Campsite In Slapton

You can keep Ibiza. Nothing can compare with the British seaside

Holidays are here again, so let's take down the Union flag and run something else up the pole for a change – a good old multicoloured British nylon windbreak.

We should fly it proudly at this time of year, because the windbreak is a symbol of national spirit as potent as the Stars and Stripes on the Moon. The windbreak says: "Here we are, however bad the weather, however daft we look, and we shall not be moved."

We all have chilly memories of huddling behind one, wrapped up in coats over swimsuits, chewing on sand sandwiches, because the windbreak represents one of the great British obsessions – A Day at the Beach.

I don't mean the sunny, sandy shores of somewhere foreign like Ibiza, to which our Prime Minister has fled on easyJet. How envious he must have been, in retrospect, of Air Force One. And how long do you think it will be before he and Sam are sipping cocktails in the Caribbean with Sir Cliff? But I'm talking about the native kind.

A third of all Britons are planning to take their breaks in the British Isles this year, according to a survey by Travelodge (well, it wasn't going to be Club 18-30) and a third of those will spend their "staycation" at the seaside, as the Camerons have done in the past. Our PM is turning his back on British beaches just when there is some very good and significant news about what's in the water.

The Marine Conservation Society has just published its annual Good Beach Guide and declared: "Our bathing waters are at their cleanest for two decades."

The Society gives top marks to 461 beaches. Among the best places for bathing are Polzeath in Cornwall, Portobello Central in Edinburgh and Tenby in Pembrokeshire. I'm very pleased to find myself 10 minutes' drive from two of them, in East Sussex, having followed a lifelong urge to be by the sea. After years in East London, I finally made the break for the coast with my family a few years ago.

The change was dramatic: our asthmatic, indoor children became wild, healthy beach bums breathing in clean air. And there is something very calming about resting your eyes on the horizon, under a wide sky, with the colours shifting on the waters. That's why you'll find some of us out there whatever the weather, enjoying beaches at their empty best out of season. But the sense of space and freedom is also one reason why people head for the seaside in such numbers at bank holiday time.

You've just got to be careful where you swim. I'm always wary of the brown scum in the Channel, and the jellyfish shoal that turns out to be plastic bags. Thousands of volunteers take part in a Beachwatch big clean-up every autumn, and last year they removed 330,000 bits of rubbish. The disgusting truth is that it doesn't all come from ships: we're flushing more and more waste like cotton buds, sanitary towels and condoms down the toilet – but it is not caught by the sewage filters and so ends up in rivers and on beaches.

Jack Allen (AKA my Dad) Travel Blog: Slapton

Spoke to Dad. He'd only just got to the campsite at Slapton (6.45) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slapton,_Devon . He decided to push on a bit and carry on to the CC campsite at Slapton. He is staying two nights so that he can have a wash day tomorrow. He's had a good day today on the bike and the weather has been great. It's been pretty hilly day again. Most towns/villages are down at sea level so he has the descent down and then there is the climb back out of them again. Today's route has taken him back into Otterton and onto Budleigh Salterton which had many tea-shops and cafes but it was too early for a morning stop. He headed onto Exmouth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exmouth and thought there might have been a ferry over to Dawlish. However he couldn't find any sign of one so headed off into Exeter where he picked up Exe Valley trail along the River Exe. He got a bit lost on the route into Exeter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter and had to ask several people for directions (not entirely sure how you get lost cycling along the edge of a river!). Once in Exeter Dad cycled along the quayside. He then picked up the A379 onto Powderham, Starcross where he again picked up the Exe Valley Trail to Dawlish (he found that there was a ferry that ran across to Exmouth - but it was doubtful if he'd got his bike on it without taking off the panniers). It was then onto Teignmouth, Paignton and Torquay (both of which were extremely busy and crowded) and on into Brixham. It was then another hilly ride to the ferry across the river. The ferryman got chatting to Dad and asking him how far he had ridden. I think he was a bit shocked when Dad said he'd clocked over 3,000 miles on the bike! It was then into Dartmouth. Slapton is a few miles out of Dartmouth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth,_Devon .

Birds

South West Sea Kayaking

AA Caravan and Camping Britain and Ireland 1999

BBC wildlife

The land changed its face, the evacuation of Devon's South Hams, 1943-1944