After what felt like an eternity of not being away in the van due to the you know what & the work involved with the addition of our new rescue doberman Jasper, we just needed to get away for the weekend so we decided to go to a local eco-friendly off-the-grid back to basics site.
Willow Springs Campsite is located in Glyncorrwg nestled within the forests of the stunning Afan Valley, South Wales.
We arrived on Saturday 4th with the sun shining, after a very warm welcome from one of the hosts named Tom we parked up the van on our pitch. Each pitch comes with their own firepit, you can either bring your own wood or you can purchase wood from them. There is no electric hook up available so you will need a good bank of batteries or solar power if you plan on staying for a few days.
Saturday afternoon & evening was just spent lazing by the van. It is midge season between June & September and they didn't dissapoint in letting you know either, They're relentless little creatures here but they did give us a wide berth once we sparked that firepit up, lit some citronella candles in the van and covered oursleves in bug spray.
The rest of the evening was spent with some veggie sausages & burgers cooked on the Cadac, washed down with some cider and TV in the van before settling down for a good nights sleep.
We also got to use our new breifcase solar panel today, it's a Photonic Universe 120w folding solar, for such a small unit the quality and performance was amazing. If you're on the look out for something similar I shall be puttting a review up soon under the van section and also showing you how I fitted an external anderson plug to connect it up to the van.
The heavens had opened up throughout the night and it didn't stop raining all day Sunday so there wasn't much chance to just chill outside the van. We decided to go for a walk down to the local mountain bike park where we knew had a cafe that served vegetarian food. The Corrwg Cwtch is situated within the building at The Glyncorrwg Ponds & Mountain Bike Centre and a 30 minute walk from the campsite. You can check out their full facilities here.
After a stunning veggie cooked breakfast and coffee we took a stroll around the ponds before heading back to the campsite, with it still raining we just settled down in the van for the rest of the day before our departure on monday morning.
THE CAMPSITE
As previously mentioned, Willow Springs is a small eco-friendly site away from all the hustle & bustle of everyday life. Clean and well kept. It is also dog-friendly. Has its own private forestry track leading up to the entrance. There is 3 seperate shower/toilet rooms, recyling area, dog wash/bike wash area and a wash-up area with hot water, drinking water is straight from a spring and so refreshing.
For rainy days there is an enclosed seating area with benches and ratten furniture where you can relax or even cook your food on your own bbq.
At this moment in time, they have placed a wood fired suana which is not officially opened yet but we was told that if we wanted to use it we could, also they are in the process of digging out for a cold spring water plunge pool by the sauna. You can check out their website here.
Even though the weather wasn't great, we had an amazing time here. We will definately be back and can highly recommend this campsite if you're just looking for a quick getaway from it all.
thats it for now, but hopefully we will stat to get out a bit more from now on. Our next adventure is already booked - Van Life Festival at Stratford Racecourse 23rd - 24th July. We are super excited for this one as it's our first festival and is looking to be an amazing weekend.