Windswept wonder

I had envisaged building sandcastles and collecting shells on the new £17m beach Bunn Leisure had thoughtfully created for holidaymakers at its holiday park in Selsey, West Sussex.

We would eat far too many ice creams, enjoy fish and chips on the beach and laze back as our hyperactive toddler ran around tiring herself out with a beachball, bucket and spade.

But it is stupid to have those kind of expectations for a British holiday, as the chances are you are likely to be bringing along an unwelcome holiday guest – the weather.

For the first couple of days at Selsey, I was convinced that the headland had its own microclimate and was, in fact, a windsock at the bottom of the country.

On our second night in the caravan, the wind rampaged through the park like some inquisitive preternatural being.

This was weather with a capital W, and it would not have surprised me in the least if we had woken up far away from the cosy caravan site in our own version of Oz. But we were not about to let the weather get the best of us.

The Witterings nearby are supposedly a lovely spot for meandering aimlessly on sand dunes and sandy beaches.

Unfortunately, when we visited, there appeared to be something akin to a gale howling off the coast.

“I want to go to the seaside,” my daughter said to me tremulously, as we stood next to a closed ice cream shack and regarded a grey, angry sea from underneath our raincoats.

I’m not surprised she didn’t believe me when I told her we were, in fact, at the seaside.

A change of tack was in order.

Still encased in raincoats and feeling battered by the wind, we decided to explore by car, and stopped at Sidlesham Ferry – at one point the crossing for islanders between Selsey and the mainland.

It lies on one corner of Pagham Harbour, an outstandingly beautiful, nature reserve consisting of some 1,600 acres of saltmarsh, reedbeds, shingle beaches and farmland.

With flat, easy paths, in some parts protected from the elements by trees overhead, it is an ideal spot to explore with a toddler.

The views stretch for miles, the scenery is fascinating, and it makes for a fab walk, whatever the weather.

It is a birdwatchers’ paradise, and even if your knowledge of all things avian is a trifle limited, there are ducks, coots, moorhens and swans to be spotted, and an ever-present chorus of unusual and delightfully harmonious birdsong from birds I could not identify.

And if you are lucky enough to run into a friendly twitcher, as we did, you might have the chance of seeing something more interesting through his binoculars – a buzzard tucking into the rabbit he had just killed, in our case.

There are also some appealing attractions nearby which do not depend on clement weather.

Earnley butterfly farm had a host of butterflies and birds to see at impressively close quarters with no risk of getting rained on. So close in one instance that one particularly curious green parakeet settled on my shoe and decided to see if the rubber sole was worth nibbling.

In the holiday park itself, there is a wealth of entertainment if arcades, cabaret and kids’ clubs are your thing, not to mention the Oasis pool complex which includes a toddler pool, water slide and lazy river.

The pools are open to non-park residents, but be warned the rules are somewhat bizarre – no personal items in the pool area whatsoever, not even towels, height restrictions on the lazy river but not on the water slide, and a box full of woggles and floats and things to appeal to small children which were apparently not to be touched.

Portsmouth is about a 45-minute drive away and well worth a visit.

The sun actually decided to shine on us as we visited Southsea seafront, and we even dipped our toes in the Channel for a cheeky paddle, before strolling along the front, visiting Southsea Castle (which is free) and finally indulging in that ice cream.

The landmark Spinnaker Tower is even more impressive up close than you might expect and the views over the city and the harbour are stupendous.

The gimmicky chance to “walk on air” over a glass-bottomed viewing platform is actually surprisingly terrifying – without the hand of my 2¾-year-old daughter, I’m not sure I would have ventured onto the glass.

While Spinnaker, which opened in 2005, represents architecture of the future, the area is also home to a jewel from the past.

Fishbourne Roman Palace, near Chichester, is the remains of a grandiose Roman villa dating back to the 1st century AD.

The collections of intricate floor mosaics are among the finest of their kind in the country and daily guided tours give visitors the chance to imagine what the palace would have been like in its heyday.

There are even opportunities for younger visitors to make their own mosaics using coloured tiles, templates and grids.

It was not a beach holiday, but in the end it didn’t need to be. There were so many things to do, it’s hard to imagine we would have found time to just meander on the beach.

Even when the sun started shining, we loved Pagham Harbour so much we went back again and enjoyed it in the sun.

And as for that £17m beach, it still provided the wow factor.

Coming back to the camp one day we were greeted by an incredible sight of a spout of sand, shingle, and water arching into the sky as it was sprayed onto the beach for a “top-up”. That was part of half-a-million tonnes of sand and shingle which were pumped onto the beach for the sea defence system.

I don’t imagine we will ever see anything quite like it again.