Rambling Nan

J and I collected Honey from Bumble Campers HQ in Peterborough on 1st August 2024. I remember it well. The excitement of J driving me there, the feeling of impatience as we waited whilst the customer before us loaded children and luggage into their rental camper, the toe-curling boredom of sorting out log books and organising the car tax, then trying so hard to listen as James talked us through the controls before finally…..driving her out of the yard with the biggest ever smile on my face.

I’m not sure if I drove her home or if we floated. Such an easy vehicle to drive. Comfortable, manoeuvrable, and all mine.

Honey Bumble safely home and showing off her credentials

Our Very First Adventure With Honey-Bumble The Camper Van

Needless to say, our first trip had been planned and booked weeks in advance. J and I were heading to North Norfolk on 3rd August for an outdoor concert at Blickling Hall. Ibiza Classics. Some of my fave dance music from the 90’s played by a 34 piece orchestra. I was buzzing with anticipation and had everything crossed that the weather would be kind.

With Honey loaded with all the goodies I’d been collecting for her ( bedding, cookware, plates, mugs and Nanny Browns cutlery) plus a pup tent, sleeping bag an inflatable mattress for J, we set off that afternoon in high spirits.

The camp site was easy to find, spacious and welcoming. We picked a pitch near to the gate so as not to disturb our fellow campers when we got back from the concert late at night. Two Jays Farm Campsite is a great, family-orientated site with ponies and alpacas in the surrounding psddocks. I believe it’s possible to access the river for kayaking directly from the campsite but we didn’t have time for exploring.

As J was pitching his tent we could hear the concert starting – we were a couple of miles from Blickling but sound travels.

Hopping back into Honey, we stopped in the next village to buy fish and chips which we stuffed into J’s rucksack to eat when we arrived. Parking was easy but it was a bit of a trek from the car park to the concert. We took our camping chairs with us. You should have seen the security lady’s face when she went to check J’s bag and felt a soft warm package of fish and chips.

The concert had already started when we arrived and the place was alive with food stalls, merch stalls and colourful people taking selfies with the stage in the distance behind them. The entire field was huge and much of it had squares painted on the ground. Each square was a  space to allow a group of people to sit together. Genius, my number one anxiety had been the thought of being jostled by crowds and losing J and now I didn’t have to worry! We found a space, set our seats up and scoffed our chips.

People watching was awesome. There was such an eclectic mix of folks. From a family who’d arrived with a trolley full of chairs and tables, smoked salmon and champagne, to a group of older ladies (well, my age) who were hell bent on dancing the night away. I don’t think they stayed mobile past about 8 pm though. That’s the trouble with getting older – if you don’t pace yourself carefully, you’re stuffed.

Was it like Ibiza? No idea, the nearest I’ve ever got to Ibiza is watching the Kevin and Perry movie. It was warm though, the music was great and there was a holiday atmosphere so I suppose it came close to my idea of how the party part of Ibiza is, or was.

Poor J didn’t recognise many of the songs. It hadn’t occurred to me that most of the music was in the charts years before he was even born! The years all merge into one.

As the sun set, we were treated to a spectacular laser show. I can’t even imagine how much planning had gone into setting the whole thing up. We headed for home a little before the end of the show – neither of us enjoy sitting in queues of traffic so we wanted to be out of the car park before the mass exodus. Miraculously we found our way back to the campsite along the winding lanes and managed to park Honey beside J’s tent without even a hint of palaver.

I’m not sure I slept much that night. Too much excitement! J did. I was up drinking coffee and listening to the birds at 6 am. I had to wake him up at 9.30 so that we could be packed up and gone by 11 as per the site rules.

No Hurry To Get Home – Let’s Explore More!

It seemed as though Young Sir had been doing some research at some point during our trip. He’d unearthed evidence of an aircraft museum in the vicinity . So guess where we went next ….

It was actually a really interesting place to look around. City Of Norwich Air Museum has a surprisingly large number of planes and offers guided tours of some of them. J booked himself a slot to see inside one of the planes while I supped coffee in the cafe, wishing I could still handle late nights as well as I could when I was his age.

Our next stop was Norwich Camping and Leisure where we looked at awnings and drooled over all the gadgets and equipment I’m going to buy when I can afford them. Oh how I want a posh fridge instead of a cool box. We did buy a few bits n pieces. Some extra strong tent pegs, spare gas canisters, tea and cake. 

Honeys first trip with us was a dream come true. I moan about waking up early but actually I felt so serene, sat outside, immersed in nature, reliving the memories of that epic concert, and writing. Even though it would be 6 months before I published it, my first Bumble blog was written on that trip. Cool eh?