Road trip

Day 17 – October 17  – Breakfast in Oxford, Drive through the country, Lunch at a country pub, walking in the forest.

Weather – sunny and warm – 17c

We had planned have an early breakfast with Alyssa, as she had a class at 11am, and I had to pick up the car at 9am. Another lovely morning presented itself, so I decided to walk to the car place, my walk took me along the banks of the Thames, and then through an industrial estate – only a 25min walk. I enjoyed being almost run over by various cyclists in the tranquil surrounds of the Thames river walk. 

Keep your eyes open for the commuters on their way in! I was worried about the car being a bit small as we have a mountain of bags. I packed pretty light, but I was unable to influence the packing choices of Katie or Lucy. As a result, we have a massive 27kg suitcase, a medium size suitcase, my smaller suitcase, and three backpacks.  Originally we were booked a compact ford focus or similar. We ended with a KIA station wagon – nice car. All three bags fit in the boot area. It is a brand new car, very nice. Once packed and ready, seat and mirrors adjusted I noticed something strange about the gear stick. It took me a moment to realise it was a manual! I haven’t driven a manual for over a decade – and Katie can’t drive a manual. Oh dear. After a bunny hop or two, I was ok, but it has a really long and soft clutch and it’s pretty tight there as well for my big feet, so I could foresee a few bunny hops and riding of the clutch in the future!

By the time I got back to the house, packed the car and figured out how to navigate through Oxford to Alyssa, it was around 10:30 and we figured that Alyssa would have to skip breakfast. Turns out she is like most/all students throughout history – more than happy to skip (What she described as basically optional) a lecture for free food. While I do miss elements of the student life, and I think we all look back and romanticise it a bit, I don’t envy Alyssa’s next three years – tough work for a PhD in international law! I’m sure it will all be worth it in the years ahead – but she’s at the start of the journey, so it’s all hard work for a while.

We headed north of the city to the suburb of Summertown, there’s a nice little strip of shops and a couple of nice cafés. It was lovely to get a final breakfast in with Alyssa before heading off on our road trip. Just really amazing to see Oxford with her, I don’t think she will be coming home for a long time, so we will no doubt visit aunty Alyssa again in the UK.

Once again we were blessed with a stunningly beautiful English autumn day. Getting out on the motor way was easy enough, and then it was cruise control and 70mph for an hour or so. Once we got just north of Winchester we turn off the motor way and on to country roads, which were lovely, but hard work in the manual – as I had to concentrate on going down the right road, often narrow and lots of blind spots where you might be lucky to get a car and a half, and all the gear changing etc… I needed a break, so we stopped at a quaint little country pub off the road from Ropley to Petersfield. Called the Cricketers Inn, it really did shout English countryside. I ordered the pub classic – Ham, eggs and chips – a mound of chips and two massive slabs of ham, adorned with two fried eggs and a mound of peas. Katie got a chicken club sandwich – also a huge serving, and Lucy got chicken nuggets and chips, served with a pile of cucumber and carrots first (Smart). All washed down with a local ale for me and a cider for Katie. It came in under 50 quid, which is a nice change of pace from London and Oxford – both of which are very pricey.

We continued on our way after our much needed break, and eventually pulled up to out converted gardener’s cottage in Fittleworth, on the grounds of Coats castle. Wow, were we blown away! Set in the bucolic (We have a thing about this word – much car discussion has been had regarding the use of said word) English countryside. It’s a random Airbnb we found just the day before – so it really wasn’t planned. Located in West Sussex, not too far from the coast. We figured there would be things to do, but what we were really looking for was a bit of a laid back country vibe. And that’s what we got here. 

There’s a walled garden that the cottage (Called the bothy) is built into. This would have served as the garden for the manor house. Historically there were glasshouses building into the side of the wall as well. Inside the walled garden is a chicken coop with 5 chickens – we have a supply of free-range eggs already and plan to collect more during the stay. As you leave the walled garden, you find yourself in a forest, chestnuts on the ground, mushrooms everywhere, and then a camp set up with a zip line, a swing, table and fire pits. There’s a wood fired spa, a heated pool, an inground trampoline - There’s a Mongolian yurt (because, you know – English people are eccentric). The grounds aside from our immediate 1 acre walled space and the wood, are quite large with pheasants roaming free. It’s a very tranquil farm type retreat. There also a cool history to the place as well – apparently during WWII, the Army took control of the property to conduct top secret experiments to build anti-tank weapons and Winston Churchill visited on a number of occasions. Its quite and interesting history if you look into it.

Anyway, the Airbnb is an amazing spot and we’ve been so lucky with the weather, it’s warm and clear and just wonderful outside. As it was closing in on 5pm, we decided to nick into town – the very tiny little village of Fittleworth, where they have a farm shop. We picked up a few supplies and headed home to relax. We really have nothing planned for the next few days, so it’s nice to sit back and just relax for a moment. They have a huge bathtub, so there was a couple of baths before bed, and maybe some bubbles as well!