From Exmoor we made our way the short distance to Illfracombe in North Devon. Our campsite, Warcombe Farm, £34, was near to Mortehoe, about 3 miles from Illfracombe. we stopped for some supplies from Tesco in Illfracombe and made our way to the campsite. Check in was easy – we settled into our sea view pitch.

The site has been landscaped to offer some protection of winds blowing off the coast, and as such only a handful of pitches on the large site have a sea view, and those that did had hedges which we found to be a bit intrusive into our view from chairs on the ground- ie it blocked the sea view out! (It was fine if you were admiring it from the height of the van though). Also the facilities block, whilst large, clean and offering huge cubicles complete with shelving, was a good 5-10 min walk away from the sea view pitches. But we liked the location of the site- it had a bus stop right outside and so the following day, my birthday!, we utilised this for a day trip into Illfracombe.

Our first stop was The Royal Britannia which offers an unsurpassed view of the small pretty harbour from its terrace. Since it was sunny and it was my birthday, we enjoyed a couple of beers there, and honestly we could have been in Greece. We enjoyed people and dog watching on the small harbour beach, and enjoyed the sun rays on our face!

From here we made our way to The Pier Brewery and Tap House, which had another amazing roof terrace with sea views.

We had lunch here before boarding the Illfracombe Princess boat trip for its smugglers coves 1 hour coastal trip. Dogs were allowed and we had a great time on board.

It was a lovely way to spend the day, we really liked Illfracombe. And even better we could enjoy some drinks and use the bus.

The next day, as the weather was better on the coast, we decided to hang around the same area for the next two nights. But we’d spotted another campsite with even better views just down the road. We made the less than a mile trip down the road to the Damage Barton campsite, and due to it being out of season, were allowed to check in early.

The views from this site were lovely. Unlike the previous site, the campsite was terraced to enable every single pitch to get a cracking sea view. We of course chose the most extreme we could find, at the bottom of the site, but like on the previous site this did mean a trek to the showers, chemical loo point and dishwashing. We did however had a tap on our and at £28pn low season, we thought this was excellent value.

We prepared a sausage casserole in the slow cooker and wasted no time getting our walking boots on. We enjoyed a coastal path down to Morthoe and then Woolacombe, – down being the important word here- it’s a steep descent into Woolacombe- but we weren’t bothered as we knew we could get a bus from here back to our campsite!

Woolacombe is lovely, has a vast beach, with lots of surfers and body boarders, eateries (including a nice fish and chip shop). There are attractions here for the family, including crazy golf etc. it was a nice place to spend a few hours.

Our final day in the area was spent taking a walk in the opposite direction, to Lee village, a tiny Devonshire coastal village.

It’s very small and quant and has an exceptional pub, The Grampus Inn, also a microbrewery and distillery. It’s old and exceptionally cosy. The menu looked fab although we didn’t eat as we’d taken a soup flask and had beef stew waiting for us back in the slow cooker at Gandalf. But there will definitely be a next time!

Sadly no return bus to get us back up the hill from here, but we took it slowly and returned back in one piece in no time.

We’d had a really lovely time here and absolutely will return. Possibly at this time of year again as it wasn’t as busy as I expect it is in the summer months.

We really enjoyed slowing down and focusing on a small area for a change and had a very good and well needed re charge after a helluva half term!

Looking forward to more winter camping trips ahead!

Until next time

Lx