Published in Practical Caravan (Haymarket) October 2002
Most people think of Wiltshire as a stop-off on the way west to Devon or Cornwall. Towing, especially with children on board, can take it out of you, and the area around Salisbury makes a convenient halfway point from many parts of the country. But with Stonehenge, Avebury, Roman settlements, the chalk horses and the risque Cerne Abbas Giant, we reckoned Wiltshire could be a holiday destination in itself.
Using the internet, we researched where we could stay, and what we could do. Of course, it wasn’t essential to have gone online, we could have gleaned just as much from library books and the tourist information office, but we liked the convenience of modern technology. In the end we settled on Stonehenge Touring and Holiday Park as a base for our break.
Wiltshire’s roads and places of interest are well signed although some routes can prove difficult when towing. Our outfit is a 1981 Elddis Mistral GT hitched to long-wheelbase Mitsubishi Shogun TD – it can be quite a handful on smaller roads and we dound some junctions hard to negotiate, especially as many of the signs are very close to the turns and junctions. Wiltshire also has road signs warning you to be aware of tanks, and that they have right of way – not that I would try to argue with one. Salisbury Plain is famous for its military connections but the undeveloped land supports a wide variety of plant and wildlife too.
World Cup fever was in full swing when we visited Wiltshire, so access to a television was crucial. Generally, the signal’s not bad if you have a tall aerial extension, but as we didn’t we used the DIY method, which I recommend: take any type of metal stick (a trekking pole or walking stick for instance), attach your TV aerial to the top, jam the bottom of the pole in one of the caravan windows and fasten it with duck tape to the outside of the van. It looks strange but it works.
We had no idea of the impact the World Cup would have. It wasn’t so much the interest it generated, or that many of the shops were closed during the matches, but the Army seemed to have rescheduled its manoevres to allow the men to get back to barracks in time for kick-off. Our chosen site was only a few miles from the training area, and at 4am one Friday we were woken by a series of explosions. When the mortars went off, accompanied by small arms fire, one of our two dogs leapt three feet in the air and landed on my otherwise blissfully unaware partner. The other, more curious dog, promptly climbed all over us to get a view, and in so doing opened all the certains.
But, we weren’t the only ones being disturbed. One by one, lights went on in virtually every other caravan, camper and tent on site. Now I know why the locals never leave their windows open at night.
The site was also close to Stonehenge – in fact, you drive right past the stones on the way to Orcheston village. I have to say that when we visited, I was a little disappointed with these ancient standing stones, so we immediately headed off to nearby Salisbury. The one-way system there is a bit of a challenge and parking can be a problem too. The parking spaces tend to be very tight if you have a 4×4 and many places also seem to have low height barriers. We found a nice parking spot behind the fabulous cathedral, but it was expensive and we were lucky not to have had to queue for a space.
If you fancy a break from the hustle and bustle of Salisbury, a tour of the ‘chalk horses’ carved in the hillsides makes a nice countryside route which can be tackled in one day, or included with other visits. All the neighbouring villages along our ‘white horse route’ boasted pubs in which to quench your thirst with local ales.
One thing you should be careful of along the way is the state of the road surface at viewing areas. We stopped in one which was full of huge potholes and, as a result of not being able to avoid them, we ended the day on a rescue truck having suffered a broken brake pipe. Thankfully, the garage in Shrewton was very helpful and we were able to acquire a new pipe the next day.
Prior to our holiday, I had been a member of both the AA and the RAC but had later joined Mayday Rescue because of the other’s restrictions on picking up caravans. I was really impressed with Mayday’s service on this occassion. Not only could we have been towed back to the site but we also had the opportunity of being towed home later on in the holiday if we hadn’t been able to get the car fixed.
The local people seemed very friendly, and Shrewton’s Plume of Feathers gets my vote as the most accommodating pub we found. The pub had run out of rump steak but instead of asking me to choose something else, the staff phoned the local butcher, got him to open his shop, and then sent the chef out on his bike to collect the order. All we had to do was wait a bit longer while enjoying the excellent beer on offer.
Stonehenge Touring and Holiday Park is well maintained, clean and friendly. We are used to staying on Caravan Club sites and this was only the second time we had used a commercial site so I was a littel nervous as to what it might be like. The pitches were smaller than we have come to expect and, although perfectly adequate, we would have liked to have been a little further away from our neighbours as we have quite a large outfit.
I have one major requirement of any site: a hot shower in the morning – one with some oomph to it. So, having to queue up for the park’s time-release button showers was a bit let-down.
The site managers were great, and nothing seemed too much trouble for them. There were facilities for families with children, and the kids loved the adventure play area and the wide expanses of grass. The site shop was adequate, although when we were there it did run out of simple things such as butter – and it was quite a walk into the village, too. It was Jubilee bank holiday weekend though.
What with the rescue, the gunfire and the navigation of tricky roads, it had certainly been a thrilling experience but I think on holiday I prefer the solitude of hilltops, moorlands, and isolated beaches. For our next break we’ll continue along the A303 to Devon and Cornwall.
