As caravan club frequent flyers, we are offered three night’s stay for the price of two. Always a sucker for a special offer, we look to see if, between the two of us, there is a gap in the diary. Fortuitously, there are a few days when we are both free, almost unheard of, especially at the time of the year but an opportunity not to be missed. A very short break in South Wales is planned. For once, this trip will have no family history connections at all. We are due to leave on what was the hottest day of the year, the hottest day ever in our part of the world and at our destination. Providence has it that we are delayed due to an urgent appointment, so our day of departure is due to be cooler, at least until the forecast changes and the view is that there will be another day of ridiculous hotness.

The job we must not mention firmly under control, thanks to a 4.45am start. By 8.30am, armed with plenty of water, we set off. This is as early as we can, given that the campsite has an earliest check in time of 1pm. I should say that a 4.45am start isn’t too far off normal for me, especially at this time of year and given that, after a stupidly hot night, I was not asleep anyway. As it was already 22 degrees, why not work? For my down-under friends who think our mid 30s temperatures are nothing to write home about, please remember that our houses rarely have air-con.

With the temperature in the car rising steadily, I enquire of the driver if the car has air con. I am reassured that it does but that he doesn’t know how it works. By this time, we are bowling along the M4 and it is 30 degrees. I consult the manual, handily stowed in the glove compartment. I fix the aircon, which now has the insurmountable task of cooling down what is a very hot car. We have a sat nav but it seems that while I was sorting air conditioning out I should have been navigating – who knew?  A slight detour ensues. After a while, the air con makes a dent in the temperature but then we are stuck in traffic and from Port Talbot onwards, are crawling along at about 10mph for the next hour. As the traffic starts flowing, the outside temperature drops to a blissful 19 degrees.

The site is lovely, on the edge of a country park, close to the beach and with swallows swooping and diving. I have already sussed out which pitches have the chance of a wifi signal and despite the traffic delay, we are early enough to secure one before the site fills up tonight. Next, coffee and what passes for lunch, eight hours after breakfast. A robin pops in the van to say hello.

Lured by a 40% off main meals offer (cheapskates again you see) the plan was to head to the not actually very nearby Harvester in Swansea for an evening meal. Initially, we were going to go in early and look round but a combination of the extended journey time to get here and us just wanting to chill means we leave early, being aware of rush hour traffic but not early enough to look round. This Harvester is situated in a huge retail park. We are well aware just how huge, as it takes half an hour of driving round and judicious use of Google maps to locate the Harvester, which is well hidden behind trees. The sat nav just took us to the retail park, which appears to all share the same postcode. I thought afterwards that I should have gone for What Three Words – hindsight and all that. Good job we left early. We eat far too much. It is free dessert Friday but sadly we can’t avail ourselves of that offer and the 40% off. I never thought that mini desserts would be on my radar but with your mini dessert you get coffee as well and bonus points for Harvester as it is served in a proper shaped mug, not one of those wide cups where the coffee loses heat and which is hard to balance, even though I have no trouble at all with my grip.

No pictures were taken on this day so here is a bonus bird picture taken 2 years ago.