Escape | Outing to the sea

For a truly nostalgic day trip to the seaside, track down a steam train special. On page 60 of July’s The Simple Things, Travis Elborough takes a train to the sea.

‘As someone who grew up by the seaside but has lived in two landlocked cities over the past three decades, I need few excuses to head to the
coast on a whim or having spotted a decent weather report. Like Ishmael in Moby Dick, I am occasionally gripped by an almost uncontrollable urge to ‘get to sea’. And my preferred means of reaching these longed-for shores is invariably a train.

‘Although railway stations can be the stuff of humdrum commutes,disruptions
and disputes, I treasure the possibilities they offer as means of escape to coastal adventure. The destination boards at Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds, Chester, London’s St Pancras and Fenchurch Street proffering the options, respectively, of visits to Blackpool or Morecambe, Scarborough, Llandudno, Broadstairs and Margate, Southend and Leigh-on-Sea.

‘Here a railway ticket can serve as a passport to a place of sights (if not actually sun), sea and vinegary fish and chips, where parking is no concern of mine. Travelling light on these occasions only helps to add a certain devil-may-care air of fleetfootedness to the whole affair.’

Read more in July’s The Simple Things.

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Escape | How to be a fearless traveller

Life coach Lou Hamilton offers the following advice to take the stress out of solo travel

1 Have a sense of purpose. A reason you want to do it that’s bigger than your fear.
2 Be prepared. Double-check everything.
3 Walk yourself through the trip in your mind’s eye and imagine success.
4 Organise the first few trips with a reason to interact with people, such as a retreat or creative course or a family-run B&B or homestay.
5 Don’t spend your time staring at your phone – look up, make eye contact, introduce yourself, and smile.
6 Take safety precautions but don’t let fear stop you taking calculated risks.

Things to read

Roam Alone, Inspiring Tales by Reluctant Solo Travellers (Bradt)
40 tales of adventure by people who took the plunge and never looked back.

Solitude by Michael Harris (Random House)
Get inspired to set off.

Without Reservations: The Travel of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach (Bantam).
An US journalist travels Europe alone after her kids have flown the nest.

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Things to download

Zipskee
The app that connects you with like-minded locals around the world.

Triplt
This clever app replaces the travel companion who reminds you to pack your passport, book that transfer, and so on.

Google Translate
Will encourage you to interact with locals and decipher menus. 

Turn to page 87 of July's The Simple Things for more on how to travel alone - buy your copy now (it also makes for an excellent holiday read).

 

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Escape | A rustic hideaway in Cornwall

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Charmaine Beaumont-Hammond heads to Bude for a beachy retreat 

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 68 of the July issue for more of this seaside adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Charmaine Beaumont-Hammond is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk and is a writer, photographer and co-owner of wealdstore.com. She blogs at wealdblog.co.uk; follow her on Instagram @wealdblog. 

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Fancy winning a stay at Bude Hideaways? Enter our competition!

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Escape: A converted barn in Wales

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Jeska Hearne heads to the Welsh border for a family stay in an architectural gem 

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 68 of the June issue for more of this rural adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Jeska Hearne is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk and co-founder of online lifestyle store thefuturekept.com. More of her photographs and stories can be found on her blog lobsterandswan.com and Instagram @lobsterandswan.

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Outing | PYO summer traditions

More than a chance to buy the freshest of veg, a day at a PYO farm is a treasure hunt in the sunshine. 

Some pick-your-own farms look like they could be in a snap from the 1970s – lines of fruit as far as the eye can see, punctuated only by a small wooden chalet. The simplicity of these places holds a strong sense of nostalgic charm, yet the new breed that can lay on a flat white and a fleet of miniature tractors to entertain accompanying tots as quickly as you can say: ‘One punnet, please’, has an altogether different kind of draw.

Pick Your Own has a number of precursors, such as in the Victorian farmers who invited their urban customers back to their land to harvest their own food, and ‘gleaning’ in the mid-20th century, when villagers were invited to collect and take home the corn that had fallen into the stubble after harvest.

More recently, the entrepreneurial Derbyshire farmer-turned-media personality Ted Moult is thought to have been the first to popularise pick-your-own strawberries by inviting visitors onto his fields in the early 1960s when reportedly, he greeted them one by one. As soft fruit became available in supermarkets all year round due to foreign imports, the pastime lost its allure, but with the 21st century’s renewed interest in seasonal food, it is regaining its rightful place as one of summer’s simple pleasures.

How to fill your punnet with only the sweetest, juiciest fruit

• Select strawberries in the warmest part of the day and, once you’ve established that they’re ripe (red all over), pinch the stalk between your thumb and forefinger and pull.
• Search for plump raspberries at the bases of the canes, which are often forgotten about. They should lift off easily when ready. Place in a shallow container in just one or two layers – they bruise easily.
• Remove the cluster of currants (black, red or white) on a branch before stripping it of its fruits.
• Gather under-ripe gooseberries in June for using in preserves, leaving enough fruits to sweeten for eating in July.

Turn to page 72 of June's The Simple Things for more PYO traditions.

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Escape: Get walking

May is National Walking Month and the charity Living Streets is urging us to walk for 20 minutes a day as part of its Try20 campaign. 

If you need motivation, try one of these:

• Borrow a dog
  If you love dogs but don’t own one, sign up to borrowmydoggy.com to make contact with dog owners in your area who need a hand with walking.
   
• Track your walks
  Use an app such as Map My Walk, a Fitbit fitness tracker or a pedometer to keep track of your distance and feel your motivation soar.
   
• Do it for charity
  The app Charity Miles donates money from corporate sponsors to your chosen charity for every mile you walk.
   
• Make it a mindfulness exercise
  Walking is a great way to integrate mindfulness into your day. Instead of walking on autopilot with your legs moving and your mind elsewhere, observe what’s around you and the sensations in your body. Use the regular rhythm of your walk to keep your mind from wandering off and notice how much calmer and clearer-headed you feel afterwards.
  livingstreets.org.uk

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Escape: A very British safari

An out of Africa experience can be had closer to home, if you know where to look. Find exotic and native wildlife on your doorstep (or near enough) on page 64 of May’s The Simple Things. Or read on for our picks of safari glamping and armchair safaris.

Dawn to dusk encounters

Safari-style tents for glamping with wildlife on the doorstep

Bear Lodge, Port Lympne, Kent
Family-sized tents look out across the safari park’s rhino, bear and cheetah paddocks aspinallfoundation.org/port-lympne

Knepp Safaris, near Horsham, West Sussex
The Knepp Castle Estate’s rewilding project on arable land. Keep a night vigil for bats, owls and nightingales in your own bell tent or yurt.
kneppsafaris.co.uk

Bleasdale Estate, Lancashire
Wake to the dawn chorus and watch wild deer from a canvas retreat in the Forest of Bowland. lanternandlarks.co.uk

Cledan Valley, Carno, Powys
Hide out at this secluded site and you might spot otters or hares, and red kites overhead. cledanvalley.co.uk

Armchair safaris

Spy on shy species via these webcams (David Attenborough-style commentary, optional)

The ospreys of Loch Garten return each year between April and August to nest at the RSPB’s Abernethy reserve in Scotland.
rspb.org.uk/lochgarten

Grey seals haul out on the spit at South Walney Island.
cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk

The comings and goings of waders and waterfowl at the Wildfowl and Wetfland Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire are mesmerising.
wwt.org.uk/slimbridge

Life inside a bat cave (the roost where some of Devon’s greater horseshoe bats hang out) is just as topsy-turvy as it sounds.
devonbatproject.org

The colony of Atlantic puffins that breeds on Burhou, a small island off Alderney in the Channel Islands, is beamed live from an offshore camera between April and July. teachingthroughnature.co.uk 

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Escape: Rainy day adventures

A rainy walk with friends or family feels somehow enlivening, as if you’re defying the weather, having fun and making memories... even when water gets in your wellies

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing”
Lake District fellwalking legend Alfred Wainwright (originally from a Norwegian adage)

Feel the rain on your skin, see it drip through a hazel leaf funnel onto the forest floor. Touch the bark of a gnarled, rough oak or a smooth, grey beech trunk made dark by running water. Run your fingers over a velvety bracket fungus. As the sun comes out from behind a cloud, find a clearing and hold your face to the sky. A free dose of Vitamin D, courtesy of spring.

Hear the squelch and suck of wellies in gloopy mud, splash through a puddle, or linger on a bridge over a babbling brook. Hush up a little and you’ll notice birdsong all around, maybe a woodpecker at work. If the wind picks up, the branches creak and groan in an arboreal conversation that makes you believe in magical creatures. Big kid or little kid, climb a tree and feel the breeze whistle through the branches around you.

Turn to page 24 of April's The Simple Things for more of our April Showers ideas.

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JULY ISSUE

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Escape: The modern pilgrimage

Modern pilgrims quietly travel on foot to places with meaning or significance. You may have been on a pilgrimage without even knowing it. All it takes is to walk purposefully towards a place that means something to you. 

All over the world, different religions have taken up pilgrimages: Muslims head to Mecca, Christians to Santiago de Compostela, Hindus walk the length of the Ganges. Whereas modern pilgrimages don’t require a belief in God, they can follow the paths of these earlier pilgrims to a cathedral, chapel or shrine, and appreciate these places for the holy spaces they are.

What is considered sacred today, however, is much broader. Many ancient sites exert a powerful pull and have the additional benefit of being in the landscape, often in out-of-the-way and lovely places. Journey to a long barrow on the crest of a hill, a standing stone overlooking a bay, or a stone circle in the heart of a wheat field, and chances are that you will experience something profound and steadying. As philosopher and writer Alain de Botton puts it: “Certain places, perhaps because of their remoteness, vastness, chaotic energy, haunting melancholy, exert a capacity to salve the wounded parts of us.”

Five British pilgrimage sites

Join other wayfarers at these ancient and sacred places. 

Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles, Wiltshire
Solstice gatherings of druids at the UK’s most famous stone circle are well known, but at other times of the year it’s impossible to get close to the megaliths. Better to head to nearby Avebury for more convenient stone-hugging. 

Bardsey Island, Wales
Bardsey was a major pilgrimage destination in medieval times, and is still a destination for anyone seeking a spiritual place. 

Walsingham, Norfolk
Following a vision of the Virgin Mary, a rich widow called Richeldis de Faverches built a shrine here in the 11th century. The site has remained significant for Roman Catholics, and still attracts 100,000 pilgrims a year. 

Iona, Inner Hebrides, Scotland
Iona has been a centre of spirituality since Saint Columba established a monastery here in AD653. It now attracts visitors on religious and secular retreats. 

Glastonbury Tor, Somerset
Glastonbury attracts both Christians and non-believers. The town may be full of crystal shops but up on the Tor, it’s all about the view and King Arthur.

Turn to page 74 of April’s The Simple Things for more on Clare Gogerty’s look at modern pilgrimages.

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Escape: A light-filled wooden cabin on Skye

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: India Hobson and Magnus Edmondson experience a window on wildlife in Scotland

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 80 of the April issue for more of this Scottish adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

India Hobson and Magnus Edmondson are contributors to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk. Their findings on travel, lifestyle and design are at haarkon.co.uk and on Instagram @haarkon_ 

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Escape: Shed heaven beside the sea

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: SarahLou Francis stays in a farmhouse nestled in Devon's coastal hills

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 60 of the March issue for more of this seaside adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Sarah-Lou Francis specialises in storytelling photography (sarahloufrancis.com). She’s on Instagram @lapinblu, and also contributes to This is Your Kingdom.

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Escape: A simple, ancient cottage in Kent

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Jeska Hearne stays in a 500-year-old, grade-II listed Tudor cottage

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 64 of the February issue for more of this Tudor adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Jeska Hearne is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk and co-founder of online lifestyle store thefuturekept.com. More of her photographs and stories can be found on her blog lobsterandswan.com and Instagram @lobsterandswan.

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Escape: Low-season romance

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Lou Archell stays in a Georgian B&B in quiet and wintry Penzance

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things - turn to page 66 of the January issue for more of this Cornish adventure - and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Lou Archell is a regular contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk. Follow her blog at Littlegreenshedblog.co.uk and find her on Instagram as @littlegreenshed. 

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Christmas: Boxing day walks

Cheek-chilling walks, daredevil dips or a day at the races, turn to page 74 of December’s The Simple Things for plenty of energetic ideas to persuade you from your sofa to make a day of it on the 26th

Read on for three Boxing Day walks with a twist.

Go with a guide

Joining a guided walking tour can bring a whole new dimension to your country ramble or parkland stroll. Check out the National Trust (nationaltrust.org.uk). Hinton Ampner in Hampshire,
is holding a four-mile tour around the estate led by the head gardener; at Bodiam Castle in East Sussex a guided walk also offers an exclusive preview of the castle interiors followed by a breakfast bap.

Take to the streets

Explore the urban landscape on your doorstep. You may think you’ve seen it all before, but have you? Stop to read plaques and signs, take the turns you usually pass by, and discover a new-found love for those familiar streets (see our feature on urban walks in October 2016, issue 52).

Set up a treasure hunt

It’s just not Christmas without a quiz. Add a bit of fun and healthy competition to your festive walk by setting up a Christmas- themed treasure hunt. The prize? The last of the mince
pies of course! 

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Escape: Island Adventure

An island adventure on Tresco, Laura Pashby holidays at a seaside cottage on the Isles of Scilly

Our series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things - turn to page 64 of the November issue for more of this Cornish seaside adventure - and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Laura Pashby is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk. She shares her photographs and snippets of her life on her blog circleofpinetrees.com. See more of her photographs on Instagram, @circleofpines

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Escape: British road movies

They say life is a journey, not a destination. Turn to page 68 of November’s The Simple Things for a look at how to make motoring from A to B more of an adventure. Here, we pick four classic British road movies

If lagging behind Hollywood, which teems with cinematic hymns to the American highways from Two-Lane Blacktop to Thelma and Louise, Britain has produced a few great movies that have put our B-roads on the big screen.

The Open Road (1926) dir: Claude Friese-Greene
Made by a pioneering cinematographer using, then highly experimental, film stock, this recently restored groundbreaking travelogue presents a colour from-a- moving-car portrait of Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

Genevieve (1953) dir: Henry Cornelius
This gentle British comedy classic, starring Kenneth More and Dinah Sheridan and replete with an infectious theme tune by the harmonica-virtuoso Larry Adler, finds two couples locked in an increasingly unsporting race from London to Brighton on the veteran car rally in order to settle a ‘friendly’ bet.

Withnail and I (1987) dir: Bruce Robinson
Infused with a similar end-of-the 1960s melancholia as Hunter S Thompson’s drug buddy American road epic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Bruce Robinson’s much-loved and oft-quoted cult movie turns on the decision of two underemployed and over- imbibing actors to drive from the squalor of their Camden Town flat to a holiday cottage in the Cumbrian countryside in a clapped out Jaguar MK2.

Radio On (1979) dir: Chris Petit
Shot in a luminous black and white and featuring songs by Kraftwerk and Berlin-era David Bowie on its soundtrack, Chris Petit’s debut film is a meditative road movie that follows a London radio DJ as he journeys to Bristol in a temperamental old Rover. The journey takes us through a post-punk Britain poised between the aftermath of the Winter of Discontent and the arrival of Thatcherism, peopled by various waifs and strays – including Sting, who appears as an Eddie-Cochran-obsessed caravan-dwelling petrol pump attendant.

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Escape: How to spot a lost river

It's not all about Thermos flasks and hiking boots, a long walk through your nearest town or city can be as invigorating and enlightening as a country ramble. 

Turn to page 66 of October's The Simple Things for a closer look at discovering neighbourhood secrets on a good long urban walk, and read on for how to spot a lost river.

How to spot a lost river

In many large cities, rivers have been diverted and hidden underground to make way
for growing cities. You can still see traces of their path on the ground, if you know what to look for:

Stink pipes

Tall, thin poles with no wires attached. When Victorian sewers were built, often incorporating rivers, these allowed the release of potentially explosive gases.

Gushing water sounds

If you hear this beneath drains and manhole covers it’s a giveaway.

Roads that slope

They may echo the course of a river towards its outlet.

Confusing boundaries

Rivers were once used as natural delineations between one borough or district and the next. 

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Escape: Sand, sea, surf

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Lou Archell stays in a surf shack in Cornwall

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things - turn to page 80 of the July issue for more of this Cornish adventure - and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Lou Archell is a regular contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk. Follow her blog at Littlegreenshedblog.co.uk and find her on Instagram as @littlegreenshed. 

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Listen: Sea songs playlist

It’s time to pack a bucket and spade and head to the coast with our sea songs playlist!

Listen now 

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Escape: Caravan holidays

A new view from your bedroom window but with home comforts all around you: a caravan holiday delivers the ideal combo of home and away 

Have you ever wondered about the appeal of a touring caravan? Then consider the freedom one offers. Not just the obvious freedom of the road, where you can journey spontaneously wherever and whenever fancy takes you, but the freedom to take your home comforts with you. Fancy a cup of tea? Pull over at a lay-by and put the kettle on. Suspicious of hotel bedlinen? Yours is all there tucked away in neat little cupboards, waiting. Worried that tea and biscuits might not be up to scratch in a B&B? You have tins of your favourites stowed away and ready for use. Miss your real home? Furnish your mobile one with customised cushions, curtains and bits and bobs.

Then there are all the benefits of the outdoors. Arrive on site, erect your awning and you can put up a deckchair, barbecue some sausages, let the children run free (and bring the dog) without wandering more than a few metres from your door. Try doing any of that outside a hotel room.

A caravan (and this includes the unfairly derided static caravan or mobile home) also offers the freedom to escape the workaday routine without going too wild. Instead of eating meals on the sofa in front of the TV, you can eat around a campfire beneath the stars. But no camping hardship here: proper plates, cutlery and glasses can be employed, not plastic cups and billycans. And rather than each family member being glued to their tablet, a pack of cards or a board game provides the evening’s entertainment. Really, what’s not to like about caravanning? 

The spirit of the sprite

The first caravan to tickle the fancy of the UK holidaymaker was the Alpine Sprite, above, a light, low-cost (£199) caravan made from tempered hardboard that could be towed behind the family car. It was the brainchild of designer Sam Alper* who in 1948, saw a gap in the market for a post-war leisure vehicle.

As the years went on, Alper developed different models. The model that still survives in vintage caravan sites and the odd front garden is the Sprite 400, which could be towed behind smaller cars, and the Sprite Cadet, launched in 1970

You can still pick up a vintage Sprite on eBay for between £500 and £1,000. 

Turn to page 56 of July's The Simple Things for more of Clare Gogerty's caravan feature.

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