woolacombe from the beach

Project 52 2019 week 32 – Woolacombe view

Our week 32 was another week off work for me and a few days’ camping in North Devon. Is this week’s project 52.

Sunday N wake up and decided he wanted to go to the tennis club’s junior morning. This time they were really organised and had a mini court set up with with one of the club helping out the younger children, and the other court being used for rallying with several club members as well as being given several tips. N loved being taught how to smash. They ended up playing wipe out which looks a bit lethal but the kids all love. Basically everyone gets on the court – if you win the point on your side you stay on or gain a player back. If you miss the ball or don’t get the ball over the net then you step out until someone wins you back in again. The winning team is the one who who gets all the other players out.

The rest of Sunday was spent getting all of the camping gear together nipping into town to buy final bits of food. As usual there was a lot of stuff to pack. But we got it all in with no problems and space to spare which is always a relief in case we had problems on the way back.

Monday we drove down to North Devon early on so we could get there early to pitch the tent, unpack and give the kids a chance to play before having some food. We were lucky, we got there in good time because it meant we had plenty of time in the sun. The rest of the week looked a bit iffy on and off with the weather, so it was lovely to be able to sit out that Monday night.

Overnight and Tuesday it was pretty windy, with quite a bit of rain which continued into the morning. We decided that we would leave the rest of them to it on the campsite and we went to The Milky Way Adventure Park where we knew there were a lot of indoor play opportunities. It wasn’t as successful visit as I’d hoped because N just didn’t want to go on much once we got there. It was a bit of a waste of money.

The others all went down to Woolacombe beach once the rain had cleared, so we met them down there in the afternoon. With the weather not having been great meant it was pretty empty on the beach compared to normal. Tuesday evening was eating in between rain showers, dragging chairs in and out tents to try and be sociable with the group.

Overnight Tuesday to Wednesday the weather was horrendous with heavy winds and even worse rain. Thankfully I went around and and put some more pegs and extra guy ropes in, and helped out one of my friends and tightened her guy ropes. All the tents were still standing but all of us with poled tents were very jealous of the air beam ones which were standing much more solid in the wind than ours.

We knew Wednesday was going to be one of the best days weather wise so decided on crazy golf first thing and then down to the beach. Only the kids played crazy golf, but N really enjoyed going round with the older boys despite losing really badly. Evidently he hit 21 on one of the holes. Oops.

When we arrived at the beach it started raining, so we have hung for a bit with coats on and umbrella up until the rain cleared. It didn’t worry the kids – they were straight off into the sea, wetsuits on, for a bit of bodyboarding. The waves were great so they really enjoyed it, although it was a little bit scary, hoping that N didn’t get over confident being in there with the older kids.

We were quite lazy this time with food, getting takeaway at the campsite for the easy option. Wednesday night they had a pop-up street food van come round and the chicken curry was pretty good. N really enjoyed it too.

We’d been keeping an eye the weather all week and before going away, and we knew Thursday night into Friday was going to be horrendous. Up to 50 mile an hour winds on the Friday and thunderstorms through the day to Saturday. We didn’t fancy packing up in rain and certainly don’t want to be sleeping through thunderstorms in a tent. So we decided to leave on the Thursday. We weren’t the only ones on the campsite as quite a few others were packing up early.

Thursday plan was to get as much packed up as possible, first thing in the morning, then head to the beach. The weather was going to be great in the daytime so wanted to make the most of it, before packing up the tents and heading home in the evening. It worked out quite well because usually we’d end up packing up so early on the Friday, to try and miss any rain coming in, then we just all go home because generally it’s been due to rain. So this way, the kids got most of the day on the beach. It was just a shame that cutting short the holiday did mean that we didn’t have much time to just relax and wander around in Woolacombe’s shops.

On Friday we stayed around home. We were pretty tired, so did some food shopping, and that was about it. N went out with his dad on the farm for a bit.

On Saturday was when my tiredness caught up with me. N and I drove up to Birmingham to visit the Lego Discovery Centre. Despite sat nav, finding the parking was a nightmare but luckily we found it and arrived with 5 minutes to spare before our ticket slot. We had a great time, spending most of the time building and racing our cars in the build and test area. So much fun. Although an expensive morning out with parking cost and entrance fee. N is hopefully inspired again about freestyle Lego building.

This week’s Project 52 photo was taken from Woolacombe beach overlooking the village.

woolacombe from the beach

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
Love it? Share it

12 Comments

  1. Sounds like you made the most of your camping trip despite the weather, good idea to pack up early and glad you got some beach time. Smash sounds fun but chaotic

  2. what a shame you had to play dodge the rain and storms when under canvas, not a good place to be. A sensible move to come home a day early, but a long way to go for such a short time.
    A sat nav is not always a god send but glad you made it even of it was by the skin of your teeth.

    1. It didn’t help that the main road was shut so we had to find our way back round, until we found road signs which then weren’t too clear either

  3. I don’t envy you camping in that weather but good you made the most of the time you had. Wish I’d known about your Brum trip, I’ve got a voucher somewhere you could have used. We get the train up, less stressful and an easy walk up there. #365

    1. We would usually get the train to Birmingham, but I’d been before and never had issues. It’s not that far from us, and a lot cheaper than the train plus parking. My last trip to Birmingham by train didn’t happen as all the trains were cancelled, so I’m a bit put off in that direction!

  4. The tennis sounds like a lot of fun!
    Such a shame the weather wasn’t great for your camping trip. I think you made the right choice coming home. x

Comments are closed.