The right stripes
ADRIAN CAFFERY’S family holiday in Lincolnshire got off to a flying start and offered something for everyone
THE splashes, screams and laughter fell silent as a Dakota bomber with D-Day stripes swooped over the outdoor pool. Later, the low rumble of our hot tub’s jets grew louder and louder until we realised the thunderous noise was actually being created by a Typhoon fighter taking to the skies.
Both planes had taken off from RAF Coningsby, and the runway is just a few hundred yards from the edge of Tattershall Lakes Country Park, where we were staying. But, far from a noisy nuisance, the daily aerial ‘displays’ were a highlight of our Lincolnshire break.
RAF Coningsby, home to 617 Squadron – the Dambusters – in World War Two, is now one of two Quick Reaction Alert Stations protecting UK airspace.
The Typhoon base is also home to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight which maintains historic aircraft in airworthy conditions for flypasts at special public and military events.
It operates six Spitfires, two Hurricanes, a Lancaster, the C47 Dakota we had a close encounter with, plus two Chipmunks mainly used for training.
To get closer to the planes (I advise ear plugs) you can drive to the viewing area near the end of the runway. And to get really up close and personal with them book a guided tour of the hangar (March to October, family ticket £26).
Tattershall Lakes Country Park is clearly proud of being a near neighbour, having two of replica Spitfires and a wooden one forming the centrepiece of its adventure playground.
Another highlight of our stay was our caravan – unlike any we’d stayed in before, inside and out. Away Resorts, which operates the holiday park, describes the Tribeca as the ‘caravan re-invented’, having a ‘Manhattan loft feel’, which is a fair boast.
The difference is apparent before you turn the key. While most caravans come in beige, the Tribecas are clad in colourful stripes which continue in the swish, surprisingly spacious and lightfilled central living area – and have an enormous 55-inch TV on a wall.
From the kitchen window I could spy Tattershall Castle, a 15th-century redbrick, rectangular tower in the care of the National Trust.
Our comfortable en-suite bedroom featured solid furniture, a 32-inch TV viewable from the king-size bed and a stand-alone roll-top bathtub with its own TV hidden behind a mirror.
The kids adored their room, a triple with two top bunks, a den and a couple of TVs, and funky doors and windows that gave it the feel of a tree house.
Away Resorts also boasts that they were ‘designed by women’ with plug points ‘all in sensible places, next to mirrors to make drying hair and getting ready easy’.
However, as a follically challenged, past-caring 50-year-old man I admit I failed to appreciate this kind of attention to detail.
The Tribecas form only a tiny proportion of the caravans at the sprawling Tattershall Lakes Country Park where there’s something for most budgets.
And the facilities mean you get a lot of bang for your buck – crazy golf, high ropes, outdoor movies, arcade games, splash zones, indoor pool and the aforementioned Lido.
On the lakes, you can try the jet-skis, water-skis, wakeboards, paddleboards, pedalos or the giant inflatable obstacle course.
We were only lured away by the nice beaches that can be reached in under an hour and had a lovely day in Skegness; cooing over adorable pups at the seal sanctuary before stepping back in time at the vintage funfair and splashing around in the Fairy Dell, a restored 1920s paddling pool.
But you can also paddle and make sand castles on the two man-made beaches on the shores of one of Tattershall’s lakes, beneath an open-air ‘sky bar’ – a lovely spot to watch those fighter planes, both old and modern, taking off and perhaps raise a glass to our war heroes.