Sat: The journey to the site was a pleasant one, despite us both being unwell. Using the A69 and M6 we made our usual stop at Southwaite for a bacon buttie and then continued on to Southport, passing switch island junction at the end of the M58! This was the only place on the trip where we got held up in traffic. I don’t know if it’s always this slow, but it took a while and there was a lot of traffic. After a pleasant drive along the coastal road we soon arrived at the site. No queue, so straight in and paid up. We opted for the newer section of the site, which is more open and spacious. We plumbed for pitch #173 which is at the far end of the site, nearest the seafront, nearest the wind! And boy, was it windy – the new awning was a real struggle to put up, not helped by the fact that the pegs wouldn’t hold strong enough. In the end I ended up putting 4 pegs into some ladders! Then the rain came, so all in all – the poor new awning had a real beasting of an inauguration outing! No alfresco tea today, a cooked meal inside was in order.
Sun: The awning survived one of the roughest nights we’ve ever had, gusts of wind reaching 40mph and lashing rain. Just a few pegs to firm back into the ground and all was good. We managed breakfast outside at the back of the awning, which worked out quite well. The wind died down by the afternoon, much to our relief.
Mon: A new breakfast on the menu! We made omelette, beans and waffles. This worked really well and made good use of the tapas dishes we recently bought. This will stay on the meal planner! Following this we headed out for a walk into Southport itself. We started on the promenade, then the pier, back through the park and finally back at the site – circa 5 miles in all. The first obvious thing of note was how far the sea goes out, you literally can’t see it from the promenade. The pier is apparently Britain’s first iron constructed pier and was a popular attraction back in its day, for a one-legged man who used to jump into the sea from the pier! Nice to see some rail tracks on the pier still, when the trains still ran in their heyday back in the late 19th century. The park has a lot of attractions including: boats, skate park, playground, bowls, miniature railway, golf, as well as all of the amusements and rides. All seems well kept, there was even live singing at the waterfront pub – this was a Monday dinnertime – impressive! Back at the site, we got battered by the winds all afternoon again.
Tue: A glorious day, no wind hooray! We spent the day on-site, with only a walk to the supermarket to pick up some more orange juice and post a card to break the day. This was the local Morrisons, just down Rotten Row Road! From here I found Lord Street, where I managed to track down a red cylinder, namely a postbox. On the return journey, we made our way through Victoria Park, which was a nice expanse of green land, where they seem to host events on a regular basis. We made the most of the outside, as the winds are due to return.
Wed: Winds are back and the sunshine has gone, another on-site day.
Thu: A little walk around the site was in order today as we haven’t done that yet. The site is emptying quite a bit, no doubt to fill back up for the half term next week. The older part of the site is much ‘tree-ier’ if there’s such a word and the pitches look smaller, although this may just be an illusion. Certainly we prefer the newer part of the site, much more open and spacious. Toilet block is of new spec, complete with service toilet – about time!
Fri: Filled the car ready for the return journey tomorrow. We relaxed for the day, as we usually do on the last day. We decided to take the awning down as it was nice and dry, but as we were doing so, the heavens opened, so that was that, a morning take down it was going to be!
Sat: Everything packed away and we made our way home. We received a phone call from the site asking if we’d left any keys behind in the ‘key box’ as they had found some upon inspection. Thankfully, they weren’t ours! A quick stop at Southwaite for a coffee and then we completed our trip, all to plan. A nice site and good area to visit. We will return, probably in the summer to take advantage of more walking through all the parks and promenade again, nice not to have to do any driving on your holiday!
- Date: 15th October 2022
- Nights: 7
- Pitch #: 173
- GPS: 53.641813, -3.024247