August 2026 – Finally Moving

In August things finally started moving and we felt able to start making some plans.

Selling Our Flat

Our buyer had started to get very frustrated and was pushing her solicitor to set a date for exchange and completion. Our estate agents finally pulled their finger out and put some pressure on our solicitor via their escalation route. It started to feel as though things were moving rather than going round in circles.

We failed to meet the first suggested date of 7th August as final questions were still outstanding, but by that date we were finally ready for exchange so felt pretty confident that 14th was going to be the day.

We got the final bits of furniture out of the flat, managing to move most of the items ourselves with a car and just needing a friend to lend a hand and a van to move the fridge-freezer. The storage unit was now full to the brim.

Thursday afternoon was dedicated to cleaning. We gave the place a thorough going over, so much so that our buyer sent a thank you email. That night we slept in the motorhome on the driveway, ready to hand the keys to the estate agents on Friday morning. Job done, we were out.

Homeless

We had sold the flat but now we didn’t have a home. We are planning to move back to our house, which we currently let. Our tenants will be moving out in early October so for a few weeks we are homeless.

This is where having a motorhome comes into it’s own. We could impose on family, but why would we do that when we can get away for a few weeks while we wait to move in to our new/old home.

I was a bit concerned that our insurers – Comfort – would have an issue with this. Would they treat us as full timers for this short period? We gave them a call and they agreed to continue to insure us, using my Mum’s address temporarily (on the basis that if anything happened to the van we could stay with her) while we wait for our tenants to vacate. This cost us a £35 amendment fee (and we’ll have another amendment fee when we finally move in), a lot better that than finding ourselves uninsured.

Sea View Farm

On the Saturday after moving we were due to be in Cornwall to see Mad Dog McCrea at Sea View Farm. We spent the Friday evening parked outside my sister’s house visiting with family before heading down to the event.

On the way we stopped at Strawberry Fields, hoping for some brunch to break up the journey. It was the busiest we have ever seen it. We would never normally consider travelling to Cornwall in August and this reminded us why. Not only was it holiday season but it was also a Saturday AND there was a ‘tasting festival’ on all weekend. We managed to snag a space in the car park and braved the hoards to try to get a table in the restaurant. There was nothing available for breakfast, so we booked in for the earliest possible lunch instead. On the way back through the shop we helped ourselves to various tastings which included their BBQ selection, scones the Cornish way round (it all goes down the same way I suppose) and freshly squeezed orange juice. Quite possibly we didn’t need lunch after that, but we managed.

Sea View Farm has a Farm Shop and hosts a small number of events through the year. They have a stage set up in a field overlooking the north Cornwall coast with a backdrop of the silvery sea and, if the weather plays ball, the sunset. Two of their fields are set aside for camping and we were warned by our friends to arrive as soon as the camping opened so that we didn’t get put in the sloping second field.  We arrived about ten minutes before our friends, before the 3pm opening time, and already the prized hedgerow pitches were taken, but we were safely on the flat field. Between us we covered the whole spectrum of camping options; a motorhome, a van, a roof tent and a good old fashioned tent.

The gig was excellent although it did get cold later on and we all needed to head back for extra layers. It’s been so warm this summer that we had all forgotten how to dress for cool summer evenings.

A Coast Walk to Port Isaac

Our friends left the follow morning but we stayed for the optional second night in the camping field. We had nowhere else to be. We set off for a walk along the coastpath to Port Isaac, probably best known as the filming location for Doc Martin.

We had about 1km of road walking before we could head down a footpath to join the South West Coastpath. But once off the road this was a lovely walk. After navigating a mixed herd of cows, including a bull who was luckily disinclined to move, we found ourselves at the abandoned hamlet of Dannonchapel. The small medieval manor was mentioned in the Domesday Book and remained inhabited until the early 20th century but is now in ruins.

After the ruins we were on the coast path proper and continued south past abandoned quarry and mine workings and small rocky covers. This part of the coastpath was very quiet with only a couple of heavily laden backpackers for company until Port Gaverne. We regretted not taking our swimming gear as we passed this pretty sandy beach just before Port Isaac.

We had a lovely wander around the Port Isaac, managing to catch a few songs by the Fisherman’s Friends shanty group as part of an RNLI event at the harbour. We’d originally agreed to get the late bus back but then changed our minds and stomped up the hill for the earlier bus, only to miss it by a few minutes. Unfortunately that meant we had to pop to the pub to while away the next hour and a half.

The bonus at the end of the day was the very patient bus driver (there were a few very inebriated people on the bus) agreeing to drop us off at Sea View Farm, saving us a final 2km trudge along the road from the nearest bus stop. We were enormously grateful.

Tourists at Home

We’d booked our ferry to France as soon as we were confident of our moving out date but we still had a few more nights to fill before we were due to leave. Friends from Sheffield were due to come down to Exmouth to visit family so we decided to stick around for long enough to see them. They were booked into Prattshayes Campsite – somewhere we stayed the first time we deliberately became homeless in 2017 – so we booked into the same site for a few days.

Prattshayes bathroom facilities have improved considerably since we were there last but sadly the lovely barn that used to be used as the bar is now strictly an events venue. Instead we made it up the road to the pub for a final night out before disappearing off for a few weeks holiday.

Motorhome Warranty Work

While at Prattshayes we did a few housekeeping jobs, one of which was booking in our second habitation check. It’s due on 10th January but we want to be away skiing as early as possible so got the hab check booked for December. The dealership are hopeful that they will have all of the parts needed to resolve our issues by then so the van may be out of action for a few weeks while all the work is completed.

Finally, on the 21st August we were leaving home and heading off to Dover.

August UK Summary

8 nights in the motorhome. 2 nights off grid on driveways, 2 free nights off grid at Sea View Farm, 4 nights in a campsite (no electric)

Average cost per night £17.50