Back in September (ish!), I asked Chris to look at accommodation overnight when we were in Norfolk for Becca‘s Wedding. Chris came up with the idea that we’d go glamping in Norfolk. This time it would be in a yurt unlike when we went in the bell tent back in May. Yes. Glamping in November. This is Day Two. 
Day Two (Saturday)
We woke up and it was so cold in the yurt! I made Chris get the log burner going before I even thought about getting out of bed! On top of that, I’m so used to our bed now that all my back was really sore and achy. Also, I had a headache creeping in, I think that was because of my back being all different to normal. (I jokingly said to Chris at the end of the week that I was now a mattress snob!)
Once we’d defrosted a bit we had breakfast and sorted out a plan which included stopping at the local university campus to charge the car as that’s the nearest charging point to the campsite. (It was about 13 miles away and we had 10 miles on the car…not good!). On our way to the car, we stopped to play in the onsite playground for a little bit. While the boys played, I did some knitting.
We set off from the campsite to drive the 13ish miles to UEA campus at Earlham Hall. As Chris drove the route, the warning alerts got more and more frequent along with the functionality gradually switching itself off.
As we went to exit the A47 onto a smaller road towards the campus, we ended up having to pull over onto the shoulder. We have breakdown cover through the Renault dealer but they were quoting 2 hours recovery time (even with a 3yo on the “hard shoulder” – we were the other side of the crash barrier and up a hill from the road). We then tried the breakdown assist that comes with our bank account. At first, we were quoted half an hour which was great but then after about 10-15 minutes this was adjusted to midday having broken down at 10:30 am. It was a little frustrating however the lady that we had spoken to had put us on the waitlist as a priority case given the fact that Jaxon was with us.
Jaxon was really well behaved but did start to get a bit tetchy leading up to the recovery vehicle arriving as he was getting bored. It crossed my mind to try and walk him up the road and try and find somewhere to sit that was inside or a playground where he could burn off some energy. With me not knowing the area I was reluctant to do that although it did turn out that we were like 10 minutes walk from a McDonalds!
The recovery vehicle arrived about 45 minutes after we made the phone call which was really good. It was a curtain-sided lorry that arrived and genuinely looked like it wasn’t the right vehicle for the job at all! But actually it was perfect and the way it lifted up like a dumper truck and then rolled down onto the road. Jaxon got all excited watching the breakdown lorry. Once the car was loaded onto the back of the truck, we got into the back of the cab and got all belted in ready for our onward journey to the charger. Jaxon loved it!
After a bit of a detour around the campus, we found the charging point and got the car unloaded. It was a bit more of a challenge unloading but having strapped Jaxon into his car seat. Chris, the recovery guy and I were able to push the car into the bay. At first, we abandoned it across two bays long enough to get some more charge into it. Once it was low battery rather than completely dead, we wriggled the car into once space.
It was interesting to discover how easy it is to push the Zoe in comparison to our Fiat Seicento or Daihatsu Sirion that we used to have. Having got the car on charge we needed to get Jaxon changed as he’d had an accident while we had waited. We saw a sign in the park near the campus and went to find the toilets. The sign seemed to point to one of the university buildings rather than into the park. The first building we tried was the wrong one. We found a set of public toilets in the park that was enough to change Jaxon but they were really manky so I’m glad he was able to stand and be changed rather than lying him down on the floor like a younger child might have needed.
We then headed around to the park cafe to get lunch. It had vibes of a greasy spoon but was warm and somewhere we could get food while the car charged. I had an all-day breakfast and Jaxon had a bowl of chips. At this point Chris would have asked about Gluten Free choices but he decided that he would just guess and hope that he was on an okay meal.
While we were at lunch, the car charged so that we could get to our next stop. While we ate our lunch, I was organising with Chris’s cousin for us to meet for a coffee. She came to meet us at a local supermarket while we did our shopping. As it happened there was a coffee shop right next door so we went for a proper coffee instead.
I had a mint hot chocolate that had green sprinkles on it – it was so good! I still prefer the white mint hot chocolate that I used to be able to get at The Fountain though! After catching up with Chris’s cousin, we headed back to the yurt to get ready for the wedding reception. I had a shower and really didn’t want to get out of the hot water. It was so nice to be warm and not partially frozen! We all got ready and Jaxon had a snack to keep him going until dinner time at the reception. I didn’t want us to be late so we headed to the venue. However, I completely misjudged it and we were a bit early. On top of which, I think everything was running a little behind when we arrived.
We sat in the bar for a little while and watched Strictly which was playing on the TV. Becca‘s husband’s band played for part of the reception and they were good (but so loud!). Around 9:30/10pm, Jaxon asked for a drink, so I went to the bar to get him a glass of water. In the time it took me to get to the bar and get back, he had crashed out in Chris’s arms. He was absolutely shattered! Chris and I had some food then I went to apologise to Becca. I felt so bad that we’d almost “ate and ran”. Thankfully she was really understanding and grateful that we’d made the effort to be there even for a little bit.
Once we got back to the yurt, we got the log burner going and got into bed. Between the log burner and the new duvets we were toasty! Perfect for a winter’s nap!
If you liked this post you can read more about the rest of our glamping trip here.
