Saturday, August 16, 2014

Westermill Farm

Situated in the heart of the Exmoor National Park, Westermill farm is a great place to camp. The roads up to Westermill are about as winding and steep as they get in Exmoor! Beautiful roads, lined with trees and drystone walls and hardly any traffic. Westermill Farm is a traditional 500 acre working hill farm with a camping site, self catering cottages and farm shop. The Edwards family welcomed us in a funny sort of way; as we didn't knew how long we were going to stay on arrival, the very friendly Mrs Edwards said she didn't want us to pay…? 'I don't want you to come in every day and pay for another night, she said, I only want to see you twice; when you arrive and when you leave. They have a link with Australia too!




Mr Edwards once was a 10 pound pom, a term used by the Australians to describe the generation of people from England that could emigrate to Australia for just 10 pounds. He has returned to Exmoor but obviously likes Australia as he drives a Holden V8 Ute with a personalised plate that says so. They took photographs from us too and placed them on their Facebook site. 

The campground is 15 acres, which are divided into 4 fields. The first one has a toilet block with hot showers, operated by solar power. They work well and made me wonder why that isn't common in Australia… I mean if it works here in the country known for it's grey skies then it should work even better in the land known for it's burning sun. The Edwards also realise that campers need to wash clothes and dishes and have facilities for both.

All fields have access to the river Exe which flows through the property, three of them have river frontage. Campers have the whole farm to explore too and enjoy the beautiful views Exmoor has to offer. The Edwards told us the campground caters for people that come to enjoy the peace and quiet of Exmoor, they don't tolerate noisy campers which is good. There is a seasonal small shop for bread, milk, eggs, bacon etc. all sourced locally.

There is also home grown free range beef, lamb and pork for sale plus some specialities we hadn't heard of before like Lamb/Mint and Pork/Apple burgers. You can use your BBQ as long as it's off the ground. There are also fire pits in some of the fields (another link to Australia we think).
We enjoyed our stay here very much. Westermill farm has won top conservation awards for 11 years in a row which means they care for and protect the area they live in. Westermill farm can be found at http://www.westermill.com

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