The 15th International Portafold & Ansfold Gathering) (i.e. 2024)

Our annual gathering will be returning to the Newbury Retrofestival.

So put the dates 9th, 10th & 11th of August 2024 in your diary now and get those dates booked off work early.

Show Address: Newbury Showground, Priors Court, Hermitage, Thatcham, West Berkshire, RG18 9QZ

Don't book direct with the show organisers it will cost you more money, just contact me (07771544419) to get your pitch saved.

Our First Trip in 'poppy' the Portafold

Any talk that's not covered by the other forums.
Post Reply
fibreglasshero
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat, 16 May 2009, 12:53 pm
Location: Thetford, Norfolk

Our First Trip in 'poppy' the Portafold

Post by fibreglasshero » Tue, 04 May 2010, 2:27 pm

Hi guys,

just to let you all know, that we braved the spring bank holiday weather, and christened 'poppy'!

Having completed a full restoration and rebuild over the previous year since we 'adopted' her, we decided that the time was right for our first trip!
We went over to the ccc site at sandringham, and what a great long weekend we had.
The site was up to it's normal very high standard, with immaculate facilities, no queues for the loos or washing up etc.
What we couldn't get over, as 'virgin' portafold campers, was the amount of interest from the other site users.
This varied from mild amusement and pointing, through incredulous comments on how 'brave' we were, to genuine interest from fellow campers.
Just about every style and version of caravan, camper,trailer tent, tent and modern folding caravan were in evidence, but nothing drew so many comments as our little 'porti'!
The friends who accompanied us, in a 1970 vw bay camper were astonished that almost no-one even looked at their camper, but all interest was for the portafold.
Apart from suffering sub-zero temperatures, and wow! It sure gets cold inside a portafold, even with a fan heater belting away, the trip was an absolute success!
Our new foam seating and mattresses were exeptionally comfortable, and despite torrential rain, poppy remained dry, which couldn't be said for some of the more modern caravans!
So, we experienced all of the seasons in one long weekend, but came through it determined to get out and about again really soon.
I have to say, hook-up is vital at this time of year, but i can also recommend the sandringham caravan & camping club site to everyone, it's not cheap, but it is good!

Regards to all

rob aka fibreglasshero
So many repairs, so little time!

User avatar
bigbird
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 3:36 pm
Location: Ryde, Isle of Wight

Re: Our First Trip in 'poppy' the Portafold

Post by bigbird » Fri, 07 May 2010, 8:50 pm

Well done and congrats on your first excursion in 'Poppy'.

We braved the weather too, staying in Hastings for the 'Green Man' festival and boy was it cold!!!!! I have to say, that after struggling with all the exploits of awning erection, bedding etc, etc, we actually came home considering buying a camper van.

However, after doing the 'for and againsts' check list we decided to keep 'Matilda', with just making a few adjustments to make life easier. The first is memory foam toppers on the cushions to make them comfortable because boy were ours 'firm'..lol. The second adjustment is to make another locker at the bow end, so that we can just store our sleeping bags in there, without having to struggle them into plastic bags and then into the under bed lockers!! and the third is to buy a bigger car, so that we can take more appropriate stuff and use the car as a store!!.......Well with 10 Morris dancers in Matilda, and Mr. J Daniels and Mr. Bailey, she was rather stretched at the seams...lol. Oh, I almost forgot...we are going to take a bigger food box, Mr. Badger took most of the food and woke us up banging his head on his way out, he physically moved the caravan!!! Serves him right if he had a headache.....

So.....Matilda the Portafold lives to survive another day....I just wish it didn't cost us £80 every time we left the Island with her.....
Harley Davidson 1340, Smartcar, 1969 MKIII Triumph Spitfire, Matilda the Portafold and Marvin the Combi Camp...

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users