Campervanning Cornwall Day 1 & 2 – A 2 day prelude at Poole Park Dorset

You know that feeling? The morning of your next adventure you tear open the curtains to find the August sunshine belting down given even more emphasis as it makes the summer skies look stunningly blue? Not the best weather for spending a day in Poole Park Dorset.

Unfortunately, we had thick cloud, heavy rain and a chill in the air. Fortunately, we had 2 days before we collected our VW campervan so we can only hope things will improve

As we run around packing up bags and dashing to the car in the rain, we are just about ready to head off on what is sure to be an amazing Campervan trip around the south of the UK.

So the day is here at last.

Our Itinerary

Here is our itinerary in a paragraph. (Or a slightly longer version here)

Drive to Wareham, Dorset. 2 days staying with family. Drive to Exeter. Collect VW Campervan. Tour Cornwall for 6 nights staying at 5 campsites. Go home.

After an almost 2 hour drive to Wareham all thanks to me wanting to take the scenic route. In the rain.

The car was jammed to the rafters with sleeping bags, cooking stove, bedding, camping chairs and a table, clothes, camera stuff etc. None of which (bar a few clothes which we had packed separately) would be needed for 2 days.

As a result, when we got to Wareham it was relatively easy to grab the bags we needed and get inside. There was a lovely dinner prepared. Max ate first so we could get him to bed. Then we feasted, with a few glasses of wine.

The call came at exactly 3pm

The next day after a flyby the shops we headed off to Poole Park Dorset. A park with plenty to do, such as play area for the kids, water sports, cafe and ice cream places. A miniature train for kids and grandads alike to enjoy. Thankfully, by this point, the weather had improved too.

The call came at exactly 3pm.

The reason I know this? It says in my call history. The time isn’t important.

The content of the call was.

“Hi Richard, this is Julian from Southwest Camper hire. I just wanted to call to say there is a problem with the camper van. It may not be available tomorrow”

He then went onto say what the problem was. How he is confident they will fix it. How they’ll give us the money back if they couldn’t. (duh, yeah!)

But for some reason, the rest of the conversation seemed to drift away over the lake in the park we were spending time in.

Contingency?

This meant I didn’t hear what he said or remember what I said. All I know is I was already thinking “Where can we get another camper from? What about the campsites? They are all booked and paid for. What about Max, we know he’s looking forward to ‘sleeping up there’ (he says as he points skyward indicating the pop-top roof).

But for now, we had a 3-year-old to entertain and walking around the lake Max had a great idea  “Let’s go on the Swans”  Suzanne and I looked at each other. “Wouldn’t you like an ice cream?”  The reply was a resounding no. Wow. He must really want to go on the Swans.

So we did.

Pedalo-ing at Poole Park Dorset

The Swans at Poole Park Dorset are pedalos. They could take all three of us so off we went. £8 for 30 minutes. 20 minutes later we were puffed so it was back to shore, and back to the arduous task of trying to find a replacement camper van in case the worst happened.

We had spent the last 6 hours frantically calling and searching the web for any campervan hire company in the south of England that had one spare. It was August. We had little to no chance but then we found one. Less than a mile away.

It was a late 70s Bay Window camper.

So, we had a back up. Not what we had planned but better than nothing. We headed back to our home for the evening, a 30 minute journey taking 3 times as long thanks to all the holiday traffic.

Yeeha!!!

After tea we had decided we would pop to the local bar to deaden the depressing thoughts of not having the van we wanted. That’s when we got the email. Subject “All Fine”.

The relief was palpable. The drink we were about to have turned into a mini celebration of what the next few days had in store.

We ambled home from the pub, happy in the knowledge our Campervanning in Cornwall was going to go ahead as planned!