The Closest Beach to Home

On 26th July 2017
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I won’t lie, Exmouth isn’t my favourite beach in the world.

However, it’s also a lot nicer than some of the beaches around the world. It’s also conveniently the closest beach to home.

Therefore, despite the gritty sand, mildly chavvy town and super strong estuary currents, we actually used to visit quite a lot.

Trips to the beach with our friends before any of us could drive meant getting on the train down to Exmouth beach and hanging out, feeling super grown up and independent. Munching on vinegary chips and melty ice creams. Attempting to “tan” and coming home like a lobster. You know the drill as a 16 year old.

Once we had our own cars, Exmouth no longer had the same attraction, and instead we’d go a little further up to the north Devon coast instead, so I hadn’t actually been to this beach in quite a while. When I was asked if I fancied an evening of jazz, pizza and prosecco with a view of the sea however, it wasn’t something I’d be likely to turn down. As a nice change, I also had the opportunity to take a +1, and as I was at home, I asked my brother Harry if he fancied coming.

We actually arrived really late. Embarrassingly late.

Firstly, because I don’t finish work until after 5.30pm (it started at 6pm, over an hour away) but also because we were seriously stuck in traffic. Traffic which turned out was caused by all three sets of traffic lights in different directions being permanently stuck on red. The occasional people who realised were then just sensibly driving through, but both old ladies in the lanes in from of us simply refused to break the law and caused havoc on the roads!

When we finally did arrive at Ocean Exmouth, we were greeted by a lovely bunch of fellow Devon bloggers all finishing off a game of bowling, which was shortly followed by the world’s most pizzas, sweet potato fries and Prosecco. Seriously delicious! An evening of jazz ensued, with a great band and some very keen dancers in the audience. The doors were flung wide open as the evening was incredibly warm, which meant even as the sun was going down, Harry and I had the chance to have a stroll along the shoreline.

The sunset was amazing that night and it was a lot of fun doing a shoot with my brother for a change. It’s not often you get to hang out with your siblings, especially allowing them to enjoy some free food and bubbles (even better was the fact that Ocean accommodated Harry’s vegan diet and made him his very own special pizza!). It makes you realise that time with them is actually pretty rare and precious, and we should make the most of it and appreciate it as much as we can.