Words About Things

Despite the less than suitable weather I spent the weekend camping on the North Devon coast. Anyone who has tried to visit Devon during the bank holiday weekend will know that the roads are overwhelmed by caravans and campervans and getting anywhere fast on the M5 is unlikely. We overcame this problem by taking mostly smaller roads which made navigation a lot more difficult. Luckily my phone (Nokia E71) has a Google Maps application which combined with inbuilt GPS and a girlfriend willing to shout out directions makes for a good approximation of a Sat Nav.

The surf was good although I hadn’t been body boarding for quite a few years to it took a while for me to remember that it’s quite important to keep your mouth closed when sea water is involved. There were lots of people to dodge but very few sharks so it was good fun.

We woke up on Sunday morning to find that it was raining pretty hard so the tent and all the extras (cooker, empty cider cans, unwashed plates) got thrown in the boot to be sorted out when we got home. I’m still trying to convince my girlfroend that we need to buy a used van as this we require a lot less setting up. Unfortunatly as I normally end up putting up the tent by myself she didn’t think that this is too much of a problem.

Had a lovely weekend which always seems to make Monday morning that bit more difficult. We decided to go camping in Devon at the last minute but unfortunately everybody north of Bristol had also had this idea so we had no luck finding a campsite with a vacant pitch. Instead we headed off in the car in search of a sunny beach eventually finding ourselves at Lyme Regis.

The town is best known for its fossils, 10 minutes digging in the cliffs that line one end of the bay are likely to result in at least one new type of Dinosaur being found. The beach was very busy but we eventually found a quiet spot and enjoyed the sunshine.

On the way home we drove behind a great retro looking VW split-screen van in powder blue. I never seem to notice these in the winter but come summer they are all over the place. I bet used van sales go up massively in the sunny months.

There is something strangely tiring about sitting on the beach all day (or maybe it was traipsing through town in search of suncream) and I was in bed by 10pm a shade pinker and a lot more relaxed

It’s not very often that you hear good news about fuel prices. The normal trend seems to be price rises even when the oil price goes down. This makes sense I suppose, why pass on the saving to the consumer if they are going to buy fuel anyway? Anyway, back to the good news before this deteriorates into a rant…

Fuel costs in mainland Europe are apparently 12% less this year than last and the cost of hiring a car is also falling. This is good news for tourists looking to keep costs down this summer particularly those visiting Switzerland where unleaded petrol is currently at 91p per litre. Everything else in Switzerland is massively over priced (over £4 for a Cappuccino?!) so if you’re not paid Swiss wages you might want to keep on driving.

The cost of renting a car has also fallen across the continent with Portugal seeing a 21% drop in price and french car hire also coming down in price. One place where driving costs are increasing is Florida where ‘gas’ prices and the week pound are affecting British holidaymakers. I would be surprised if it was anymore expensive than driving here though as petrol prices in the US are still much lower than in the UK.

“This year’s report shows more evidence of price cutting activity to boost tourism in popular European summer holiday resorts. The huge drop in costs in both Portugal and Greece is great news for UK tourists and is another factor that should be taken into consideration when choosing a holiday this year.”
Sarah Munro, Post Office head of travel