Glamp Corfe
IT’S remarkable how social distancing can bring people together. Take the street I live in, for instance.
It started with a Whatsapp group in lockdown – “We’ve got a Sainsbury’s delivery, who’s in?” ”
– but it soon turned into an online ne mini Zoom community.
We either passed the time with our nearest neighbours playing rainy Sunday afternoon bingo or attended ttended virtual Pilates classes with our ur road’s resident instructor.
As restrictions eased, we even en set up a socially distanced pavement pub, ub, jokingly dubbed The Long Arms, where e we placed chairs in two-metre family bubbles and made plans for a post-pandemic future.
So, when Super Saturday finally arrived on July 4, there was only one thing to do: pack up our cars, hit the road and escape en-masse for a celebratory getaway.
Hobbit
Our destination was the friendly, familyrun Woodyhyde Campsite near Corfe Castle in Dorset, which had reopened that day and was making a sterling effort to adapt to the “new normal”.
Alternate sinks in the communal block were taped off, there was a daily two-hour deep clean of the toilet and shower facilities, and the well-stocked shop had a one-way system which did little to curb our children’s voracious sweet-buying.
There are three main fields on the site, but we had opted for the VIP option with zero faff.
Woodyhyde has a glamping enclo- sure tucked away in a far corner, with h five immaculate yurts and nothing g to hammer into the ground apart t from the children’s swingball set.
Our kids hurtled out of the car r and unzipped the door to Calypso, o, revealing the sweetest little hobbit t house, decked out with fairy lights s and glittery butterflies.
Inside were two single beds for the e kids and a comfy wrought iron double, e, which my 6ft 6in husband Ian was as relieved to discover he could squeeze ze in to. Each yurt came with a barbecue, e, firepit, wi-fi, cosy duvets, plug and nd charger sockets, shower tokens and nd – luxury – a key to your own portaloo oo a short walk away.
After a picnic table lunch, we went nt for an afternoon walk along the scenic nic footpath from the campsite to Corfe rfe
Castle, through fields of grazing cows and wild d rabbits with sweeping ng views across the Dorset set landscape to the castle ruins.
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Castle – had reopened, we could think of no better beer garden to enjoy our first pandemic pint.
That same glorious sense of normality returning was felt back at Woodyhyde as the glamping firepits crackled into life later that evening and the delicious sizzle of steak filled the night
ICONIC: Phone box at Studland Beach air. The kids toasted marshmallows while the grown-ups toasted life after lockdown. In the morning, we
PEACEFUL: Studland Beach
cooked sausage sandwiches over camping stoves in our PJS then reluctantly packed up to go.
Finding ourselves blessed with a sunny Sunday, we opted to drive