After the best night’s sleep, I wake to the kettle boiling and the unmistakable sound of the cat throwing up… on my seat. Fortunately, our seats are covered with throws, so it’s easily sorted… by Steve. I’m still in bed.
Every time I get into the caravan bed, I forget how comfy it is. You may remember when we bought the van, so long ago I can barely recall, we ripped out the end dinette and built our own super king-size bed, complete with a proper mattress. Today it’s even better, a new quilt and new pillows adding to the luxury. I linger a little longer, no need to get in Steve’s way while he deals with sick and tea bags.
I wander over to the toilet block. The sky is considerably greyer than yesterday. Inside, everything feels familiar. Strange to think how many times I’ve scrubbed these floors and cleared cobwebs from the outside. I know every nook and cranny and even have a favourite loo, though the flush handle takes some persuading today.
Back outside, it’s mizzly. Not quite rain, just damp, like sitting inside a cloud.
A quick shower (minus my scrunchie and hair towel, which I forgot) leaves me mildly cursing. Back at the van, cuppa in hand, I settle down down to watch a tent being packed away.
They haven’t slept in it the last couple of nights. No idea where they’ve been, but it wasn’t on site. Yesterday they turned up mid-afternoon in a van, spent hours loading boxes while their five kids ran riot, then disappeared again. This morning, same routine, but with the tent coming down too. Kids bundled in, van roaring off at breakneck speed… then an abrupt stop, a rapid reverse, and back they came. One of the children had been left behind, calmly sitting on a scooter with her hand in the air.
You couldn’t make it up, but this is actually the second time we’ve seen a family leave a child behind.
With rain due later, we wrap up and head down to Mudeford in search of sea air, however bracing it might be.
Parking costs the price of a kidney, and ice creams are going for an arm and a leg. Not much change out of a tenner for two. Given the cold and wind, I count that as a tenner saved. Honestly, how do families manage when everything costs so much?.
We pass a warm, inviting tea room—no doubt charging another body part for a pot of tea—and press on, past the lobster pots and down to the beach.
It’s bizarre to think that only a month ago we were paddling in Lanzarote. Now I’m zipping my jacket up to my chin, leaning into the wind as we march on.
The sea is lively, dotted with windsurfers. Seagulls swoop in hopefully, eyeing us for chips, then peel away in disappointment when they realise we’ve got nothing.
Of course we don’t, we’ve run out of body parts to sell.
Mudeford, it seems is a place wallets go to die.
Back to the warmth of the van and Oscar who barely opened his eyes as we opened the door.
inpursuitofadream.com 
We have recently returned from the UK, we spent more in 2 weeks over there than we spend in three months here in Spain 😲 I don’t know how families manage these days, to be honest they probably don’t 🤷♂️
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