7486/20415
Time to come home. In the end
Cheddar Woods was just about OK as a place to stay. The hot tub was great after all the vigorous exercise and we got used to the smell of piss coming from the toilet and the hint of wet dog smell throughout and coped with the tiny beds and bedrooms. They are charging too much. It’s approaching costing the same as Center Parcs and we alll know how overpriced that place is, but Cheddar Woods is not as good as Center Parcs (though handier if you are staying in Cheddar). Obviously it’s cheaper when the kids are at school, but so is Center Parcs.
The cleanliness was certainly questionable. As I moved furniture around to check we weren’t leaving anything behind I found a lot of dust and crumbs and behind one unit a little kids’ sandwich tub that wasn’t hours and which had sandwiches in it. I didn’t open the tub, but shook it and some sandwiches were inside. How long had they been there and what deadly spores had grown on them? If you lost a flowery sandwich tub in a disappointing small and very hot cabin that smelled of wee, then it’s behind the unit in the corner. I decided to put it back, lest anyone thought it was ours and tried to return it to us.
Hey look, times are tough and everything is expensive and the place was perfectly adequate - it was just disappointing that the cabin was nowhere near as roomy or impressive as last time and I assumed I had upgraded to a better one (though assume we’d been upgraded last time without anyone telling us). We’d stay again, but don’t know which cabin to book!
The swimming pool was great and there were a few fun activities - the staff all did a good job, though whoever runs it doesn’t give them the tips at the restaurant if you pay by card, so bring some cash if you want to tip. We had a family of rabbits living by our cabin and even though we were right by the road it wasn’t too noisy, though I would fall asleep worrying that a lorry might roll over on Shipham Hill and crush us as we slept. I still slept fine though!
Overall, based on both visits, I would actually recommend the place - we were super impressed with it the first time, but I guess the upkeep is tricky and that things smell worse in these plastic buildings during the summer.
We had a great holiday overall and it was lovely to spend time with my folks, who we don’t see enough and who might not be immortal (though so far so good).
The trip home was fine. I met a local Cheddar postie at the petrol station when I was filling up and he said he listened to my podcasts on his rounds, which was nice to hear, especially given his route is in my hometown.
With a train strike, an FA Cup final, a Beyonce concert and the end of half term my parents had been worried about the traffic (and so was I once I realised all those things were happening), but there weren’t too many holds ups and presumably the FA Cup men were coming down the M1 not up (and some time before we got there if they wanted to see the early goal) and the Beyonce people maybe not traveling til later. We listened to the charts from 1983, which seemed apt on the way back from Cheddar and I couldn’t picture Heaven 17 and could only think of Haircut 100 (and when I say picture, I mean in my own non-pictury way). I knew all the words to True by Spandeau Ballet, but realised that Tony Hadley doesn’t really say what it is that he knows is true.
Nice to be home. Nice to have a relatively relaxing holiday (apart from all the cycling). I am not sure if we really had any proper arguments at all between the four of us. Some squabbles for sure. But I might actually have enjoyed it. Amazing.
