Hello!
It has been a while since the last blog – we have been catching up on our holidays, visiting family, friends and loved ones we have not seen over the season and generally taking a bit of a break! Following our trip to the Scilly Isles, we headed up to Norfolk to see my family, Jessica had gone up the week before us to stay with my parents so she was incredibly excited when we arrived. From there we then went to the New Forest and South Coast before returning back to Cornwall. It was a lovely break and much needed.
In the last blog I promised you a season round up; it is always a nice thing to do reflecting on the highs and lows of the season.
Pre Season
The toilet block build over the closed season was without question epic. Richard did an incredible job of project managing the whole thing and brought the massive build pretty much in on budget. He worked super hard and was under immense pressure ensuring we had toilets and showers that would be ready for guests. In the end he managed to get it open – and the biggest reward he could have is all your feed back. On more than one occasion they have referred to as ‘the ritz of the camping toilet world!’.
Early Season
We had a staggered opening, with our usual Easter Rally in, testing out what did (and in some cases didn’t work) in the new building. The major thing we discovered at this stage was that the disabled shower room had no rake on the floor so the water didn’t drain anywhere. A hole was quickly drilled in the brick work as a quick fix for the rally then once the rally went the floor came up and was re-laid at the right angle! We then shut to finish in earnest and reopened in May.
It was yet another sunny start to the season and we were blessed with some sensational weather in May and June which brought out many campers and caravaners. It is at this time of the year when we take great delight in welcoming back many regulars, who stay for extended periods with us.
Mid Season
Late June and July is when we have many guests from the continent visiting. I struggle with English at the best of times so it is always fun trying to explain how the barrier works in broken German, French, Swiss etc. Two particular groups of German guests come to mind who arrived with huge motorhomes, in fact I guess you would be class them as winnebagos – complete with their motorbikes stored inside on a lift system. Anyway no sooner had they arrived than they had moved picnic tables, set up their big stoves and opened the numerous boxes of wine. It was my night to do a walk around, as I walked passed I hoped they were not going to get too merry and noisy. As it turns out they invited most of the guests around them on other pitches and all had a marvelous time.
We could easily write a book about some of the comings and goings on the park. Perhaps one of the most frightening moments was when Richard and I were in reception, we heard a dull ‘boom’. My instant reaction was to run outside fearing there had been an accident – in fact someone had pulled out of our entrance but their caravan had not followed – it had not been hitched properly. Thankfully, there was no vehicles coming straight away and we controlled the traffic until all was re-hitched.
Peak Season
This is when we take a deep breathe and we work every hour of everyday (well, almost!). I bring the children to work so Richard gets to see them and we hope against hope for amazing sunshine. This year the sun was somewhat patchy. Now we did have a good amount of sun and lovely days to enjoy Cornwall at it’s best but we also had some rain. Instead of normal rain we were battered with monsoon after monsoon. Normal rain is normal. We are equipped to deal with it, we except it. Monsoon rain tested us to the limits. The rain was without doubt epic when in came, a large holiday park on the seafront near by had to be pumped out by the fire brigade on one occasion. The main saving grace was that the whole country was a bit damp!
We were lucky, if you can call it that. We took a beating and we had some very muddy pitches, but on the whole most campers took it all in good spirits and accepted that we can control many things, but we cannot stop the rain. Rain to us is very stressful. I will not forget one night in August at about 3am we lay in bed listening to yet another monsoon and high winds and discussing what our plan was for the next day. One entry for my ‘book’ will be the family who took umbridge with the rain, having pitched their tent in what can only be described in an ‘interesting’ way with over a foot from the ground to the outer tent, allowing all the rain in. They took to digging trenches. The trenches were about 10cm deep – we were not sure of the purpose, other than giving them something to do. It did provide some amusement.
The odd monsoon aside the peak season was a roaring success. We were full from June – September, with many repeat guests. With returning guests comes the returning friendships. One of my late evenings was made more enjoyable by being treated to a ‘Talent Show’ put on by a group of girls who have made friends at Little Winnick, their families come back at the same time each summer and the girls stay in touch throughout the year. It was a lovely, heartwarming show, children playing how we all used to play.
Also of note were the animals who came as travel companions this season. We had Rueben the Rabbit (my favourite!), Timothy the Bearded Dragon (I bumped into his owners at half term and apparently he has a play mate now), there were also tortoises and cats.
End of Season
September had an exceptional number of pre bookings; hard standings were completely sold out as was most of the park right up until closing. This was helped perhaps by the amazing weather and the talk that Ross Poldark was heading to Charlestown. The lesson from this September is book as soon as you can to ensure you get the pitch you would like.
So in conclusion, we seem to go from strength of strength with sensational bookings through June to September. We are so very grateful to you for choosing to stay with us and we hope you had a fantastic holiday. We are a family ourselves. We save hard through the year to go on holiday and know how much holidays mean to you all. We hope we can offer you everything we look forward in a holiday as a family. We hope to welcome many of you back next season.
Next Season
2016 bookings are now open! Please do book online, call or email us to make a reservation. If you would like a particular pitch please do contact us as soon as possible as certain dates are already getting very booked up.
If you pre booked in 2015 for 2016 you should have been contacted us by now confirming your dates. If you have not been contacted but had made a provisional booking please do get in contact with us as soon as possible.
We are in the office everyday, albeit reduced hours, so if you do contact us we will get back to you asap. When we are not at the office the phones are diverted to our home, so please do bear with me if you call and it is feeding time at the zoo with the children!
And Finally…
Well, we are still working away at Little Winnick. It is without doubt a much quieter winter than previous ones, thankfully. This week Richard and his Dad have been out everyday cutting the grass and picking up all the leaves – a never ending job it would seem. We have plans and improvements for the park, as always over the coming months which I will keep you posted about.
Now we have settled back into normal life after our holidays I will update the blog more frequently about our adventures so keep an eye out for what we get up to. Today we have been down Little Winnick practicing riding Jessica’s bike. It is heaven with all that smooth tarmac to ride around on, and Bethany has been taking advantage of an empty park going up and down the slide. We are now home, next to the fire, snuggled in with the girls watching Frozen whilst I catch up on some office work.
We look forward to hearing from you about 2016 bookin