Summer in England 2017 – part 1 – Walking in Knole Park

It’s that time of year again – back to Blighty to see my beautiful children.

2 weeks in Kent, chilled out, plenty of fun and hopefully some lovely British sunshine. Still chasing kilograms and fitness, so I’m bringing my running gear and going to eat as healthily as I can.

This time I flew via Dubai on Emirates. I’ve been that route twice before I think – Emirates are pretty good, on par with Singapore airlines I think, although Dubai airport isn’t as nice as Changi in my opinion (not enough places to sit down outside the gates whilst one is waiting for an onward flight) but its modern and smart and efficient.

Anyways, on with the story…

This years hire car – Vauxhall Astra Turbo. And very nice and fast it was too. I think the diesel version I had a few years back was a bit nicer – more grunt off the mark for everyday driving, but this one was smooth and really quite fast!

It kinda felt like my Golf VR6 for performance (except for the turbo lag, which was a bit annoying if you got caught on the hop trying to skip out of a junction and finding a big right foot of nothing for a second or so) and it was great to manage motorways and zipping around country lanes. And floods, torrential rain and thick fog too. Hey ho.

Plaxtol looking nice in the sunshine. This, sadly, wasn’t the main theme of the weather for my whole trip 😦

I went for a walk in Knole Park on the first morning I was there. It was pretty cold, only 8 degrees, but that’s not a bad thing when it comes to exercise. My left knee was really sore from pushing the running the week before, so I took it kind of easily. The weather had been very wet for the month before, so walking on the grass was damp and muddy.

The deer were surprised to see anyone out at 6am. Perhaps not as surprised as I was to be walking at 6 on my first day after arriving.