Lincolnshire 2021

Planning for Lincolnshire August 2021

Mel and I have been to lots of places in the UK and Ireland and once it was clear that Covid restrictions were finally being lifted, the time had come to start planning where to go. As ever, this is often the hardest thing to decide. Mel, having always lived in a landlocked county, is drawn to the sea and I, having grown up by the sea would also like to go inland.

Through the lines of these blogs, you will come to understand how Mel is amazing and quirky. She is both creative and resourceful and it was some years ago when trying to remember where we had been that she came up with the idea of marking a map.

We now have a very large map of the UK and Ireland at home and each time we travel to a new place, she puts a sticker in the appropriate place. It is clear we have been to many places and on occasions like this it helps us to find somewhere new. So, noting the large omissions of stickers on the east coast half way up England, we decided to head for Lincolnshire.

Neither of us had visited the area before and after looking at the map closer, we knew why. The stereotypes and judgements of the area were nestled amongst two place names: Skegness and Grimsby. Both names arouse images of loudmouth lager drinkers in tacky holiday seafronts and Mel and I are fans of quiet when we are on holiday.

We don’t like noise, or rowdy pubs, or busy shops or lots of people. We like peace and quiet and are more than happy just with each other. We don’t need to be entertained or eat out every night. We have busy, demanding jobs and so, when we are away in Ethel, we prefer to relax and be boring. We know we are boring and don’t need anyone to tell us, although our kids remind us often. We have become the ‘old farts’ in the family and are very happy with the title, I for one has worked hard to achieve this stature.

Next came booking a site. In the good ole days before Covid, we would just search on google, have a look at a couple of sites and book somewhere. Done. No issues and no stress. However, post Covid, the entire population wants to holiday in the UK and this means all sites are booking fast. Mel normally plans the itinerary but we ended up attacking from two fronts with both of us inputting dates on different sites at the same time only to be repeatedly told our dates are not available. Why hadn’t we foreseen this? Why had we left it so late to book? Panic was starting to creep in and we were beginning to worry that we’d have to holiday in our garden. By the end of the evening, we were left with a couple of sites which didn’t have online booking and Mel agreed to call tomorrow. We weren’t feeling too optimistic.

Fortunately one of the three sites had space and so Mel quickly booked a pitch. Forgotten were the concerns about lager louts or anything else. We didn’t care that it looked like we were going to be staying in a field. We just wanted to go away and rest for a week. We were off to Swallow Park in Mablethorpe in August! Hurray!