When we arrived at about 5:30pm on a dark, cold November Friday evening, the rowing club was a hive of activity with members loading boats onto 3 large trailers. The club car park was full and there seemed to be no access to any of the CL site pitches. Not having been to this site before, we were somewhat confused so I started to walk to the clubhouse to find out what we should do when I was intercepted by a gentleman who seemed to know about the caravan site and he explained that they were preparing for their last away event of the season. He showed us what pitches we could use (2 were available) and said he would get a couple of the parked cars moved to give us access. We never saw him again and never received any further information about the site regarding fresh water point / waste and toilet disposal etc. and there was no mention about the clubhouse or other facilities - we were just left to our own devices. It didn't take long to find the water and chem toilet disposal points so this wasn't really a problem but it would have been nice to have been shown the facilities in the clubhouse.
On Saturday, there were plenty of people about but I quickly discovered that access to the clubhouse (and its toilet/shower facilities) was by electronic key so we were unable to use the facilities.
On Sunday, the club was once again very busy with members not just unloading the trailers but also launching boats and going rowing so once again, access to the CL site pitches was blocked by parked cars and boats on cradles being assembled. Don't quite know what would happen if there was some sort of emergency as it would have proved difficult to evacuate the site quickly, especially if the drivers of some of the cars were on the river somewhere. Although there is an emergency exit, there were several boats parked behind it that would have to be moved first.
It must be said though that none of this detracted from our stay here and we really enjoyed our walk along the river into the city and back again. Although the rowing club was busy, and the bar facilities were open on Saturday night, we were never disturbed by any excess noise. We were not in any rush to leave on Sunday either so just sat and watched all the activity until it had died down enough to allow us to leave the pitch.
We just found it a little concerning that when the club is busy (and I suspect it is frequently busy), access to the CL site could be so restricted. We felt that a couple of the car park's parking spaces should be given over to provide easy access to the CL site pitches in event of an emergency.
