MUD, BEER & CLARKSON'S FARM

A bright and bracing February half-term is the perfect time to visit the Cotswolds without the crowds, finds Julie Thorpe

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It's always risky trying somewhere new, when you really like the place that you've been going to at February half-term for the past three years. Add to this our annual craving to see the sea after a long (well, three months) absence living in landlocked Nottinghamshire, and our decision to try out the Cotswolds rather than returning to Bridlington may have seemed a gamble.

However, our daughter is currently at university in Gloucester, so we decided to incorporate a holiday with a visit to see her, so we booked at the Moreton-in-Marsh CAMC site for five nights.

The journey was quite straightforward, mainly A roads and motorways and none of the winding country roads I had imagined when thinking about the Cotswolds.

Muddy Moreton

Located at the head of the beautiful Evenlode Valley, Moreton-in-Marsh is a thriving market town that dates back 1000 years to the Saxon era. As we drove through the town, I began to get quite excited by the number of pubs, cafés and little independent shops we were passing. This was looking promising! We arrived in lovely sunshine, set up the caravan and awning and headed straight back to the High Street to investigate.

There are two ways to walk from the site to the village: a public footpath runs from the back of the site, or the main road has a good pavement all the way into town. We took the road; more about that public footpath later!