Fancy Getting Away From It All?

If you fancy a self-catering cabin in wooded wilderness with no mobile signal, I have just the thing for you: Undercliff Studio.

P and I just had a 3 day break in a studio cabin in the middle of the Undercliffs near Lyme Regis. Even I was surprised at how remote you can get; when I say ‘remote’, I mean ‘remote’!

We were in the middle of the wooded undercliff in the garden of Cliff Cottage, a pretty house right at the bottom of the Rousden Estate (a beautiful gothic-styled mansion), reached by a rather bumpy downward track. All we saw for days were wild deer, woodpeckers, buzzards, bunnies and birds galore. With no mobile signal and a less-than-reliable TV signal, we did nothing but read, sleep, chatter, laugh and make nice simple meals in the tiny kitchen area (which luckily had a pretty large fridge for everything I took to eat). I even had coffee and the SoLo red wine every day, which was a real treat.

There is free WiFi so watch out for that if sensitive. They have to have something to make them less remote – the owners live there all the time! It is all pretty eco, though, apart from that. We drank fresh spring water via the tap and used solar powered energy when there was enough sun.

Anyway, another in my I-am-determined-to-have-good-holidays-and-still-stay-well series! Check out the last one in Madeira if you missed that too.

On that point, actually, normally I get more ill when away as I am contaminated from something, but this time I actually scored my first ‘0’s, having been 8/9 average two years ago (patients will recognise the scoring system: 10 is really bad, 0 is no symptoms).

I noticed the difference because I was able to compare with a previous visit. We went to the same region two years ago and had a day trip to Lyme Regis. I didn’t realise at the time how utterly tired I was. I remembered strolling slowly along the front, trying to appear cheerful, and just being too shattered to walk along the Cobb walls. I dragged myself around the town looking in the shops and, to be honest, just wanted to sit down and go home.

This time, I fair flung myself around town up and down the steep High Street, and walked briskly along the Cobb, and that was after having done an albeit small coastal walk the day before. It suddenly dawned on me what a difference I felt. I don’t actually remember ever having that kind of energy.

Long may it last.

(Tiny cheer just in case someone’s listening…).