The Motor Caravanners Club Rally - Palm Bay, Kent

To say I didn't really know what to expect was an understatement. The arrival time at the "site" was supposed to be 6pm.  As it was in a school we had to wait until all the kids and staff were gone for the weekend.  

On the way we stopped at the White Cliffs as the route from home was via Dover around the east coast of Kent to Cliftonville. We were lucky with parking at the Cliffs as the new designated motorhome parking area had only two other motorhomes and no cars.  The first time I think. Signposting is still pretty awful though; far too small to be seen unless you look closely.

We had a coffee and a short walk with Reggie.  We both like looking at the port of Dover under the cliffs.  As it was a Friday there was a lot of activity and the queue of lorries on the A20 was about halfway back to the Capel turn off. About 2 miles blocking the left lane of the A20. The port itself was full of trucks queuing for the check-ins. Not many cars caught up in the queues though.

It was around 5pm when we headed out. The German registered motorhome that was there when we arrived was still there, getting the most value out of the £9 parking fee for a motorhome.  A car is £6 for the day.

The route was pretty straightforward.  Off towards Sandwich and what appeared to be an around the houses route between Margate and Ramsgate. We finally arrived at 5.58pm. Ahead of us were vans queuing to get into the school grounds. The plan was for 22 vans to be distributed on the hardstanding areas. Because we are only 6m we were promoted to the front and parked up in the back parking area.  The school sprawls over quite an area.  I am used to visiting school after 25 years in Schools IT in London, but ours in the city are pretty much Edwardian buildings going up rather than out!  Backing in and checking that we were a good distance apart from other vans. There needs to be a fire break in case of an accident.

The Friday evening we went into the school hall and were on a table with Jill and Ken who were on the local committee.  They kept us up to date with what goes on. Satrurday was the St Patrick's Day for the rally.  Friday we had out own drinks and snacks and there were some games.  I managed to get disqualified from one as I didn't roll but wound!  The idea was to roll string onto a stick to drag a stuffed toy along the hall. In mitigation the stick fell off my leg and the string fell off and so I wound it to get to where I was and before I got back to rolling.... I was disqualified!  Luckily Claire did a little better!  A newbies it was quite embarrassing.

We had to leave Reggie in the van.  After the previous weekend when we had the warmest and driest weekend so far in Kent, it was freezing. As there was no electric hookup we had to rely on the van's leisure battery for lights and LPG for the heating. We had the heating on pretty much from when we arrived until we left on Sunday!  On low when Reggie was on his own and overnight, but higher when we were all in the van. Plus water for washing and the dishes.

On Saturday everyone has a free day. We decided to tog up and walk along the seafront towards Margate. we got a little further than Walpole Bay.  The wind from the north was pretty strong and it felt straight of the Arctic. Reggie didn't seem to mind the longer walk. We then decided to look for a cafe.  As we were on the lower promenade we didn't see anything remotely like a cafe. The Walpole Bay cafe that doubles as a jet ski/seadoo centre was closed. We eventually came up to the top level and the Thanet Indoor Bowls Centre boasting a cafe and "breakfasts" was locked up tight! So imagine our surprise to come across the Palm Bay Cafe that was open. We had passed it as we were 100 feet below it as we went past! We had a coffee and a snack, served through a hatch as it doesn't look to be indoor seating. At this time of year? Maybe in the summer there is seating inside.  Luckily the outdoor seating was pretty much shielded from the wind by the building itself.

Once back at the van we had a little sit down and read before we had to be back in the school hall for the evening. Claire in her St Patrick's hat and t-shirt.  I didn't have a long sleeved vert and so my green t-shirt went under my jumper. I did have my top hat though!  More games at which I was crap at. Claire won a raffle prixe and chose a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream. 

There was a quiz sheet to fill in. Luckily no prizes!  Our table worked though it. Fifty random,  and sometimes impossible, questions on Ireland! If they gave this to anyone wanting to take up Irish citizenship then it might cull the numbers a bit.  I set about answering what I could, with some help from the rest of Table 4! We guessed at some.

We had a ploughman's for dinner and a few more games and it was getting on for 11pm when we left and they were still going...  I had made a few trips to the van to let Reggie out for a walk. Each time he was fast asleep in the van and I got him out.  

 Sunday morning Reggie let us lie-in until 6am!  Not the 3am and 5am as on Saturday morning!  As we were leaving later on we had a bit of a tidy up. I mean a bit!  At 10.30am we had the "Chairman's Chat" over coffee and biscuits.  He thanked everyone that had organised the event and then gave out some prizes.  Claire and I got a little plaque for the event and as newbies we were given a Kent MCC mug each.  They are very nice. 

Once over everyone began to get off to their vans to go home.  We let Reggie out whilst I wrestled the Taylormade back into its bag.  Claire went to have a look in another of the vans. Reggie followed off the lead and went to look in there as well. When I turned off the gas I was more than a little surprised to see the gauge showing that the one bottle we have been using was down to the red marker!  Almost empty! That will need filling before we go away again!

All in all we had a really good weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  So much so that we have booked into another Kent MCC rally in May at the Hole Park Estate near Rolvenden.