Wow! It has been pretty glorious the last couple of weekends hasn’t it?  The camping itch has been getting hard to ignore. But lets face it is only March, and though we’ve had some warm days, nights are still pretty chilly. Although we love camping we aren’t all that hardcore.  The campervan does not have heating and even if it did, I don’t generally like sitting around in it in the evenings.  So whilst we have been very tempted we haven’t quite committed to the start of the camping season yet.  So, in order to calm the itch a little we have been taking the Bongo out on the weekend for one day adventures.

Last week we visited Brean Down.  Brean is on the Somerset Coast just along from Weston Supermare.  The sandy beach is (apparently) the second longest stretch of sand in Europe!  The reason it is not so well known a one might expect is that it has an absolutely massive tidal range; when the tide it exposes large mud flats which make it impossible to safely get near the water. However, it was still pretty stunning and the children were happy to splash around in rock pool and make things in the sand. It is also possible to park on the beach and many a Somerset child has had their first experience steering a car sitting on their Dad’s lap on the beach at Brean.

However, my favourite thing about this beach is the long peninsula of land that juts far out into the channel.  On top is that thick, springy, mossy grass you always get in high up, exposed places.  Wind swept trees, gorse and rabbit holes.  The views to each side and across to Wales on a clear day are spectacular.   Once I’d persuaded them to climb the steps to the top, my children could hardly contain their exhilaration: laughter, hand stands and rolling down hills.

We could of course have done this in the car and not taken the campervan but somehow being in the campervan puts us all in a different frame of mind.  All the associations of holidays and explorations take hold and we all relax.