Camperjam 2017

It was the first time we’d camped in the “Home is where you Park it” section rather than in Club camping because I was meant to have been going sailing with a friend, in Scotland, but some things got in the way of that, so we managed to buy some tickets at the last minute from a chap on Facebook. We were rewarded with a brilliant weekend of sun, fun and cider…

The drive down was as bad as ever – it’s only 90 miles to Weston Park from home but it still took us 3 hours, thanks once again to major hold ups on my nemesis, the M6 Motorway.

Trying to choose a pitch when there aren’t any restrictions is quite weird – normally we fit ourselves into the Club’s allocated space in Club Camping but this time we could park anyway – the choice is tempered by the distance to walk down to the showground and the trek to the nearest toilets!

The field really filled up over the weekend with very little space between pitches – I did warn the chap in the yellow T2 behind us about my snoring but he said he was prepared to risk it.

We wandered over to Club Camping to catch up with our friends then headed down to the main show area for a while. The theme for Friday night was Party Hats and we’d done our best at short notice.

It turned quite cool on Friday evening but Saturday broke with bright sunshine and the promise of a lovely day. We chilled for a while and grabbed some breakfast before going back down to wander round the traders stalls and to catch up with the Glawning team (Glawning.com) and Ben from Dbeilt Trailers (Dbeilt.co.uk). Our friend Sophie was also trading (Sophie’s Attic) – here’s hoping they all had a profitable weekend.

We had some great paella from one of the food stalls then grabbed a cider from the bar before sitting in the sun, first with Alan and Gill and then with Claire and Daz – there are definitely worse places to be on a Saturday afternoon.

After a short break back at the van, we went back over to Club Camping for a bottle of fizz to celebrate Alan’s big birthday and a giggle with good friends, before everyone headed down to the entertainment tent for some great live sets and more cider for me.

Birthday Boy, Alan

The walk back to the van later was interesting – I may have had one gulp of cider too many – but we made it and I slept as well as our neighbour had during the day.

We’d bought a new table top from one of the stalls but their payment machine couldn’t get enough signal, so I’d managed to PayPal the money from my phone on Saturday evening – we walked back down to collect it on Sunday morning – if anything it was hotter than Saturday, perfect weather for a festival and good practice for our upcoming trip to France.

We packed everything away and drove up to Club camping to say our goodbyes – the next time we see some of our friends will be in France on the Kombi Kaper to the Ile de Re – we can’t wait.

We avoided most of the M6 going back by taking the scenic route and stopping at the Black Dog Pub just outside Chester for lunch, so the drive back wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the oen there.

I really think this was the best Camperjam we’ve attended – will we be back next year? almost certainly…

There’s a full set of photos here: FLICKR

Things we’ve learned:

Sometimes, booking events at the last minute can be as good as planning them months in advance
Sunshine will put a smile on everyone’s face
I need to learn to love the M6
Some people think that the invisibe forces that pull magnets together are amazing – personally, I can’t see the attraction.
Other people just want to put magnets all over their bodies – they can be a funny lot, those Brazilian Owners…