5 seconds! No waiting for someone on a bicycle to boss you about into your pitch, we knew where we were going and couldn't get there quick enough. Setting up and putting away is probably the worst bit of camping - after a long journey to a hotel you stick your case under the bed and head down to the bar, not the case with camping. After 2 and a half years with our new tent, a few serious arguments, a bit of stomping off in a huff, we are now a finely honed team. Tony somehow puts up the tent on his own, that previously the two of us struggled over for hours and I make the kitchen and the bedrooms and generally unpack the car and fill up the tent.

Eating Out
First night is an eat out night, there is definitely no room in the car to breathe let alone pack any food. We stocked up on breakfast basics in the little on site shop (half gift shop, half essential groceries) and headed to the bar for dinner. Since we last visited the Sawmill has expanded on it's set menu and Sunday Carvery to offer all you can eat Chinese 2 nights, all you can eat Indian and all you can eat buffet breakfast. The dinners are £8.95 for adults which seemed quite reasonable, so the first night we had the Chinese which was surprisingly nice, a good variety of dishes including vegetarian options, rice, noodles, prawn crackers, sweet and sour, black bean, hot and spicy beef were among the options. You could eat in or outside on the patio, or outside undercover as we had to do on Indian night (rice, popadums, samosas, jalfrezi, madras, tikka masala), across the road is a grassy area with some children's play equipment so you can have a drink while the kids play.

The Pirate Ship

Zorbing

The Facilities
Last time we visited the site the toilet blocks were brand new and not without their problems. They seemed a lot better this time, they could be better - we have previously given feedback and the reviews on uk camp sites have similar advice, but still there's no bucket and mop for the showers. this would really help as by evening time there's a lot of wet grass about. There are plenty of showers and toilets and some private washing cubicles, again these could benefit from a cloth like you get at camping and caravanning sites, but on the whole they weren't bad to say it was busy. I never had to queue for a shower and I always got warm to hot water although the push button shower is infuriating. There is a family room with a bath and a laundry room with washer, dryers and irons. The washing up sinks are at the front of the block, they do get full at busy times but as we could just about see them from the tent we could pick the right moment. Reception is well stocked with ideas of where to go, there's the shop and restaurant. Opposite our tents in front of the toilet block is a small basic play area that the kids could play at all day and a large grassy area for ball games. An outside company CRS runs on site activities - mountain bike hire, a climbing wall, zorbs and some high wires. There's kayak hire and a little bouncy castle and a great looking zip wire (not tried and tested!!). There are lots of woodland and river walks and dotted in amongst the trees are 4 or 5 play areas, really good adventure play. The centre piece of children's activities is the pirate ship an outdoor water wonderland of balancing and swimming and exploring, fishing for tiny fish and even a small beach.

We stayed on the park for the most part while we were there. On the Monday they had a quite low key  Jubilee Garden Party complete with a children's assault course with prizes and a Pimms tent!

Out and About and what we did

Dartmoor Pony

On Saturday we went to Ashburton to get our shopping. We decided to go local and avoid the supermarkets. We loved it, we got totally carried away and could have blown our whole budget in one day! It's a well equipped town, a butchers (which we missed, it closed before we got there), gift shops, grocers, chemist, newsagent, Artisan bakers (which had sold out before we got there), pub, restaurants, antique shops, beauty shops, lovely hand made soaps (couldn't resist a few) and nik naks, gift shops (picked up some cards and Lauren got a Chattimal - don't ask!), outdoor gear, off licence (we got scrumpy and wine and local beer), fish deli (we got olives, beetroot and smoked salmon paté, 2 wine glasses, antipasti, crevettes), normal deli (we stocked up on bread and local cheese and olives), a ridiculously small Co-op, ironmongers (kettle, fly swatter, egg cup), post office, bank and even a tiny, tiny museum. We had to leave once we realised the butchers was closed and instead Tony headed off to Riverford with the Manning's to get chicken thighs, sausages and rib eye steak for our barbecues.

We had one other day out, we intended to go walking on Dartmoor but the weather was beyond awful, we drove over the moors where we got stuck in a herd of cows and stopped to talk to some Dartmoor ponies. We kept driving until we got to Torquay, we had to park well out of town because of a Halford's Bike Race, by the time we walked into town everything was closed, we even missed the cinema! So back in the car as the rain made way to a lovely evening, we headed towards Teignmouth stopping on the way for some so so fish and chips in a beautiful village, eating them in a lay by overlooking the sea.

We managed two barbecues and 3 card nights (unheard of!), never really getting to bed until midnight. Quiet time is 11pm and for the most part it was observed, the first night there were children out until midnight, the rest of the stay there was just low background noise, nothing that would keep anyone awake. We were able to have some really good grown up time for a change, usually we are shattered and are not far behind the children once it gets dark.

Riverford Rib-eye and pasta

The weather and an abrupt end
When you go camping you have to be a bit immune to the weather. I remember when we were children still being taken to the beach when the sky was grey and the rain came down, in the sea standing in the waves. Generally we stick by this and make the most of our holidays come rain or shine. Saying that we had some of the heaviest rain I've ever seen while we were at River Dart.

Looking at the forecast it looked to be the same all week except for Thursday. As our garden is too small to cope with drying a 6m x 5m tent, i broached the subject of going home Thursday if it dried out. Tony was against it, if we were going to miss out on holiday because of the weather we ought to reconsider camping in the future, I could see his point, but it didn't make me what to pack up in torrential rain any more either it would be logistical nightmare, especially as there's no room in the car to cut an corners with the packing. However, Wednesday we got a text from home asking us to look at the weather, we went for a buffet breakfast and watched the news, gales were coming, it was the last straw and we had to decide to pack up, later the met office issued an amber warning and lots of other people started to pack up too. The weather was kind and the sun came out to dry everything, we packed in record time and got home without a stop.

What happened next
Well, we were half way through a game of cards, so Friday night we went for a sleepover at the Manning's for a Chinese and beer and nibbles......so all was not lost.

River Dart - in summary
It's the most expensive site we've visited and they have an annoying habit of insisting on full payment on booking, the only site we've stayed at which does. Having said that, we've already booked for next year. It's got a lot of space for camping, it gets busy but you still have room, there are some big parties of regular visitors but it was never rowdy, everyone was good spirited.

Owling on the lawn

The bird man comes in the holdiays -
Lauren and Willow the barn owl

Indoor dining

On a woodland walk