Retreat, Refresh, Relax

Running a business is hard work, being the CEO of an organisation of over 10k passionate women is even harder so doing that and then running Mandy Charlton Photography on the top of The Inspire Network

is definitely the most challenging thing I've ever done, it's 19 hour days and perpetual meetings but it's also the most in love I've been with my life.  Everything is just exactly where it's supposed to be at the moment, personal, business, I'm literally so happy, if a little tired.

Last week I put out the call that I needed a little help and collaboration, Looby and I needed to get away for just a few days and a lovely lady who owns Rocky's Retreat came to the rescue.

Rocky's retreat is a luxury holiday home situated on the gorgeous Haven Berwick Holiday Park on the beautiful Northumberland Coast and for Looby and I it offers the opportunity to just relax, refresh  and re-energise.  Even Looby needed it, after spending an entire week looking after horses at her stables last week, making sure they were all spick and span for the competition on Friday.

Yesterday was my favourite day for ages, we clocked up more than 17,000 steps, we walked through the most beautiful countryside and the sun shone on our faces producing sun beams Roald Dahl style.

The great thing about the Berwick Holiday Park is it's size, it's smaller than a lot of Haven resorts we've stayed at and after our first visit in 2015 I fell in love with it immediately.  Looby reminds me that every time we come I say I'm going to have our own caravan here one day and she's right, now more than ever before I'm determined to make it happen and with the caravans priced at between £18k and £35k it's not like it's some kind of mad crazy dream, that amount of money is totally achievable.

The season here seems to be from around the beginning of March through to the end of November and I've experienced Berwick in all of those months, yes it's sometimes wild and rugged but on a sunny day you could well be Europe for Berwick on a sunny day is a gift from the Gods.  It's also one of those rare places where at one side you have the coast and on the other you have the most amazingly beautiful countryside with the river tweed running right through it.  Situated 100 miles from Newcastle and just 90 miles from Edinburgh it's the ultimate staycation if you don't want to travel too far away from home.

Although Rocky's Retreat doesn't have wifi, it's freely available in the Brig of Tweed cafe and restaurant.  you can access free wifi or I paid £15 for 4 days of really good wifi and I didn't have any problems with the connection when I took a Skype meeting yesterday.

Berwick of course is the perfect location for all of the family including our four pawed best friends and although Rocky's Retreat doesn't offer dogs friendly accommodation, the park is dog friendly and we've already booked to come back in September to stay at the dog friendly Berwick Shores caravan and for any of you worried about the lack of Holly Bobbins, she's in Yorkshire with Harriet's folks and she's having an amazing time, it's one of few places she can go where she's not on the lead at all because of their rural location.

So, you might be thinking "Oh well Mandy, isn't Berwick small, won't we run out of things to do?"

Well let me tell you, no, I still haven't walked the town walls and I've been here several times, yesterday we did a walk we'd never done before and the holiday park itself is situated between 2 beautiful sandy bays.  In fact Rocky's Retreat is right at the stairs down onto one of the bays.  If you really do crave some excitement whilst you're here, it's only an hour to Berwick by train and the train is about 10 minutes walk from the caravan park.

The Berwick Holiday park really does have it all and Rocky's retreat is something quite special, it feels instantly like home, the beds are so comfortable and there are little touches you wouldn't get with the standard caravans, things like supplying coffee, tea, salt, you all know how annoying it is when you want to come on holiday and cook and you have to buy the biggest box of salt which you then end up throwing away or you find yourself packing copious amounts of kitchen cupboard staples you really don't need to take home with you.

The last time we stayed here I found the shop to be expensive and terribly stocked but it seems to have had a total makeover, they have everything from pastries baked daily to lovely cuts of meat and locally sourced produce.

So that's food and walks sorted, if you have any energy left you can burn it off in one of two swimming pools, one of which is outdoor and heated, so yes, on a sunny day you can imagine you are in the med, I'll be honest it's been nippy this week so we've not tried that but we are going to the indoor pool later today.

Looby and I spend so much time together, me being self employed and her being home ed, it's one of the best parts of this life we lead but there's something amazing about being away together, we walk more, we talk more and we even subject each other to terrible tv shows, Love Island anyone?  I'm not sure I've grasped what it's about except girls excitedly screaming "I've got a text".

We're staying at Rocky's retreat until Friday and then we go back and I'm straight into a weekend of weddings and photo shoots, I realise by next week I'll be shattered again but for now, I've never felt so relaxed for quite some time.  If you need a break full of lovely people in beautiful surroundings which doesn't cost the earth, well Berwick really does tick all of those boxes!


We paid for Rocky's retreat but received a discount in exchange for a blog post, social media posts and some photography.