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Dorset – Abbotsbury’s Swannery, South West Coastal Path and Sub-tropical Gardens
I scoot across to Portesham’s farm shop and café from the campsite. It serves good bread, British cheeses, vegetables without a piece of plastic in sight, along with the kind of incongruous nick-nacks that are endemic in all farm shops – cow mugs, primrose and poppy tea towels. After stocking up, we’re off on the…
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Dorset’s Abbotsbury – Smugglers, Saints and Bouncing Bombs
The roller-coaster, coastal B3157 takes us from Dorset’s Bridport to Portesham, above the golden spit of shingle that is Chesil Beach. We drive through buttered stone Abbotsbury and on to our campsite at equally buttery Portesham Village, both gifted by Danish King Canute to his steward, Orc, in the 11th Century, evidence of how porous…
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The Pastoral Idyll of Rural Devon
We find ourselves on a bit of grandparent duty in Devon’s Exminster. But camping up in Crablake Farm is anything but a duty. Imagine rolling green hills; apple trees bent sideways; daffodils in lemon and gold. Just over the hill there’s the Exe Estuary in all its moods. We ramble along high-hedged lanes to Kenn,…
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Pocket Friendly ways to while away the time on the Euston Road and a traditional Italian Restaurant in Paddington
We always think of major cities as pocket heavy destinations. Euston Road bucks the trend. First there’s Gothic St. Pancras Station and hotel, which takes opulence to its extreme and is great for a drink, or to take in the poet, John Betjeman’s statue, or the giant soldier kissing his partner farewell. Free entry…
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Street Art, Street Food, An Independent Bookshop and the Driverless Ghost trains of the Postal Museum at Mount Pleasant
We double back on ourselves today so we’re whisked into Whitechapel again from Abbey Wood to hunt down Hanbury Street, which crosses Brick Lane, to trace the street art. Huge outdoor murals have us darting from one to the other. The most gripping for me being the close-up of a man’s sad face, lines like…
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A Detour to the Southbank and on to Spice heaven in Southall
From Little Venice’s watery world we’re disloyal to the Elizabeth Line and shoot along to the Embankment on the Bakerloo’s old rattle and shake. It’s that time of winter evening, too late for museums, too early for libations of the alcoholic kind, so it’s non-negotiable, the buzz of the Southbank is the place to be,…
Campervan Therapy 