A South-of-City break

‘Ightham Mote’s perfectly preserved medieval manor house was originally built almost 700 years ago’

I MUST ADMIT that the area south of London is a bit of a mystery to me. Living in the East Midlands, if we travel south, it’s either en route to Dover via the Dartford crossing on the M25, or we go further west to visit family in Chichester or Winchester, and usually travel down the A34 or exit the M25 at Junction 10 for the A3. And of course, there’s nothing to see but concrete, bricks and Tarmac within the M25, is there?

Verdant grounds

However, we arrived at the Caravan and Motorhome Club’s Alderstead Heath site (it has a Redhill address but is inside the M25) – towing Practical Caravan’s test Bailey Phoenix 440 (see p72) – and were amazed at its verdant surrounds.

We’d have been happy to remain on-site for the duration of our stay, especially as we had wall-to-wall sunshine for the few days we were there, but there were so many new places to go and visit.

If I can give you a tip here: if