Wow, another week has flown by! People have been asking how long we’ve been in the van now … my immediate response is ‘’oh, about a month’’ … but given that we’re on blog number 8, I guess it’s closer to 2…!
We’ve been enjoying the beauty of the South coast this week. I know that it’s Cornwall that gets all the publicity, and, rightly so, I do believe, but that’s not to say that the rest of this coast line isn’t super beautiful too, because it is!
From Brighton, we travelled west along the coast to the New Forest. One of our friends that we were camping with last week lives there, and so we took advantage of his generosity in offering his washing machine and kitchen for a few days. His place is only tiny though, so each evening, we took ourselves out to a nice spot to park up and sleep.
One place he recommended we see was Hurst Spit – which is the closest point of mainland to the Isle of Wight. It’s a lovely little walk out on a mile-long stretch, surrounded by water either side, to the end of the spit, where you can see the Isle of Wight, just over a kilometre away. There was tonnes of free parking all along the front here, and loads of people parked up, so we thought we’d join them! I took a walk out again in the evening to see the sunset from the spit, which was truly beautiful.
I had to be back in Essex for a PinkPig workday in the week (more on that later!) so we started to head up, through the New Forest. If you’re a local, I’ve heard the horses a more of a pest than a special encounter, but we’re not, so into the forest we trekked, keeping an eye out for hoof marks. It really does feel special walking into a clearing, only to spot more and more horses, blending into the surroundings. They’re really unfussed by people too. Apparently they are basically ‘semi-wild’ – they have free reign of the whole of the national park, but once a year, they’ll be herded in to have health checks etc.
The other big event of the week was, as mentioned earlier, a ‘piglets day out’. Although we all have our reasons for enjoying working remotely, it really is lovely to get together every now and again and connect in person – not least of all because they’re always a fantastic lunch spread provided, and some of Caroline’s amazing cake! If I can just talk about cake for a minute … I find that often when a cake is decorated amazingly, something the flavour and texture of the cake itself can be lacking. Trust me when I tell you that this is most definitely not the case with Caroline’s cakes – for sure up there with the most moist sponge I’ve ever had! Filled with sausage rolls and cakes, we then moved on to the purpose of the day – to get some updated photos of the team. Keep your eyes peeled for those. On my list of things to bring for the shoot was pyjama bottoms, hiking boots & pig slippers …
We’re lucky enough to have kind friends in Colchester still (where we lived before setting off!) who put us up that night, and provided our very own ‘sausage and beer festival’, at a much cheaper price than the one in Castle Park!
Oh, and ‘tip of the week’ this week for cheap travel … a Pret subscription! If you haven’t heard about this, Pret a Manger has started a monthly subscription, at £20 a month. This entitles you to 5, yes, 5(!) free drinks a day! This really is crazy when you think that each drink is going to be near enough £3 on its own, if not more! I know Prets aren’t everywhere, but we’ve signed up for the FREE first month trial (so yeah, potentially 150 drinks, zero cost), and plan to make the most of it before we leave! (Disclaimer: we have no affiliation with Pret a Manger – just love an amazing deal!)
Next week will be our final one in the UK for the foreseeable, so I’m off to double check all our documentation, and Google what to do for a day in Paris!
Check out more of our travels here!
