In 1959, Wally Byam, creator of the Airstream caravan, led a convoy of over 40 trailers on a 12,000-mile expedition from Cape Town to Cairo, taking in remote Maasai villages, the central desert, a visit to the Emperor of Ethiopia and the Egyptian pyramids en route. The journey took seven months, not three, as planned. As Byam was fond of saying: "It was impossible so it took a little longer than expected."
I thought about this trans-African convoy and other globetrotting adventures of the Airstream Caravan Club – which included an even more epic 35,000-mile route across Asia and Europe in the footsteps of Marco Polo – as I sat outside a stationary 1972 Airstream trailer looking out across a neat field in east Dorset, home of Happy Days Retro Vacations.
What would Wally – who vowed "to lead caravans wherever the four winds blow … over twinkling boulevards, across trackless deserts … to the travelled and untravelled corners of the earth" – make of the growing number of glampsites like Happy Days that seem to offer the polar opposite of his life's dream?
You imagine he would have scoffed at the idea. But if the inventor strove "endlessly to stir the venturesome spirit" his wife Stella just wanted somewhere to cook (well, it was the 1950s). Legend has it that Byam created the Airstream in response to her refusal to go camping without a kitchen. She was a pioneer too – not just because she accompanied him on his crazy adventures – but because she demanded comfort and style as she did it. The word may not have existed back then but she was a glamper.
As for us, a couple with a lively toddler, Happy Days provided the perfect combination of lots of outdoor space with a good night's sleep. We were staying in "Gloria", one of four Airstreams owned by Kevin and Jenni Armstrong who run Happy Days and rent space off Meadow View Campsite, a 20-acre site near Horton with clean, hot showers but no shop, restaurant, playground or pool. On a sunny summer evening with a handful of kids whizzing by on push bikes, smoke wafting up from barbecues, and the sound of happy chatter, it couldn't have been a better advert for British camping if the Camping and Caravanning Club themselves had choreographed the entire idyllic scene.
Happy Days was set up in 2010 by the Armstrongs, who decamped from London after a motorbike accident left Kevin laid up for months, and reassessing what he wanted out of life.
Kevin was there to greet us when we arrived late on Friday night and show us round Gloria. If you've ever slept in a VW campervan, an Airstream feels positively palatial in comparison, with a dining couchette that turns into a double bed, two more single beds, a kitchen area and loo. All four trailers still have the original wood veneer interiors, brightened up with retro style floral furnishings, fairy lights, and bunting. Happy Days is much more than a business for Kevin, and his enthusiasm for these iconic vehicles was infectious. I went to bed that first night wondering whether we should sell up, buy an Airstream and take off on our own adventure.
We woke to bright blue skies: time to hit the beach. Dorset has nearly 100 miles of coast with some of the country's most famous beaches, but we steered clear of better-known Lulworth, Chesil and Bournemouth and headed to Hengistbury Head, a headland encompassing a nature reserve and ending at Mudeford sandspit, a sliver of land sandwiched between the Solent and Christchurch Bay. Mudeford hit the headlines this summer when one of its immaculate beach huts sold for £170,000. Silly money for a posh shed, but it's not surprising that the view – of the sea on one side and boats bobbing in the bay on the other – can command such prices.
Tucked between the beach huts is the white washed Beach House Cafe (beachhousecafe.co.uk), a lovely, laid-back spot that welcomes sandy children and dogs. At lunch the menu of fish and chips, nachos and wraps is a little limited but in the evening local seafood dishes are added, including wild Portland seabass, south coast hake and Isle of Wight crab.
Having booked a late lunch elsewhere we resisted food and made our way westwards to Wimborne and the newly-opened Tickled Pig restaurant (thetickledpig.co.uk/), housed in one of the oldest buildings on the street, and run by former Masterchef contestant Jez Barfoot and Matt Davey. Modern rustic dishes, like wild nettle, potato and smoked bacon soup or braised wild rabbit, red pepper, sticky red onion, saffron rice, make the most of local produce – including vegetables from their own garden – though I drew the line at Dorset snail pizza.
Wimborne itself is a sleepy, market town whose main claim to fame is its model village (wimborne-modeltown.com), an exact replica of the town in the 1950s. I know, it doesn't scream "must-see" but we spent a fun hour there peering into the immaculately and painstakingly detailed shop windows, that are redressed every winter by a team of volunteers many of whom remember the original shops long since replaced by Superdrug and the Co-op supermarket.
We managed to balance the toddler-friendly model village and Farmer Palmers' children's activity farm (farmerpalmers.co.uk) with the classic grown-up holiday attraction: the country pub. The Square and Compass at Worth Matravers (squareandcompasspub.co.uk) on the Isle of Purbeck was darn near perfect spot for a pint on a sunny day. The 18th-century inn sells local beers, home-pressed ciders (including the 7.3% Old Rosie, best drunk post- rather than pre-ramble) and perries straight from a serving hatch, and a choice of homemade pies or pasties. The front garden was full of walkers and people taking a break from a stone carving festival being held in a marquee at the back of the pub: "Carve by day, dance by night" read a sign outside the pub. Fortified by pints of Dorset gold and pasties we set off on a path down to a tiny rocky cove where a lone fisherman was casting his line.
Back at the campsite that evening, cooking on the firepit outside our caravan, I thought more about Wally and his adventures. Dorset may be a slightly incongruous place for Airstreams to have ended up but in a county where, until recently, accommodation has tended to be quaint and, dare I say it, dated, Happy Days makes a refreshing – and exciting – change.
• Accommodation was provided by Happy Days (01202 567606, happydaysrv.co.uk). A three-night weekend stay or four-night midweek stay in Gloria (sleeps five) costs from £290, or £485 for a week; four-berths cost slightly less
