One of the great advantages of owning a camper van hire business, other than getting to meet lots of happy holiday makers, is that we get to enjoy the vans when they are off hire.

Over the weekend of the royal wedding, we had an opportunity to do just that. Four of our best friends came down to visit for the weekend and we decided to head up to the North Norfolk coast.

So, after sending Trevor out on hire on the Friday afternoon and enjoying an evening in the pub, on the Saturday morning we piled into Poppy (and a Ford Mondeo!) and set ourselves on course to Sheringham.

Despite a rather strong wind on the sea front, Sheringham was very pleasant and a great excuse to get fish and chips for lunch! We wandered around for an hour or so enjoying the town and generally having fun, before stocking up on food for tea and breakfast, which all got loaded into Poppy’s fridge.

Now at this stage we didn’t really know where we were going to camp. We had initially booked a spot at Kelling Heath and cancelled it, as we thought we weren’t going to make it up there (a long story!) and we knew everywhere would be busy, so we sat and had a think about it. One of our favourite campsites in North Norfolk is Breck Farm (www.breckfarm.co.uk), so we decided to try there as they usually have enough space to accomodate latecomers.

When we arrived we were not hopeful as it looked very busy, but we were told that there was enough space in the ‘top field’ and proceeded to find a little spot, nicely sheltered from the wind by a perimeter hedge. We slid Poppy’s runroof back, popped the kettle on and set up the two tents we’d taken with us.

The great thing about Breck Farm is that they allow open fires, so one of the first jobs was to head into the woods to find some firewood, followed by a game of frisbee for the boys whilst the girls relaxed and chatted in the sunshine.

As we got into the evening we fired up the BBQ, had an enjoyable tea, got the fire going and sat around chatting for hours, like you do when you’re with good friends.

When we decided to get some sleep we gave up the bed in Poppy, so that our friend Ruth who had just told us she is pregnant could have a comfortable night’s sleep.

The following morning Poppy provided us with a fantastic cooked breakfast using her built in two hob cooker and we packed up ready to head out on the broads. Having not pre-booked, we knew it would be a gamble finding a boat and it proved a challenge too far for us. We decided to head to the Bell pub at Salhouse instead and enjoyed a roast dinner, followed by a walk around Salhouse Broad and then Malthouse Broad.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend away with Poppy. Next up – the Alive and V-Dubbin show in Suffolk this coming weekend! Perhaps I’ll get round to blogging about that one a little quicker…