I am delighted to announce an important moment in the history of Sparkhayes campsite.  No not the pandemic - it's card payments!  We are now able to accept debit and credit card payments with our shiny new mobile card reader.  

So far all is going well with our cautious re-opening and we thank our customers for their patience and understanding at this unprecedented time.  The hostelries in Porlock have been welcoming back customers this week and the village has a cheerful air, let's hope the summer season continues well and that we can increase the facilities we have on offer.  Stay safe everyone!

What an unusual year! Here at Sparkhayes we have been following government advice and have been closed during lockdown.  At the moment the advice about the easing of lockdown for campsites is unclear.  We need to protect campers and also our staff and have a conundrum about how to ensure our shared facilities can be safely shared.

While we're scratching our heads, campers are welcome to call for updates on 07721 045123.  Phil has missed having a field full of campers to chat to, although the recent weather has had him spending as much time on his mower as any other year. 

What else have we been up to?  Right now it's elderflower season, so Phil's been dodging the showers to collect ingredients for his cordial.  It will soon be whortleberry season and if I'm not mistaken I think it will be a bumper year.  Personally I've been exploring more of Exmoor than ever before and finding paths I didn't know about, it's been intriguing to discover anew the moor I thought I knew so well.
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Work on Weaver's Special Railway continues and life goes on, though it's not the same without a field of happy campers.  Let's hope we can welcome you back soon, stay safe everyone!

If anyone had told me just a month ago what life was going to be like today, I would absolutely not have believed them.  We were busy taking bookings for a promising summer, the weather was improving, the days were drawing out and people were planning to pay a much yearned-for visit to Porlock Vale.  Fast forward to late March and all of the above are still true, but now we having to turn customers away in the name of virus control.  It is true that the idea of self-isolating in a beautiful grassy field amid the fresh sea air and tranquil scenery is attractive.  However it is important to keep travel to a minimum, relieve the potential impact on our already stretched local services and protect the unusually high proportion of elderly people in our community.  Did you know that Sparkhayes operates in an area identified as having the oldest population in the country?  You do now!    So we are forced to close and to share the concerns of other local businesses.  But we are really going to miss you!

We will be keeping in touch via this blog and also our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sparkhayes.  If you haven’t already liked our page please do so and keep us amused with news of your self-isolation activities.  At Sparkhayes, the main entertainment will be manning the ride-on mower (or keeping an eye on the sheep!).  Perhaps the Sparkhayes rail project will also gain new momentum, pictures will be available if there is news to report!  For those of you at home with small children, we offer particular sympathy.  If you’re missing out on a family camping trip, perhaps you can set up camp in the living room (or garden if you’re lucky enough to have one) and send us your photos. 

Bookings taken for the immediate future are regretfully cancelled, bookings taken for later in 2020 are under review and will only proceed if government advice is that it is safe to do so.  We will have to wait and see.  If you have any queries about bookings already made please email us at sparkhayes@hotmail.com and we will happily respond as soon as we are able.  Stay healthy and safe at home, keep looking forward to happy future holidays and take good care of yourselves.  With best wishes from the little Sparkhayes team.

What happened to the Sparkhayes blog I hear you ask?  It is ridiculously out of date..!  The answer is that the author’s smallest child reached six months of age and was no longer content to sleep for the majority of the day.  In fact she decided not to sleep for the majority of the night as well.  I entered a phase of life that could easily have been mistaken for tough SAS training; I could now give any recruit a run for their money in the sleep-deprivation test.  For some while, I became a zombie-slave parent to my little brood.  I emerge from my personal apocalypse to discover a world-wide one; the news seems to be filled with nothing but the Coronavirus..!  Thankfully Porlock still feels a long way from the epidemic and the only challenge here at present is the weather.

Believe it or not, we have still had a few hardy souls camping in tents, despite the rain, wind and even snow.  We are taking more and more bookings for the coming season and I too am dreaming of all the things we can do when the weather finally cheers up.  I have already booked a few things, so sympathise with campers who contact us now to book for a visit in mid-summer.  We just ask that if you book in advance, you make a note in your diary to contact us again a month before you arrive, just to confirm that you are indeed still coming. Most customers reply with ‘I’ll definitely be there!’ but a surprising amount can change in a few weeks or months and we don’t want to turn customers away who arrive on spec to a ‘full’ campsite, only to discover that some of those who pre-booked don’t turn up.  This is part of the reason why we resist taking any bookings at all unless for a very large group or if customers require an electric hook-up, but due to their limited number it is even more important to let us know if your plans change.

In other news, those of you who know the local hamlet of Bossington will recognise the bridge over Horner Water, which gives foot access to Hurlstone Point and the beach.  There is a ford here too, but it is used infrequently by farmers and not many others.  Have a look at these pictures, which show how a driver tried to ford the swollen river and had his car washed away, to get stuck under the bridge..!  Thankfully the driver escaped unharmed and the bridge hasn’t suffered any structural issues, but it did make quite a spectacular sight.  These Exmoor streams and rivers are a force to be reckoned with..!

​Please note that two of these photos are not accurate reflections of a) how well a sleep-deprived person actually looks and b) the fields at Sparkhayes, we don’t generally pack tents in as tight as Glastonbury..!  Seeing the height of the Hawkcombe Water though suggests that our duck race would be over in seconds..!