Ruth and Duncs have been away in their van since the start of lockdown and more recently enjoying the delights of Devon and Cornwall. They checked into Prattshayes Camping ground (known formally as Exmouth Country Lodge and Prattshayes Campsite) around a week ago.

We decided to join them on Wednesday for four nights, prior to a few weeks away in Hamble (Southampton) and then the New Forest.

As we live just 10 minutes drive from the campsite, we were a little more disorganised than usual and it took us several trips before we had everything in place.

First impressions of the site were not great. We had booked a large pitch and without studying the small print hadn’t realised that we wouldn’t be allowed to use our new air awning – in fact the pitch just wasn’t big enough for an awning! This was a tad inconvenient as we had bought the Kampa Leggera awning specifically for short term trips in the UK as a small porch awning where we could keep our boots, coats and the Dometic freezer. This being important as generally we are still avoiding supermarkets due to Covid-19 risk.

Our Pitch at Prattshayes Camping ground.

On the Wednesday night, we visited the Bridge Inn at Topsham for their first food event of 2020 – Pie night. This was also our first visit to a pub in 2020! We had a spot under the Pagaoda and the beer and “Tom’s steak and ale pie” were excellent.

The remainder of the week was a mixture of various bike rides, pub outdoor visits and an inevitable succession of BBQs.

The Exe recreational (cycle?) trail runs from Exmouth all the way along the eastern edge of the Exe estuary as far as Exeter and then north-south along the western edge all the way down to Dawlish. It’s a fantastic route and we went out on the bikes on two occasions. Once as far as Lympstone and the second time to Topsham.

Ruth and Duncs have been away since the end of March (the start of lockdown) along with four very friendly dogs. Layla likes me but Moe has already chosen Lucy…

Sunday morning, an early start and it is time to move on. A three hour journey to Hamble and whilst we expected a nice quiet drive, the roads were rammed. Looks like the whole furloughed world is on the move to enjoy the Indian summer…