Wow! How time flies when you are immersed in new exciting environments and so many learning experiences. We have really gotten into flow during our 13 months away. We headed to our last 5 night stay before heading to a 3 night lay over in Singapore. We still have lots to look forward to over the next few weeks. On our journey we did a detour to get a glimpse at the Cerras Giant painted in chalk on a hillside at Cerne Abbas.
The town of Cerne Abbas was very photogenic.
We travelled through low fog patches which floated like low lurking mist plains across the roads and fields.
We also travelled with intermittent patches of heavy holiday traffic. The Jurassic Coast and Devon are popular holiday respite destinations for both the winter and especially the long summer holiday breaks.
We stopped on our way to do our last Sainsbury’s shop. A little sad really. This shop for us is a little different as it contained no carbs or alcohol. We are trying to lose the extra 4 kilos we have put on just in the last 5 months from being in the UK. These extra kilos have kept us warm during the cool winter months. Interestingly enough we only gained weight in the UK and not on the 8 months of our Europe leg. We believe that Europe’s grains are more of an ancient grain and there was a large quantity of bio foods available. Then we hit England with its too good, too hard to resist character filled pubs. It was hard to resist a snack bowl of tripled cooked chips by the fire place, washed down by a pint. We now have a month to lose 4 kilos. We both think it was well worth it.
Our new Airbnb stay had a very interesting start to say the least. It was on the Island of Hayling. It was in a small cottage closed street estate. More like a holiday cottage or retirement village!! The tiny cottage came with an extra tiny assigned car space. Residents were outside happily gardening or that is what we thought, until our neighbour swung into park her car next to ours. She became agitated as she couldn’t fit her camper van in her spot so she asked Rob to move his car over a bit. Now Rob was parked in his car space lines, with a hair and freckle to spare. These car spaces were really big enough for only a Fiat or match box car. Then another happy gardener came over and told Rob to park in a different space, which we happily did. Then another lady came out and told us not to listen to her as this was someone else’s park. This is when we started to get worried!! She told us not to listen to her as she was a bully. There was a lot of commotion between the women which we tried to ignore. Then the so called bully woman (who had been nice to us) got a mouth full of verbal street abuse. She was told she was a bully and a b… and that she needed to mind her own business and people were sick of her. We thought she was just being proactive and offering a good solution. Talk about cutting the tall poppy down!! I found a visitor’s park and told Rob to move the car to the adjacent park. Just what Rob needed, another women telling him what to do. After he parked Rob then had another women give him a strange look and them she told him he had an assigned parking space. She wanted to know how long we would be parked there as she couldn’t get in to get the bins out. Wow, I think this tightly packed community street should be called, Sisterhood!!! I think they all had too much time on their hands. Thank goodness we didn’t see any men coming out to add their two cents worth, then we might have had a real old fashion street brawl on our hands.
We went inside quickly and quietly, locking our door behind us. We retreated to the serenity of our cosy cottage. Oh, and we are here for New Year’s Eve. I wonder if they do the friendly New Years Eve street party!!!!! We might give it a miss and lie low!!! Our excuse will be that we need an early night. Now our cottage was nicely decorated and very cosy. Cozy meaning our bed was in a loft above the lounge room, which also meant there was a step ladder steps where we had to do an ancestral monkey step to get up and down. On both ascending and descending the first time Rob managed to slip twice. These steps would not be for everyone.
Once unpacked for the last time we took an easy 10 minute walk to the pretty pebbled shore line of Hayling. We sat and watched the fishermen fishing from the beach. We saw one fisherman’s rod bend under the weight of what looked like a stingray.
What I really loved was sitting with Rob and looking out to sea. In the distance we watched the sun go down on the Isle of Wight. The birthplace of where my dad was born over 83 years ago. This was the reason for this stay. Another highlight we are yet to have. We will head over on the car ferry to explore where my dad was born on the Isle of Wight in Ryde. I imagine that the Isle of Wight is now every different, a popular holiday destination.
Beside the beach we found Hayling Railway. This cute little tourist railway station transports passengers 2 miles down the tracks to an amusement park. It felt like this area has been caught in a time warp. No big high rise buildings or huge development have taken over these shorelines. This is a place for an old fashioned holiday just the seaside and an ice cream!!! Another adventurous day over we headed back for quiet night.
