It was just a casual internet search really.  Sat in front of the computer, no plans for New Years Eve and a new (well new to us) caravan that we were just itching to use.  So, “enter New Year and Caravan as the search criteria and see what comes up,” I thought.

There were a fair few hits, needless to say.  I had a look through and one that caught my eye was something to do with Cromer.  Now, living in Colchester, I thought “This seems close enough, let’s have a closer look.”
 
Well, to cut a long story short, the search had turned up the Touring and Tenting thread for the New Year rally at Cromer.
 
For a day or two we went through the T & T site, trying to find out what was what and who was who.  We eventually decided I should sign up, sadly saddling myself with a ridiculously long user name, but hey, I’m stuck with it now!
 
After a few postings, a friendly welcome and a few laughs, we decided to take the plunge and sign up for Cromer.  Our first ever caravan rally, only our third ever trip in the caravan and our first winter one.  Most of our friends thought we were either mad, stupid or both, but what’s life without a few risks?
 
Onwards about 3 weeks, Christmas done and dusted and the day (Thursday December 30th) dawned for us to travel to the north of Norfolk.  Actually, the story sort of starts the evening before, when the screen washer on our 9 month old car decided to stop working.  A little problem in the summer, a great big horrible one on dirty wet Norfolk roads in the winter!  8:30am saw us at the car dealers.  A faulty pump was causing the problem and they didn’t have a new one in stock, but they did carry out a temporary repair to last us a few days, and all within an hour, so we were quite pleased with the service, if not with the initial failure.
 
No problems with collecting the caravan, driving to the campsite, or even finding it and we arrived early afternoon.  We were still a little apprehensive about what to expect as we stopped outside the reception at Forest Park.  I went in to find out what was what, while Gail and the children went into the shop to buy….. ketchup!!  Don’t ask me why they suddenly decided we needed ketchup, I have no idea!
 
Directions were given and we all piled back into the car to drive around to the rally area.  On turning into the road we saw a gaggle of people and immediately someone came over to speak to us.  That someone turned out to be Sonja, with a huge warm smile on her face she made us feel so welcome in just a couple of minutes that we suddenly didn’t feel apprehensive at all.  What a lovely lady!
 
Next came the task of selecting a pitch.  As we were one of the last to arrive, there were no nice easy pitches close to the road to be had…all gone days before no doubt!  Being a novice at this towing lark I really didn’t want to be reversing in front of a crowd of people I (rightly or wrongly) assumed to be experts, so I decided to swing right round in the field and drive onto a pitch forwards.  A nice big circle saw us into a nice slot, unfortunately it wasn’t a pitch!  Never mind, go round again and go into a pitch next time.  This was when the problems really started.  The ground was wetter and softer than I thought.  The caravan had more effect across soft ground than I thought, and, not to put to fine a point on it, I was suddenly stuck!  Oh dear…
 
Soon people were at hand with advice and offers of help…Mark was first, then Doc, Tony from Suffolk offered to tow us out with his 4X4, all very welcome, but doing nothing to lessen the embarrassment!  Worse was to come though, unhitching the van to enable me to move the car and the jockey wheel winding handle suddenly broke off.  Oh God, what had I done to deserve this??  Then the whole jockey wheel assembly collapsed as we were hitching the van back up after having got the car out of the mud.  I was trying to stay calm but was on the point of nervous breakdown at this point!!  What else can go wrong??
 
Well, to be honest, not much else did.  We got the van located (second attempt) on a pitch at last, I got my hydraulic jack out to take the place of the jockey wheel and everything from then worked out just fine, although there was an unsuccessful attempt to find a new jockey wheel that afternoon.
 
Before we left to go to the rally we had decided not to partake of the planned curry evening .  This wasn’t a case of being unsociable, more the fact that Gail, Gemma and Adam don’t like curry, so we ate pasta in the caravan instead.  We did wander across to meet other people a little later and strolled down to the clubhouse with Sonja.
 
The clubhouse proved to be a pleasant surprise.  I don’t really know what we were expecting, but whatever it was, what we found was better.  We wandered in and Gail spotted Nina and Karen, together with their respective other halves, Rich and Nick (acidburnrosie and NickCB).  As she had spoken to them earlier when they had delivered the name sign for the caravan window, we went over and sat with them.   What a good decision that was!  The evening ahead was a quiz night and the six of us decided to form a team.  Named by Nina as “The Cunning Stunts” (phew, typed it right!!) we swept all before us in a resounding victory (well alright, a narrow victory), winning £40 which was a great way to subsidise the following night (New Years Eve) for the six of us.  Of course, during the evening we got to know out team mates rather better, and met several other T & T members and we were both impressed with just what a friendly crowd we had joined.
 
I won’t labour the story of the rest of the weekend, we had a great time in the company of, principally Nina, Rich, Karen and Nick and their children, but also with the rest of T & T.  Sonja and her able assistants provided lovely pancakes for breakfast on New Years Eve, and she was again the provider, mulled wine, that evening before we headed of to the party.
 
It was a great party, New Years Day was a pleasant day starting with “brunch” back at the clubhouse, cheese and biscuits later on in Nina and Rich’s awning and a “quick pint“ in the early evening turned out to be another good time (and considerably more than one pint) in the bar, although on a much more low key basis.
 
Having obtained a new jockey wheel on New Years Eve from Norwich Caravans, we were able to hitch up and go without too much trouble (apart from one horrible moment because I hadn’t tightened it up properly) and we had a pleasant trip home  in the sunshine.
 
We all really enjoyed our time at Cromer.  The fact that it was a nice place to be obviously helps, but the main thing that made the weekend so enjoyable was the people.  To anyone reading this who has yet to sample a T & T rally I would urge you to get to one soon.  I know that we will certainly be attending more!!