Friday, 22nd August 2014, 3.00 pm; our big adventure started. Gary and I jumped into Dora and before we head off, we looked at each other and exclaimed both at once:

We are free!!

Our destination in the UK before heading towards France is Lundy Island, where we had already booked a week holiday before we made the decision of taking this year off. We planned this week holiday for the week of the 20th of September. So, until then, we will be driving towards the West Country, stopping off in a few places on the way to do walking and kayaking.

With that plan in mind, we drove towards Hayling Island, where there was a caravan campsite by the sea, a very nice spot to spend our first night in Dora. Whilst driving down the M25, we realised that it was 16.30 and we hadn’t eaten anything all day. Despite such a lovely, warm and sunny day, we refused to have a picnic outside and have our first lunch in Dora instead. With a few snacks from M&S, we toasted with two glasses of orange juice to celebrated the start of our new life. Lunch tasted delicious.

“This is the first time we are away in the UK since the first May bank holiday weekend”, I thought, “precisely, the weekend when we first talked about taking time off from work”. And there we were, three months later, we were living our dream.

A couple of hours later we arrived at Hayling Island. To  our surprise, the campsite facilities were already closed, which meant no water for Dora and therefore, no washing up and no shower for us. “Never mind”, we thought. “We are used to rough camping so, spending the night in a motorhome was fine with us, even with no water ”.

Our arrival at Hayling Island campsite:

Dora sleeping on Hayling Island:  

Dinner was very simple: glass of white wine (of course) and a couple of chicken thighs that we had brought from home. It was incredibly peaceful and relaxing. We couldn’t stop looking at each other thinking how lucky we were to do something like this.  Gradually, the tiredness took over us; it had been a long day. We went straight to bed and, for the first time in weeks, I slept eight hours in a row.

Next morning at Hayling Island:

Upon arrival at the East Stoke campsite, we filled the van with water and drove towards Tyneham great wood, where we ended up the day doing a couple of hours walk at around Tyneham Village:

Walking route map:

Walking route photos:

Next stop: Lulworth Cove, where we intendedto take the cannoes down on Sunday morning.