Matthew's Touring Diary

Caravan Site: Bladon Chains Caravan Club Site

Area Visited: Woodstock, Oxfordshire

Date(s) visited site: 31st July - 7th August 2008

Number of Night(s) stopped on site: 3

Number of people: 4-5

Towcar Used: 2006 Kia Sorento 2.5 CRDi XE Manual

Caravan Used: 2008 Bailey Pageant Series 6 Loire

Distance towed on holiday: 502 miles

Notes from this trip: After using our Ford Galaxy to tow our new Bailey Pageant Loire for the last few trips we realised that the outfit match was just over the recommended 85% and that the tow wasn’t very stable, especially the time that we had the car & caravan fully loaded with 6 passengers. So we decided to look for a new tow car to replace my dad's 2002 Renault Clio, after looking around at various tow cars it was made clear that most cars that were heavy enough to tow our caravan were 4x4's. Everyone had always raved about the Kia Sorento models so we went to test drive one and we were incredibly impressed with it. The steering was very light for the size of the vehicle and the engine packed in so much low down toque, so after deciding this would be the ideal car to tow our caravan we went in search of a relatively new clean model. After little searching we found a 2006 XE model with the 2.5 CRDi engine with the manual gear box, the interior and exterior were very clean for its age and considerably high mileage. We bought the car with 90,000 miles on but were impressed with our buy. So the time came for our summer holiday down to the South Cotswolds, which meant the Sorento's first test in towing our Loire. So both the car & the caravan were fully cleaned and packed ready for the trip, we set off and were amazed at how little we could feel our caravan behind us. The engine kept on pulling, it never seized to amaze us visibility was good from the car and the tow bar height was just at the right height for a stable tow. We arrived mid-afternoon and set up on our pitch at the Bladon Chains CC site in Woodstock. We put up our newly purchased Starcamp Magnum 390 awning, we purchased this awning as we thought our small porch awning would be too small for the week but we didn’t want to buy a new full size awning as we knew from experience they weren’t the best for erecting. We were very pleased with the awning, having it up and pegged out within 20 minutes was a pleasant surprise to us and the space inside was equivalent to that of our previous full size awning on our smaller van. My father and I went for a walk through the caravan site past Blenheim Palace into the centre of Woodstock village, then we walked back and had a bbq for tea on our hotspot electric bbq. Later in the holiday we went to Gloucester fair of Steam & Petrol at Kemble in Gloucester, the fair had many things on show including: Steam Engines/Lorries, Vintage Cars & Caravans, Vintage Lorries & Bikes, Vintage Aeroplanes, Vintage Army vehicles and many trade stalls. We really enjoyed the steam fair and would consider going next year if we are in the area. The next day we went to the Silverstone Race Circuit to visit a Ford Fair as we have been long fans of ford models and we knew a few clubs that were meeting at the fair. On show at Ford Fair there were: Vintage Fords, Present day Fords, Performance Fords, Concurs Fords, trade stalls and many more, we really enjoyed the fair as there was lots to see and do. After visiting the fair we went to Henley on Thames to visit the town for lunch and to meet some friends then we returned back to the caravan site in time to see a lovely Sunset above our caravan. The next day we headed for one of the main tourist villages in the Cotswolds; Bourton on Water, we had an ice cream and a look around the small nick-knack shops, we also saw a duck with 11 ducklings swimming up the river so i snapped a few photographs of them. On our way back to the car at Bourton on Water we spotted the hedge maize so went inside and split into two groups of two and set about solving the maize, it was good fun and filled another hour as maize’s can get complicated!!! After that we returned to the caravan to get an early night’s sleep as we had an early start the next morning as we were going down to Southampton Airport to pick up my elder sister who was flying down to stay with us until the end of the holiday. After picking her up from the airport we headed for the New Forest National Park, we visited the Setley Ridge Vinery just outside of the New Forest before having a lovely lunch at the Queens Head in Burley and a look around the small shops including the 'Witches Coven' that Burley is known for. Then we drove around the forest taking in the views, when we had to stop as two donkeys were blocking the road, a mother and a baby so I jumped out to take a few quick photographs as I love Donkeys. We then visited a poultry and reptile conservation centre on the way out of the New Forest and they had allsorts on show and we saw trained owls flying back and forth, it was a really nice experience. On the way back to the caravan we travelled to a pub outside of Marlow to meet some friends, but my dad read the map wrong and we ended up in Reading town centre in the middle of rush hour!! After eventually getting out of the many ques of traffic we were heading the right way for the pub. After having a nice meal we returned to the caravan. The next morning we decided to use our last day of holiday to visit another Cotswold village Morton in Marsh, we had a lovely cream tea and a look around the town’s small shops and its history. We returned to the caravan for our last bbq of the holiday and enjoyed sitting in the awning to eat it whilst it poured down with rain outside!! The next morning we were up early and packed everything away and set off for home, we had travelled for about 180 miles and decided to take a break and stop at the Tib-shelf services where we made a shocking discovery!!! Yes you have guessed right, it was the 12S cable once again had fallen out of its socket and had been trailing on the ground. However this time the wire was left very short with split ends and grazed plastic and there was no plug to be seen!! so I got some insulating tape and taped it up and hoped the food in the fridge would keep until we arrived some in another just under 100 miles. We set off once again and arrived home safely with no other problems in the later afternoon.

Short Site Review: When we arrived at the site we drove around looking at which pitches were available, we decided upon a pitch in the bottom right hand corner of the site next to the woodland dog walk. All of the pitches on site were well laid out and well maintained and most pitches were gravel hard standing however there were some grass pitches. Pitches 57 - 62 were best suited for smaller caravans as the pitches weren’t very long. The toilet block on site was very clean and placed well for being a central place to all pitches; the wardens were friendly and helpful too. The site had an information hut next to the reception/site office and it had plenty of information about places to visit and things to do in the local area. The site had a nice Woodland dog walk, where you could walk into Woodstock alongside Blenheim Palace or go the other way and you can walk into Baldon to see Winston Churchill’s grave. Overall the site was very nice and we would recommend it to anyone, but do remember it’s a Caravan Club Members only site.