Have a laugh at our Caravan Holiday Blog for 2009 ! Keep checking back as we add more as the weeks and months go by .... We have just spent our last relaxing week at the caravan for the October Half Term. It's lovely to spend another week on holiday but it's bittersweet because you know at the end of the week you have to take your caravan home for just over four months!! 
The weather was beautiful for this week - after a rainy Monday we spent the rest of the week in short sleeves!! It was wonderful to be able to sit outside in the sunshine and take in the view. Yes, the above picture was taken at the end of October 2009!! 
This is a picture of Ben with the caravan - now the children are getting older they don't want to spend as much time as us at the caravan. We are having to negotiate more with them!! We hope that one day they will enjoy caravanning themselves with their own families! 
Before we left Georgia and Ben and their friend Beth had some giant sparklers and had a go at "Light Painting" and this is the result! The week flew by and we managed to fit in loads of things including shopping in Norwich, plenty of walks along the beach, chestnut hunting in the woods, as well as a trip to the penny arcades! 
All too soon though it was time for us to go - this is a picture of "The Outlaws" going home as we stayed for an extra day. Our caravans both look extremely clean which is mainly due to the fact that we have been testing a product called "The Streaker" which fits into the awning rails and keeps the rain off the sides of the caravan. Have a look at our Product Reviews page for more information and details. Our extra day was soon over and we decided to go home before the rain set in the next day. We had an uneventful trip home and parked up in the driveway. We have just had our caravan serviced by our local Bailey dealer, from where we purchased the caravan. During the damp test, which they carry out as part of the service, they found that we had a crack in the back panel of the caravan so early in the New Year we have to take the caravan back to the dealer to have the whole panel replaced! We are extremely pleased, however, that they thoroughly tested the caravan and found the fault before it spread further and damaged more of the caravan. Just in case you are wondering, these extremely clever chaps work at www.mmleisure.co.uk of Haverhill. We thoroughly recommend them if you live in the area. Anyway, that's how we spent our season at the caravan this year. We are thinking about going away just after Christmas but before the New Year. Anyone got any suggestions .....
Well, that’s nearly the end of the summer and we are back home after our extended holiday at the caravan. Three of us have spent four weeks at the caravan having a great time. At least Nigel managed to join us for the last two weeks of fun and relaxation!! We have done lots of different things while away – too many to mention!! The first week we were away we had a plague of ladybirds. There were just so many of them – you couldn’t walk anywhere without getting covered in them! Have a look at the photos below – you won’t believe it (unless, of course, you were holidaying along the North Norfolk coast!!). At least they only lasted two weeks!
The weather whilst we were there was brilliant – we never really had any rain, only during the night. We were roasting on some days so spent alot of time down at the beach, cooling off in the water and just messing about.
We went fruit picking a few times and picked quite a few strawberries – some were actually humungous!! If you have never taken kids fruit picking have a go as they love it. We have been metal detecting on the beach (not very successfully) – that elusive treasure will be found by us next time!! The picture below is the “treasure” we found this time: 
If you like shopping we can thoroughly recommend a trip to Norwich. The car parks are pretty easy to find but there is also a Park & Ride service which is cheap and extremely easy to use. There are so many shops so make sure you go early!! This year was the 40th anniversary of Cromer Carnival and what a spectacular carnival it was!! Some of the highlights we enjoyed included a classic car show, the Red Arrows, the dog show, the White Helmets Motorcycle Display Team (brilliant) and so much more. The actual carnival day on the Wednesday was so hot and we have never known the Carnival field to be so crowded. Well done to the organisers.
We had to come home a little early as Ben had a football tournament on Sunday. Anyway, that’s a quick look at some of the things we did this summer. Was it really six weeks long??
Well, Friday 22nd May has arrived – it’s the beginning of half-term and we’ve all got a week off! And boy are we looking forward to it! The journey started well – we were all excited and relaxed about having the week off – until a passing motorist signalled to us that we had a flat tyre. I pulled into the next lay-by to have a look. Sure enough, it was as flat as a pancake. Just our luck as we had only recently replaced the front tyres!! After inflating the tyre we carried on to the nearest garage where we stopped again to check the tyre was OK. After checking it and giving it another blast of air we were on our way again. Two and a half hours later we arrived to a welcome cup of tea! Saturday came and it was off to the nearest tyre garage and a long wait! Because they were the only tyre company in the area they were very busy. Finally after four hours and £150 worse off we got back to the caravan. After this the rest of the week was pretty uneventful! The weather was great so we did lots of walking, especially in the local National Trust Park where the rhododendrons were in full bloom and the views were stunning.
We had lots of BBQ’s, met up with old friends as well as making new ones, and needless to say the week flew by and soon it was time to pack up and come home.
Right, I’m just off to count how many days left to the next holiday! I wonder what adventures we will have next time … Well, Easter has been and gone but we had a great time at the caravan ………..while the weather was good!! We travelled down to the caravan on Friday evening – the weather was good at this point so we were hopeful of a lovely two weeks! The other half stayed at home until Sunday evening because Ben had an important football match on Sunday, so they travelled down after that. The other half had to go back to work on Tuesday so that left just me and Ben as Georgia was spending the whole two weeks in France with her cousins! Even the dog went home!! We had a couple of days where we lazed about, played a bit of football, tennis, etc, as well as walking on the beach.
We just lazed about in the afternoon sun before cooking up a barbecue in the evening. The next day …..
Then it was time to say good bye to the other half as he had to go back to work on Tuesday.
So, yes, you've guessed it – we bailed out and decided to come home the next day!! Good job we did as the fog stayed at the coast but at home it was rather nice!! Here's looking forward to the next long weekend – it's got to be better weather then, hasn’t it?!?! Well, it's that time of year again – we have so been looking forward to this weekend!! Yes – the campsite where we have a seasonal pitch has opened for 2009!! Yippee!! We packed the caravan, taking care not to overload it and to distribute the weight evenly. Right – we've packed all the essential items. So that's it – it's 4.00 p.m. on Friday and we're ready to go. We have an uneventful two and a half hour journey – only a few mad, impatient drivers trying to overtake as soon as they see a caravan (even though we are going at max speed!) – putting their lives as well as everyone else's in danger. When we got to the campsite the "outlaws" had already set up their caravan as they had left home mid-morning. At least they had packed tea-bags and milk!! It took us about 1 ½ hours to set up and get sorted out – time to sit down for a well earned beer and glass of wine! (Yes, we had beer and wine but had forgotten the tea!!).  We woke up on Saturday morning to a blue sky and bright sunlight. We had to go food shopping as the kids had started to moan that there was nothing to eat and were threatening to try the dog's food! With that chore over and done with we just pottered about, relaxed, read the paper, and caught up with old friends for the rest of the weekend. All too soon Sunday lunchtime came around and we had to leave to go home to get everything ready for work and school the next day. Roll on next weekend ……… We are now well into 2009 and we haven't yet been caravanning this year!! We are suffering withdrawal symptoms but, as always, work has to come first. The caravan is all ready to go – it has been serviced by our local caravan dealer, had Tyron bands fitted (which we forgot to do last year), and we have given it a thorough clean and polish, both inside and out. We are hoping that by March the weather will have changed for the better as we definitely don't want any more of the white stuff!! We think we have had quite enough already! The caravan park where our seasonal pitch is opens mid-March and we are counting down the days ....  CLICK HERE to read our Caravan Holiday Blog for 2008!
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Becky on holiday.
By the afternoon we were really fed up – the fog had stayed all day and everything was just getting damp.
