Monday 30 May 2011

Dance me to the end of love (or to Bexhill on Sea)...




In March Dr X and I took a long week-end (4 days) to visit Rye and the surrounding area. Our mode of transport and our home was Harvey our camper van. Last time we camped was over the Christmas break in the snow. Although Harvey has his own central heating it was so cold at that time that our water supply and toothpaste froze.We stayed for the the first time at a five star rated campsite called Kloofs in Bexhill on Sea. This about half an hours drive away from Rye.
First impressions of the campsite online were very good. Acres of green grass, leafy trees and fields of horses around. We had left it a bit late to book so rang up to see if there was any availability. We were kindly advised to book online with their form. We did this and saw an instruction to call during office hours to pay a deposit. Dr X called the next day to do this but was brushed off - some kind of Internet problem and the guy who answered couldn't wait to get off the phone.
We felt a bit uneasy about not formally booking in case there was a mix up and all the spaces went. Apparently there was also a camping society rally taking place the same week-end. Nonetheless deciding to live dangerously we trusted to fate and decided to proceed as if everything would be fine.
And it was. We arrived at Kloofs and found it to be lovely. The kindly man wouldn't let us pay until the end of our stay and didn't have any record of our booking. He gave us lot 59, right near the facilities.  The bit we camped in bore little resemblance to the Internet image, but was nice enough. Besides, it was very cold and windy outside so who cares about parking under a tree. It's handy to be a stones throw away from the loos and washing-up area. Also they havd a communal room full of books and DVDs to borrow which is a very nice touch. 

We popped into Bexhill on Sea to have a look before it got dark, but were disappointed. It looked a bit run down and there was a strange mismatch of buildings. The beach was pebbly and there were some pretty beach huts which sort of made up for the other bits. We didn't see too many people around.  It was too cold to explore properly so I'm probably being unduly harsh in my judgement. 

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