Visiting South Devon's Coast: Part One - Two Country Parks in Two Days

We've just got back from a fabulous week away in South Devon. We stayed at the wonderful Twelve Oaks Farm Carvan Park in Teigngrace. We picked this site as it had a swimming pool onsite and was near to some of the places we wanted to see in Dartmoor and on the Devon Coast.

This is a great campsite for the kids, a lovely playground and a swimming pool that is open until 8pm. The well stocked shop gives you everything you need and as its farm that specializes in Charolais Beef Cattle, you can also buy fabulous steaks and other beef products directly. They also house a lot of free range hens so fresh eggs and fresh bread available each morning. They also offer a cafe service that does pizza and burgers and one special containing their delicious beef, so you are well catered for here. And I have do do it, I am going to rave about the loos! Underfloor heating and radio on in the showers, a real luxury. I would hands down recommend this site to anyone.

Next to the site is the Stover Bike Trail that also goes through Stover Country Park, so one day the boys went on the bikes and myself and my eldest took the dog to Stover Country Park, which is a site of scientific interest. With its big lake in the middle and lots of water fowl, this nature reserve is also host to lots of habitats that supports a multitude of birds, animals and insects. They also have a Ted Hughes poetry trail around the lake with all his nature poems so we enjoyed reading these aloud as we went round. If alone you could spend a lot of time here watching and waiting for what nature there is to see, it has even been known to have Otters, Mink and Water Shrews.

The next day we went to River Dart Country Park, to meet up with some friends that were camping there. This park was absoulutely stunning. Set next to the River Dart and over 90 acres of woods and lakes, there is so much to do, a day did not do this justice at all. A massive fun arena for the kids with lakes swimming activities, high ropes, bike trails and adventure playgrounds the day is action packed and yet relaxing for us in the beautiful scenery. It was also dog friendly so Digby got some good walking and river swims to boot. I definiitely want to put this on my campsite list for the future.