A tour of two weddings

Wedding invites have come in thick and fast this year. We’ve been to one in Sweden, another in Dorset and one in Devon.

The last two were one weekend after the other, so we decided to hitch up Tin Box and turn our attendance into a wedding tour.

Tin Box Tot rock pooling at Hartland Quay

Rock pooling between weddings

It all began in one of our regular haunts, the New Forest. We booked a Caravan Club Certified Location (CL for short) called Danewood near New Milton. We were pitched on a well kept field next to a farm. TBT was delighted to find horses over the privet hedge and TBD had plenty of paddock space to run around in.

As well as electric hook up we had access to individual shower rooms that had been built on the side of one of the farm buildings.

Our one and only potential holiday nightmare raised its head on day one in the New Forest when TBT started to come out in spots. I went into denial until half way through the wedding day when a particularly pussy looking pox appeared on her arm. It could be nothing else…the chicken pox were upon us.

I felt it my duty to check everyone at our table had already had the pox, although by that point she had probably infected the whole wedding! Anyway, a part from looking like a spotty teenager, TBT was taking it well so we partied on into the night. It was so lovely to catch up with friends we haven’t seen for a while.

Aside from partying, Mr TB had the chance to go out on his mountain bike and we all took a short car ride out to a forest walk.

The New Forest

Christchurch and Bournemouth are not far down the road – we visited both briefly while looking for someone to officially diagnose TBT with pox the Sunday after the wedding.

We moved on the Monday for three nights at another CL, Holeacre, near Dunsford at the top of the Dartmoor National Park. Access to the site was down some extremely tiny lanes where we came up against traffic including a tractor and a lorry. Luckily they volunteered to back up.

When we arrived at our destination I was blown away by the view down the valley in front of us.

The site is beautifully kept and we enjoyed out front row seats for the daily movements of the sheep. The site had standard facilities including electric hook up.

The CL owner gave us loads of information about walks and places to visit in the area. This time there was no wedding to plan around but Mr TB was taking part in the Tri-service Mountain Bike Championships that were happening just down the road in Lympstone. This left us with one day to explore.

We decided on a walk along the Teign Valley between Fingle Bridge – a 13th Century pack horse bridge – and Castle Drogo. On the way there we took a wrong turn and ended up driving down an extremely rough road to get to the car park at the bridge. Mr TB loved it. My knuckles are still white.

We started on the lower path which took us alongside the river. Tin Box Dog loved this as she’s partial to a swim.

We took the pushchair on our walk, but wouldn’t recommend it to others unless they are willing to do quite a bit of lifting and unloading of their little person.

We stopped at Castle Drogo for a sandwich and a slice of cake. It’s a National Trust property and is undergoing major renovation. As we had the pooch with us we did not buy tickets to go inside but we did read all about the restoration project on the display boards by the entrance.

The walk back along the top of the valley was much easier, although still not totally pushchair friendly with some narrow and steep parts.

Back at Fingle Bridge, Mr TB and TBT did a bit of paddling in the river before we took further liquid refreshment at The Fingle Bridge Inn.

The next day was the bike race. We packed a picnic and while Mr TB was off getting muddy, TBT and I took TBD on a walk around Lympstone Common. It’s quite an eery place to wander around because it’s where the Royal Marines do a lot of their training. You never know when a group of guys dressed in camouflage might jump out of a hedge.

Mr TB came mid-table, which he was pleased with as it was his first go at cross country racing.

The next morning it was time to hitch up again. Our final stop was at the venue of our second wedding of the week – Hartland in North Devon. Hartland is where Mr TB’s grandparents lived and there’s still lots of family in the area, so he’s been going there for years.

Our CL was in the field next door to Fosfelle Hotel where the Mr TB’s cousin was holding her reception. We couldn’t have got a better location.

Each pitch came with a picnic table, which came in handy for the pre and post-wedding family gatherings. We had electric hook up again so I was able to tame my hair for the wedding with my trusty GHDs. There were also two cute cabins right next to us that housed a toilet and (token operated) shower.

We shared the site with a variety of animals belonging to the owners of Fosfelle. Three alpacas roamed around the field acting as grass cutters and there were goats, geese and other wild fowl in pens up by the hotel. TBT loved staying at a free petting zoo.

The wedding was another lovely day. It was great to see TBT playing with her cousins. Even though she was one of the smallest, she gave them a run for their money.

We had a few days either side of the wedding to explore the area. We went down to Hartland Quay, where Mr TB pretended he was 10 again, climbing over boulders and peering into rock pools. TBT thought it was all great fun.

We also visited Bude, the Milkway theme park, and Clovelly (another test of Mr TB’s pushchair manoeuvring), which were all within half an hour’s drive.

All too soon our wedding tour was over and it was time to pack up and head home. We had a great time and, thanks to our friends’ and family’s nuptials, managed to see some lovely places during our touring holiday.

Apologies about the quality of some of my photos in this post. I was clearly having too much fun to focus!

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