Crystal Palace 25-29 Oct 13

Crystal Palace Caravan Club site has been on my radar for some while now as it offers easy access to Rugby at the Stoop and is very close to the in-laws in Bromley. The site, however, is very popular and it is hard to get a booking, particularly with the ridiculous caravan club book-every-single-site-a-year-in-advance system. With the worst storm since 1987 forecast I thought that lesser souls and sorry shed-draggers would not be brave enough to venture out, despite it being half-term, and I rang the site on the off chance and got in! 

The drive down on Friday was uneventful, but I did make the mistake of going around the north and south circular road, which took forever. After the usual quick set up, I bumbled along to the local shops to have a quick look around, before boarding the bus to Bromley  to visit Father-in-Law in hospital. Debs met me at Bromley South station from work and we did our visiting duty and then headed back to the site on the bus that almost goes door-to-door (but through some really nice (not!) areas of London.

Saturday we were up early, showered and dressed and went to chat to the wardens to see if we could extend our stay by one day to save driving back in very high winds. Despite being Leicester Tigers supporters, the wardens were great and sorted us out. We wandered across Crystal Palace park (I'd forgotten how high Crystal Palace is) and caught the train from the very pretty Crystal Palace station to Twickenham via Clapham Junction to be first in the Webb-Ellis pub for a mega-breakfast and several pints of foaming ale. Despite the adds, Quins thrashed Sale and, happy, we journeyed back to the site for a good night's kip.  On Sunday it was off to Bromley and Orpington again for more visiting and that wonderful journey back through the badlands of "Sarf Larndarn".

On Sunday night the storm was due to hit. It was very windy. One small tree on the site was blown over and the TV mast howled like the banshee, but we survived the winds and Debs was up early to go to work direct from the site.  We walked across the wind-ravaged park (more branches down here), but Notwork Rail were not running trains so we walked back across the park and Debs caught the packed number 3 bus to Brixton and the tube to work, somewhat later than anticipated, but she got there. In the afternoon I did some shopping and then went across to the hospital again. met Debs and returned back via the same old route. Tuesday, Debs got to work with no problems, I packed up and we all met up again at home that evening, complete with the rotten cold that the Mother-in-Law kindly donated.

I have booked Crystal Palace again for December as the site is in a great location.