Readers raised the alarm when they realise Pewari hasn’t been seen despite recently claiming to be back to blogging as normal.

She was last seen heading somewhere into Tiny Adventures on Facebook. This popular mini-RPG has serious health warnings for its addictiveness and time-sucking capabilities. Friends are said to be concerned for her well being.

Brave adventurers are advised to enter Tiny Adventures at their own risk, find the missing blogger and offer Pewari aid and healing.

End Message.

We’re back from another camping trip – probably the last of our season, so things should get back to normal around here shortly. Well, once the kids start school of course (and I’ve been told that I’m not allowed to blog about my youngest’s first day at school because all the rest of the blogosphere have been churning out “my child is starting school, woe is me” posts and one of my readers will personally injure me if I do the same).

Anyway, before we get back onto a normal schedule, I need to do a wrap up post of where we’ve been recently.

The campsite we chose was Highclere Farm, specifically selected to be in easy distance of Legoland – a trip made possible by lots of nagging from Akra Jr and Tesco clubcard vouchers. More about that in a later post.

The facilities at this site were by far and away the best we’ve ever been to. Showers and toilets were immaculate and modern, the whole site was kept extremely tidy and attractive, staff were friendly and accommodating, and the playground area was large and well equipped. You had to pay for the showers (20p for the normal ones, 50p for the more luxurious ones in a separate block) which was a shame, but they lasted a long while, had decent power output and were kept spotlessly clean.

The only downside (you knew there had to be a downside, didn’t you?) was that the caravan electric pitches were SO close together. At a Camping and Caravanning Club campsite, for example, there is a 6m minimum distances between pitches – this is a fire safety requirement on their sites. However, at Highclere, the distance between our camper and next door’s awning was only around 3m at most.

This had two side effects: one was the safety worry, the other was simple lack of privacy/noise control. Next door had a barbeque at one point (something we didn’t dare do during our stay, because there really wasn’t the room) which completely smoked us out that evening and was very unpleasant. Later that night they were awake and chatting loudly until 2am, then awake at 6am puking from the excess of alcohol they’d drank. Fortunately they left later that day – but to be honest, even with considerate neighbours we really were too much in each other’s pockets.

However, that said, if you have a tent and aren’t interested in having an electric pitch, then there was plenty of space on site to spread yourselves out – with the standard of facilities available, I couldn’t recommend it enough. If you have a caravan though, it might be an idea to look elsewhere.

This is long overdue, considering we’ve been back a few weeks now, but I thought I’d provide my usual summary of places we visited while camping. You never know, they might be places you would want to visit if you’re ever down that way.

Bressingham Steam and Gardens

Bressingham Steam and Gardens is a lovely low-key tourist attraction, born out of the Bloom family’s two great loves: steam engines and gardening.

There are a total of four separate steam train routes – each with their own individual character, and each giving a different view of the grounds. There is also a steam museum and a beautifully restored Victorian steam carousel. Then, if you like what you saw in the grounds, there is a large and very well stocked garden centre – much of its stock being grown on the premises.

We experienced an unusual bout of extremely hot and muggy weather on the day we went, so didn’t really get to appreciate all the gardens, but what we saw really was impressive (and in the event, more striking than one of the National Trust properties we visited later in the week!). A big hit – especially with the kids – was Foggy Bottom. Just the name was enough to send both boys off into fits of giggles and they enjoyed dodging lawn sprinklers while exploring.

I’d definitely go again if we were ever down that way.

Blickling Hall

Blickling Hall is one of the nicest National Trust properties we’ve been to. The staff were lovely and friendly, particularly with our children (and let’s face it, if you’re responsible for preserving delicate artefacts of historical importance, then overly exuberant boys of 7 and 4 years of age aren’t your most longed for visitors, are they?!).

Externally, it’s an imposing and formal Jacobean house but they’ve managed to not let that standoffishness migrate to the interior. It feels lived in and welcoming, and the staff play a big part in that as they are very knowledgeable about the history, but also open to chatting to small boys about ‘secret passages’ and other such exciting things. They also helped us with some of the more tricky clues on the Children’s Quiz (something Akra Jr enjoyed immensely).

The grounds, however, were a bit of a disappointment. Having gone round the house, the boys really needed to run off some steam on a hot day, recharge and have something to eat and drink. The grounds are very formal and spread out with the shaded areas a fair way from the house. There is also a no picnicking rule, which is fair enough, but it would have been nicer to have notices about taking litter home and maybe having a defined picnic area in the less formal and shaded area of the lake with litter bins provided. As it was, we just sipped water out of our bottles surreptitiously and felt terribly guilty about doing so. The only unwelcoming part of an otherwise very friendly place.

Wroxham Barns

Wroxham Barns is another low-key attraction that was immensely fun and enjoyable. It’s mainly a group of little shops – arts and crafts, local foods, artisans’ wares – but also has a children’s farm and funfair on site.

The children’s farm is worth a quick ramble around and the boys enjoyed feeding the various animals, but the real show stopper for them was the funfair. All the rides were suitable for their age group (7 and 4 years old) and the ticket cost was fairly reasonable when bought in bulk. I think they had a go on just about everything: the caterpillar mini-rollercoaster, the inflatable slide, the train ride… excellent fun.

BeWILDerwood

BeWILDerwood is billed as ‘a curious treehouse adventure’ and has received rave reviews in the press. It’s also far more commercial and expensive than the other places we visited that week, so you tend to expect much more for your money.

Well, I was pretty impressed and so were the kids. It’s effectively one mahoosive adventure playground in a forest. It has a story built up around it and has lots of things around to spark the imagination – little hidden away model Twiggle houses, a treasure hunt with clues to find on your trip round, and a story book you can buy at the gift shop. Mostly though, the kids just wanted to climb, slide and whizz down the zip wires and weren’t that interested in the accompanying background colour.

There are downsides though. It is pretty pricey, the place was absolutely heaving, and we were plagued by wasps whenever we tried to eat anything. I also recommend going for a boat ride earlier rather than later as the queues can get pretty long.

My youngest son has had a Cuski since birth. Well I say a Cuski… he’s actually had several (spares for washing and replacements as they’ve fallen apart after intense loving), but only ever had one at a time.

It’s not that he’s been unaware of the existence of the duplicates, I never kept that from him, but it’s never overly concerned him. I suppose he treats them the same as pyjamas or bedlinen; for him, his Cuski is something that helps him calm down or get to sleep by sucking the label – a tool, not a beloved toy.

And now, suddenly, he’s decided he doesn’t want them any more. Stopped cold turkey. Settling himself without recourse to a friendly soggy label or by twirling the soft fabric around his fingers.

He wants them thrown away, but I’m not quite ready to do that yet. They’re hidden in the back of the airing cupboard, nice and warm and soft – just in case their owner ever feels the need to reclaim them.

He hasn’t yet.

My baby is grown.

We’re now into the main camping season for us, and I’m well overdue a campsite review.

Last week, we went to stay at Long Beach Tenting and Touring, which is right on the Norfolk Coast (East Anglia).

Due to the fortunate happenstance of booking in January, plus asking to be as near to the beach as possible, we seemed to have ended up with the only pitch with a sea view (yes, that’s our folding camper in the photo at the top of the hill). It really was a premium pitch – loads of space and privacy with loads of tall undergrowth and bushes surrounding us.

One thing did throw me though, when I booked they mentioned on the phone that the beach was “just over the sand dune”. I had visions of the sand dune being something small you could step over and fretted a little that if I didn’t keep a close eye on the children, that they’d run away to sea in just a few paces.

The reality was that the sand dune was a little larger and steeper than I envisioned! Yes, I know the scale is hard to work out in that photo, but bear in mind that we were sitting on top of that sand dune to take the previous picture and is roughly the same height as where our camper is situated!

Still, it kept us fit. Climbing up sand that slips as you plant your foot into it is a better work out than a step-machine, I’m sure.

The beach itself was very nice – mostly sand with some pebbles. Unfortunately rather a lot of litter, but as it’s a public beach and not owned by the campsite, this was hardly their fault. We also found a fair amount of dog poo in the valley between campsite and dune left by inconsiderate owners, so you had to be wary if you were wandering around in bare feet.

So what was the campsite like? Nice and small – it’s mainly a static caravan park with only a few touring and tent pitches, the main sister touring site being further away from the beach. There is a bar, laundrette, play area and a well-stocked shop on site. It was particularly lovely to be able to sit outside the bar with a drink while the kids played in the playground, and this is something we’d look for at future campsites!

The facilities were slightly odd. The toilet block and shower block were separate and a little walk away from each other and both were very basic. They needed a key (obtained with deposit on arrival) and the toilet block contained no soap.

Now, I can sort of see why there was a key needed (although this is the first site we’ve ever visited which locked their toilets) as it was near a public beach and they probably wanted it reserved for their paying customers, but surely if it was locked then they could spare a bit of soap!

Another downside was that the site seemed very noisy at night. Maybe this was a side-effect of the bar, or just that we were unlucky that there were a large number of teenagers on site that week who liked to congregate by the top steps of the hill (right by our pitch) late into the evening and early hours. It wasn’t every night, but fairly annoying all the same.

I also surprisingly missed seeing the sunset over the sea in the evening (the downsides of camping on the east coast!) – some of my favourite camping photographs have been taken in those last evening moments. Funnily enough, I never managed to get up at 5am to take a sunrise photograph! How disorganised of me.

Still, it was a nice friendly site and a good base to explore the local area. We found some fab places to visit with children, but I shall write all about that another day.