Return to the summer 2 - Greenacres, Somerset

Our pitch during a rare sunny spell. Lauren's hired bike outside.

We always spend a long time choosing which camp sites we are going to visit. I like camping, but that doesn't mean I want my holiday to be uncomfortable and without a few home comforts, I am definitely not a 2 man tent and hole in the ground camper, I can see the appeal of that to those who choose it, but each to their own. I don't like to hear it when people are quite vehement when talking about people who camp in bigger tents with electric hook up etc. There are no rules for camping, the same with all holidays you choose your own level of comfort. At the end of the day, if you work hard all year, you need a relaxing time, you don't want to go back to work needing another holiday!

We've been wanting to go to Somerset for a while and found a camp site we thought would be ideal, however, they were so obstructive when we were trying to book that we just had to assume they didn't want us to stay and had to look again.

The option we found was Greenacres and to be honest I was happy to go with whatever by then.

So the last week of the school holidays off we set, we got lost for a little while on the way, but otherwise the journey was uneventful and we made good time, thankfully arriving in one of the very few dry hours of August.

http://www.greenacres-camping.co.uk/

It's my job to book in, so I hopped out of the car and went to look for reception, answering a call of nature on the way. I'll come back to that later but suffice to say, it was with gritted teeth that I headed off across the road to a private house to find reception. I was greeted by an extremely friendly couple who directed us to our pitch.

We started to set up, as instructed avoiding the ditch that ran along the back as the field was prone to a little water logging in wet weather. We'd just stood the tent up when our friends Helen and Anthony arrived, they were due to be in the pitch next to ours, however, when they started to set up it became clear we weren't in the right place, so a joint effort was needed to move a large and heavy tent from one pitch to another.

All the time I was churning inside thinking about the facilities. I'd visited the toilets and they were dark and cobwebby and ....well dark and cobwebby and on my second visit I'd discovered the showers, they were like little cupboards that opened straight out to the field, with the pot washing area in the middle. I had made my mind up I wasn't going to like Greenacres!

So what did I learn during the week - well things are not as bad as they may seem on first inspection! I'm more versatile than I thought. I really enjoyed my holiday at Greenacres!

The owners were really friendly, their daughter played with our children most days. There was a play area with swing and slide and some little play sheds, very basic but there was a huge field for the children to play in, plenty of room for cricket and football and frisbee without getting near anyone else (although in true "husband" fashion, my husband managed to hit a poor lady on the head with a frisbee!). The owners had bikes available to hire, they were flexible and we managed to get Lauren finally riding without stabilisers with plenty of time and space to practice.

The toilets, a hotch potch of styles but clean
and good flushers!

The washing area - basic but clean, children's
steps and a bath for babies.

The facilities turned out to be great, despite the cobwebs they were spotlessly clean and although I was on lookout I never saw one spider in there the whole time. I know you will think I'm pretty lame, but everyone's got their "thing"!

I loved the showers, hot water, good pressure, not the largest rooms, but you left your shoes outside on the step so they were never muddy despite the weather and there was a dry space for dressing, before stepping back out into the camping field. I shared the shower with a snail a couple of days running but no spiders or other visitors.

The showers - a bit of a shock at first, but so practical - leave your muddy shoes on the step, a dry area for dressing and even entertainment from the conversations at the washing up area!

The site itself was just what you wanted for a camping holiday, tents around the perimeter and a huge expanse of grass for playing, we could sit outside the tent on the dry days and see the kids most of the time. They would occasionally go out of sight if they went to visit the lambs and calves.

We had intended to spend the whole of the holiday relaxing, reading, a few beers, watching the kids, maybe a trip to the tor, but the weather really did change our plans, when it rained it rained. The field became water logged everything was covered in mud, but you have to take the rough with the smooth, we went out to Glastonbury although we didn't make it up the Tor - which you could see from the camp site, we went to Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm museum, we had a day in Wells - one of my favourite places in the UK and a day in Bristol. You can't let the weather stop you (unless like when we went to Dartmouth you are in danger!).

One of the highlights of our stay was a night time creep along the lane spotting fireflies, something I'd never seen before. In the light they looked like very dull beetley, ant insects but turn off your torch and they would turn into little glowing orbs. The kids loved it as did the menfolk, it really felt like an adventure.

I was sad that the weather didn't let us have the relax that we'd so been looking forward too, but I really enjoyed my holiday and would go back to Greenacres again another time

Play for the little ones

Bike hire

Bigger slides and play sheds