Staycationing.....

                                                                                                                                             Biarritz                                                                                                                     Ilfracombe


Now this is something which is new to me, staycationing. Apparently, instead of going away on a trip you stay at home, at least that what it sounds like to me. Not much fun in that. I was sitting in the Boston Tea Party coffee shop the other morning, I like to go there when I have a bob or two spare and treat meself to a cup of dark roast Colombian coffee takes me back to my days in that neck of the woods when I was kidnapped after jumping ship in Panama, also it makes a change from Camp coffee. Right, I was sitting there minding my own business and indulging in a spot of earwigging and I overheard the women on the next table talking about staycationing, they were banging on about it at quite a volume. Apparently, it was so last year so they had intended this year to go off to some rented hovel on the Costa Verde in Spain, wherever that is. It must be near Santander as you get there on the ferry and don't have to fly it makes eco sense. That is if it weren't for the fact that ferries are one of the worst offenders, plus you take your car which only helps to belch out fumes and clog up the roads over there. Now, I've heard of the Coasta Brava, been there a few times Lloret del Mar, lovely place, and the Costa del Sol but the Costa Verde never heard of it. However, due to volcanic ash and nasty budget airlines and strikes, it has become so this year and all. So this woman and her family decided to cancel their trip and stay at home. Everyone's doing it. Staying at home and making the most of an English summer which to be honest who can blame them but stil itl seems a bit daft to cancel your holiday just to fit in with everyone else. I think she expected everyone within earshot to be impressed. Her friend certainly was, as even though this staycationing was so last year, she went to Crete last year but now Greece is also so last year and now that  staycationing has become so this year again she is also going to be going on a staycation.  According to them Woolacombe is just as nice as Marbella and Ilfracombe is the new Biaritz. Hum don't know about that. I suppose if you put your headphones on and squint you could be mistaken for getting the two mixed up and Barnstaple is like a mini Barcelona. Well I agree with that.
Later that afternoon I was down at Morthoe doing my caravan cleaning job and I happened upon a copy of the Guardian, that London trendy paper, and low and behold in the travel section they had a whole feature on staycationing which even though it was so last year has had a reprise and now it's so this year as well and it went on to echo what the women in the Boston Tea Party were banging on about. Still I wasn't convinced, that is until I went down to Woolacombe to catch the bus back to town and it was packed, full to the brim with visitors. Normally, at this time of year you only get a few disconsolate, lardy chip munching, sullen looking souls who have come down to the Woolacombe Bay on a Sun/NotW week for a fiver deal but there was all sorts down there and a huge amount of people who looked like they should be spending the week on a golfing holiday on the Algarve or taking their family off to a gite in South West France. Middle class families and groups of youngsters who in my day would have been off inter-railing not lolling around outside the Red Barn. So there you have it this must be staycationing made manifest. Me, I'm off with Ivor Thomas and Ian Stokey on a cultural tour of the Baltic capitals taking in Prague at least now it should be quiet. The Squire reckons that this is so nineties.