Go England: MAXINE JONES and family enjoyed a cheap, ecofriendly holiday that even kept her teenage sons happy
KEEPING TRACK of three teenage boys roaming around Dublin over their 12-week summer holiday was difficult last year. Family holidays are not their thing, and I could not afford to lure them with exotic places.
I managed, however, to convince two of them, Conor and Tiernan, to come on the ferry with me to the UK, to catch up with relatives and join their cousins on a Wet and Wild week in Berkshire, just west of London. Here they learned to canoe, kayak and sail – subsidised by the local council, which is keen to keep schoolchildren occupied – even though British secondary students get only half as long off school as ours.
We travelled on Irish Ferries. Its Jonathan Swift catamaran is faster, but the boys also enjoy the enormous Ulysses. Its cinemas eat up the extra time, and the cabins and restaurants give the ferry the air of a cruise ship.
When we hit Wales we took the scenic route through Snowdonia rather than the motorway via Chester. The boys enjoyed the winding roads, with lakes and mountain streams on either side, and the danger of avalanches.
This old route between London and Holyhead was prone to attack by highwaymen. Old coach houses, now hotels and pubs, line the route. The boys didn’t know much about highwaymen, so I regaled them with a verse of Adam and the Ants’ Stand Deliver, after which I don’t think they were much the wiser.
Via motorways after Shrewsbury, it wasn’t too long before we were passing through country lanes in southeast England, coming to roost in the campsite at Wellington Country Park, on the Berkshire-Hampshire border. Our mode of transport was a camper van, and my sister was providing a couple of tents for the rest of the clan.
Lakes and forests are a feature of this area, in stark contrast to the densely populated, generally affluent suburbs all around. Reading is the nearest town to the campsite, but we didn’t visit it, spending time instead in the quieter market town of Wokingham, near Dinton Pastures Country Park, where the Wet and Wild week was taking place.
Dinton Pastures is 135 hectares of parkland and woodland, with seven lakes and two rivers. I couldn’t remember it from when I grew up around here, and later discovered it was a relatively recent creation, as an amenity for the burgeoning population.
Wellington Country Park is made up of old woodlands and a 15-hectare lake with exotic wildfowl. Camping here was like being in a remote wilderness. The pitches are large, and wild deer roam the forest. It was strange seeing my sister and mother decanted from their cosy living rooms and setting up camping chairs. Even grandma stayed one night in a tent.
Sitting round the campfire as darkness deepened and the wind rustled the high conifer trees, we seemed more like a family of Masai, and it was hard to imagine that the shopping malls of Reading were just a couple of kilometres away.
From my comfortable bed in the camper van next morning I opened the curtains and looked up through giant branches to a blue sky criss-crossed with white aircraft plumes – we were not far from Heathrow Airport – a reminder of more frenetic holidays. A bird choir was recruiting, and sunlight dappled the forest floor as I passed between our sleeping family tents to the shower block.
Boiling water for tea in my old VW camper, what crossed my mind that sunny July morning was how much effort we put into looking for the ultimate away-from-it-all place when it can be under our noses. My sister and her children live just 10 minutes’ drive from this spot. As a teenager I rejected the whole area out of hand as smug suburbia.
Thirty years on, 20 of which I have spent out of England, I appreciate the Tudor-beamed country pubs with well-tended beer gardens and good food. It is a long way from the 1960s, when a packet of crisps with an elusive blue bag of salt was all you could expect. I now like the villages with their picture-postcard churches, ancient graveyards and rose-rimmed cottages, once the epitome of dullness.
While our children were busy capsizing, my sister and I enjoyed a day at Nirvana Spa, whose six spring-fed pools are fed with water clean enough to drink.
Another day we idled in the second-hand shops of Wokingham and spun out a gorgeous lunch at the Courtyard cafe with creamy cappuccinos. A Wimpy bar would have been the height of sophistication here in my day. The Green Man in Hurst was another favourite haunt, with hearty, reasonably priced food and a pretty beer garden.
This simple, cheap holiday proved a great success. The children were occupied and happy, and my sister and I had time to catch up. Grandma didn’t repeat her night in the tent, but all in all it had been a valuable family bonding time. My sister could skip home for anything we needed, and the children loved camping out in the wood after a day on the water.
'The days fly by'
I WASN’T SURE what to expect when I signed up for a Wet and Wild week at Black Swan Sailing Club, at Dinton Pastures. I had visions of hours of being told how to sail followed by some strictly supervised time on the water.
Adventure Plus, the group organising the week, soon put my fears to rest. The first time we met the supervisors they split us into three groups.
Each group did sailing, kayaking and canoeing at some point in the day. Each activity was a lot of fun. The instructors taught you the basics, and maybe introduced a game or two, but for the most part left you to do what you wanted – within reason, of course.
Looking over the lake, you could see sailors racing each other, canoeists throwing a ball between boats or kayakers capsizing each other and having splash fights in the water, all under the watchful eye of the instructors.
Friends are made quickly, as you often find yourself relying on someone you’ve never met before to keep your boat upright.
The days fly by, and you soon, sadly, find them coming to an end, although there’s always next year.
CONOR HAUGH
Go there
Irish Ferries (www.irish ferries.ie) sails from Dublin to Holyhead and from Rosslare to Pembroke. Stena Line (www.stenaline.ie) sails from Dublin and Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead, from Rosslare to Fishguard and from Larne to Fleetwood. PO Irish Sea (www.poirish sea.com) sails from Dublin to Liverpool.
Where to stay
Wellington Country Park. Odiham Road, Riseley, Berkshire, 00-44-118-9326444, www.wellington-country-park.co.uk. The park’s campsite, which has about 70 pitches, is open until November 8th.
Where to eat
The Courtyard. Town Hall, Market Place, Wokingham, 00-44-118-9794040, www.dolcevitareading.com.
The Green Man. Hinton Road, Hurst, 00-44-118-9342599, www.thegreenman.uk.com.
Where to go
Dinton Pastures Country Park. Davis Street, Hurst, 00-44-118-9342016, www.wokingham.gov.uk.
Black Swan Sailing Club at Dinton Pastures. Sandford Lane, Hurst, 00-44-118- 9344424, www.bssc.co.uk.
Nirvana Spa. Mole Road, Sindlesham, Wokingham, 00-44-118-9897500, www.nirvanaspa.co.uk.