Eweleaze Farm Campsite Review

Okay we are all back from our week away at Eweleaze. This is a fantastic campsite on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast just east of Weymouth and it lived up its billing in www.Coolcamping, www.beachcampsites, etc. One friend who had been down the week before to see family had suggested that the site had the greatest “reveal” of any he had visited but it was all a disappointment after that. He was right about the reveal, after turning of the Weymouth road one bounces up a farm track and over the brow of the hill to see the site laid out in the distance with the sea, beaches and bays beyond it. Our appreciation of the view lasted longer than many as we had to hone and wait for someone to come a raise the height barrier. A swift service, repeated on our exit at the end.

The track down to the site is equally bumpy and steep. I think a few folk were a little freaked out later in the week as the rain we experienced on Wednesday made the clay/limestone surface turn to an entertaining slurry too slide over. The staff on site did a good job of marshalling cars in and out of the various fields and were firm enough when needed to convince some who wanted to drive back to their tents, that a short walk was the better option. As a result the site stayed green rather than muddy and rutted.

The atmosphere is good, the result of a clash of styles to rival anything found in CERN. A few minutes wandering around will reveal most of the styles in the centre left clothes box from Sienna Miller circa Glastonbury 2004 (battered straw Stetson, Matthew Williamson dress and Hunter wellies) to the dishevelled Guardian reader in black everything, 3 days stubble and rollup. All liberally interspersed with the British middle class on staycation 2009.

The pitches themselves are mostly sloping, the angle will vary from gentle to extreme, the most popular field of the 8 available was the suitably named “Flat Field”. None were called the sheltered field, this is a beachside/clifftop site so kite flying is not normally a problem.

One of the features of the site is the “free” firewood supplied by the owners. This vast pile of landscape gardening waste is more reminiscent of the slums of Mumbai, Manila or Narobi than Dorset but combing over the heap you will find most of the residents and their kids searching for fuel for the evening bonfire. I did my share of rooting around, Eucalyptus and Leylandii are not the greatest burning logs but if old and dry enough do the job. One word of advice it is don’t bother to buy the logs on offer as they are mostly green and wet leylandii wich smokes slowly rather than burns. There is a rent a bale scheme, I say rent as I suspect very few take them home at the end of their holiday. The ones that get broken up are recycled through an old baler to produce more little square bales. “Great for sitting on” is the sale pitch, better as a wind break is the reality. As campers move on there is a very civilized stampede to take custody of their straw stack by those remaining!

The best things about the site are the kittens and puppies. No idea if they can be guaranteed every year, but if you have small kids, and want peace and quiet they are fantastic. My two spent most of their waking hours patiently sitting in huddles of other kids waiting for their turn to hold the kittens or take the puppies for a walk. Whoever has bought these pets can be assured they will be very well socialised.

We had a day on the beach, all shingle but fun. The route down is via a steep path is equipped with a thick rope to slow down descent and speed up ascent. The two beach facing fields have a great, if somewhat bracing view. Both are car free other than set up and drop off. The car population emulates the humans, lots of urban 4x4’s and people carriers with the sizable minority of classic spilt screen VW campers, series I, II, & III Land Rovers and the odd transit van

Best summarised as Glasto without the tunes. If that’s your ting then book early for 2010. We will but I suspect we will also follow Cool Camping for kids advice a try out a couple of the “slow life” sites further west.