We’ve just had a thoroughly enjoyable stay at the Grafham Water Caravan Club Site and we were very impressed for a number of reasons.  The site has been under the ownership of the Caravan Club for a couple of years and during this time they have made a number of improvements and brought the site up to a top class standard.  Some of the key improvements are:

• A new toilet and amenities block that is superbly laid out and has the largest showers that I have had the pleasure to use while Motorhoming.

• A number of all weather serviced pitches have been built and these should be prebooked; we had one of these and it was a boon, especially for drainage.

• The site is now open all year and given it’s proximity to Grafham Water this is a huge advantage for summer sports and winter walks.

• There is also a well laid out children’s play area that should keep them amused.

• There is a new Motorhome service point that we didn’t need to use because of our serviced pitch but we did notice that this was adjacent to the visitor parking area and this looked as though it would cause a problem.  It was also adjacent to the entrance to the outdoor swimming pool and again we thought this would cause problems.

• There was also what looked like a new information hut and these are always worth making a bee line for when you first arrive.

Because of the site developments it is a little open but once the trees and shrubs have grown then that will improve.

There is also a small shop within the reception block for emergency use.  A word of warning here; Grafham village does not have a shop of any kind so if you don’t plan to travel in your Motorhome then make sure you have self catered.  Now we did come across what used to be a pub but had the signage for an Indian restaurant but looking at it we thought it was closed down.  It turns out that it is actually open as a restaurant and take away and I believe there is a bar to the side but as I said it didn’t appeal to us when we first saw it but next time we’ll give it a go.

The site is very near to Grafham Water and you can get there by foot in 10 minutes or so.  When you walk out of the site you soon come to a T junction (adjacent to a very old unused caravan/camp site that will take you back in time when you see it) and you can go either to the left or to the right down a cycle/walk route that does have the odd car driven down but these are few and far between.  You can make the walk reasonably quick by using the cycle/walk paths or you can amble along the side of the reservoir.  There are a number of inlets and beaches to explore and plenty of birds, ducks and swans to admire on route so it’s entirely up to you.

This is the route around the reservoir in a clockwise direction:

• Take a left at the T junction down from the site entrance and then keep going until you see a narrow road to the right just before the village and this takes you down to the waters edge.  If you then follow the track left for a mile you will come to the visitor centre where you can get tea, coffee snacks etc and hire a bike.

• Keeping going you will come to the dam and then half way round the water is the sailing club and a village called Perry that has a very good pub that serves food and a fishing lodge and tackle shop, a Wildlife Trust office and a harbour view restaurant.

• If you keep going round then you will walk through a number of Nature Reserves with bird hides and eventually back to Grafham.

• Grafham Water has a perimeter of around 10 miles but there is a walk/cycle way all the way round.  It does get quite windy even on a good day so please don’t underdress.

One of the strangest things about the site is the presence of a very large North American Owl that lives on site, and has done for around 10 years I believe.  You can hear her hooting ( whoo whoo ) during the day from within a large tree in the centre of the site.  The owl moved from this tree at dusk when we were there and luckily we saw it. She landed in a much more open tree so was very visible.  She was whoo whooing a lot so I decided to have a conversation with her and believe me she was definately responding to my owl gibberish whoo whooing sounds.  Amazing.  She then swooped down towards us and landed in another tree.  You need to go yourselves to experience this beautiful bird and her mannerisms.

There are a couple of places to visit locally if you have the time:

• The Cambridgshire Raptor Foundation is a bird of prey sanctuary and hospital – probably where the owl escaped from.  They have over 300 and over 44 species of threatened or endangered raptors.  They are based at St Ives which is a few miles past Huntingdon.  They also have a camp site so well worth a look.

• Hamerton Zoo Park is a conservation sanctuary of 25 acres set in lovely countryside that has a great many and a great variety of wild animals including tigers, cheetahs, wolves, monkeys etc.

All in all it was a very good 3 days spent there and we shall certainly be returning as the seasons change.