Trying to finish reading a book

I feel I’ve been a lit­tle lazy in the last few months by not updat­ing my blog on the trav­els I have had in the van. The fact is, I have been away almost every week­end since April and do not seem to have found the time to write on here, how­ev­er, I am now regret­ting the fact I have not kept a record as it’s always good for me to look back and see what has been done. There­fore, I am going to write up on a few week­ends and start plan­ning for fur­ther trips away this summer.

The first week­end I’ll pick up from is 23rd April. I nev­er actu­al­ly stayed overnight on this week­end, though hav­ing spent most week­ends since the win­ter improv­ing my gar­den I felt like get­ting away. I had been read­ing Kook by Peter Heller, hav­ing start­ed read­ing it while I was in Por­tu­gal last year, it was time I fin­ished it so looked to find some­where I could sit qui­et­ly in the van. I also had to take my sum­mer wet-suit back to Sort­ed Surf in Boscombe, Dorset to have a rip repaired so decid­ed to take a trip to the south coast.

The surf fore­cast had hint­ed that there may just be a lit­tle bit of swell get­ting through to Boscombe so I took my surf­board with me just in case, and sure enough, there was just about a wave to have a bit of fun on, the first of the gen­tle sum­mer look­ing swells I love on my longboard.

Two guys were already surf­ing the only spot that looked worth get­ting on but for­tu­nate­ly by time I had changed, they decid­ed to get out. I had a good lit­tle mess around for an hour or so, hav­ing not been in the water for a while, it was worth it, par­tic­u­lar­ly as I was there anyway.

Once out, I thought about read­ing my book here by the water, but it was so busy it did­n’t feel like some­where to just relax.

I fig­ured I need­ed to get away from the urban areas of Boscombe, Bournemouth and Poole so head­ed west towards the Purbeck Isle, the con­trast is amaz­ing. I found a small lay­by just out­side Swan­age and took a walk towards the coast path, final­ly find­ing a nice bank to sit on that looked out over Swan­age. The spot was per­fect and for an hour and a half, just a cou­ple of peo­ple came past.

In the end I nev­er actu­al­ly fin­ished the book on this day, it was­n’t until the next day when I decid­ed to tak a dri­ve up onto Sal­is­bury Plain that I final­ly fin­ished it. Def­i­nite­ly worth a read for any­body into surf­ing, it’s a real enlight­en­ing story.