In my working life I « tried » to get out to go walking or to exercise every day. My Apple Watch often told me that I had failed and I would not hit my stand goal let alone my exercise or move goal. One of my coaches always picks up on language and used to say Sally « don’t try. Either do or don’t do! ».  Our new life was more about “doing things” than trying to do things. 

Spending more time exercising and being outdoors including eating barbeques. September started us in good stead:

• We walked a lot, to Old Sarum, and into Salisbury, to the Cathedral a couple of times.
• I restarted jogging using the couch to 5k programme. 
• We barbequed more! The weather was glorious in September with temperatures hitting 29 degrees on some days.
• Not everything is wonderful though to put things in perspective on our first walk into Salisbury (circa 3.2km), Toby got stung on the eyelid by a wasp, it swelled up a lot. In the first week we used more of our first aid kit than we had whilst living for 3 years in our concrete wall homes. We were a tad naive about what being outdoors more would mean and the small incidents that can occur there as opposed to being sat behind a desk all day. 
• A couple of other things changed in our first month. We had to plan a little more. You can’t just rock up anywhere with a 8.8metre motorhome. So we spent some time planning our trip making sure we had some places to stay and checking that they could fit us in.
• We began to get obsessed with electricity and water usage. We had a wonderful 5 days in the New Forest at a site called Longbeech. It was amazing as there were no « facilities » as Paddington would say, which meant we were effectively wild camping. I have never before been so obsessed with solar panels as we watched the leisure battery in Beatrix being used and topped up with the solar panels. It was amazing to be so aware of what electricity we were using and how we could recoup it when there was sunshine. We also got to see wildlife in the New Forest and stopped to enjoy the moment. We woke up to horses outside Beatrix, saw deer and even a stag in the forest when we were walking, some views to truly treasure.

After the New Forest we stopped at a campsite called Morn Hill, chosen to allow Toby to go sailing with his friends from work. Whilst Toby sailed, Merlin and I enjoyed being in Beatrix on our own, we walked a lot, did some jogging and generally enjoyed being outdoors. I had to learn pretty darned quick how to heat the water.  

Our first month ended back in Hertfordshire as our trusty 4 legged friend, Merlin, needed an operation to remove a cancerous lump on her side and be checked out to make sure there were no other complications. We stayed at a great little CL site called Mill End which was amazing because as well as being able to stay we were also able to change our tyres to those required in France for being able to drive in snow. (You can see more about kit we have tried and can’t live without versus the things we just don’t use in our post kit reviews). Whilst we were in the area it was the petrol crisis in the UK, we had to use Pedro the Passat to get Merlin to and from the vets in Old Welwyn and were not sure we would have enough diesel to get to the Lake District our plan for October. In the end the crisis quieted down and we had enough diesel to do what we needed to.

Whilst at Mill End we met Claire and Brian who had been travelling full time in their Moho for about 12 years. We had lunch and they shared some of their stories. It was reassuring to hear that we had, by the choosing Beatrix, stopped some of the issues that they went through and also that there will always be stories to tell of things not working and situations to get out of. Brian made scones in their Moho and he shared a couple of scones with us. This made me realise I could do more than I thought in our oven and gave me a challenge for the month of October which I took up see next months post!

Summary of September 2021 

In summary the first month had lots of learning: the fact that you can’t do anything too quickly in a 8.8m motorhome and you don’t have to when you don’t have to work, how to use Beatrix, from cleaning the toilets, using the shower (I will go into this in more detail at a later stage those that know me know I love a long shower and that just is not possible in a motorhome!) and the hot water, the heating system, setting up the moving checklist and how to cook. When you learn it’s ok to make mistakes, it is what learning is all about and actually when given permission I love learning and making mistakes can bring about some good stories – you will hear about these along the way!

Thanks for reading

Sally, Toby and Merlin