Tiny Off Grid Cabin Life ~ Unplugged Rest
It has been a dream of mine to visit the Chilterns in Autumn since I was a child. Since my mum bought me a birthday card with a photograph of arching beech trees in bright russet colours. Beech trees have a a way of lighting up a landscape in autumn, looking out over fields and woods they stand out like burning suns against their duller companions. So when I was given the opportunity to stay at an Unplugged cabin, I jumped at one of the ones nestled below beech woods.
I wasn’t asked to write this, I stayed at the cabin just in exchange for photos and videos. But I took so many photos I thought I’d share some on here!
We arrived at the cabin as it was getting late, the clocks had already changed so darkness fell at about 5pm. If I’m being totally honest, my first impressions were that I was a little underwhelmed. I suppose I’m used to living in the countryside and so hearing the air traffic from Luton, the car traffic in the valley below and the fact that there was another cabin visible from ours; I felt a little hemmed in. These cabins are mainly aimed at city workers and for them I imagine this would seem like blissful isolation! But for someone who seeks out truly isolated places where you don’t see people for a whole day, it didn’t feel quite so secluded.
But the location was beautiful! Looking out at a rolling valleys and hills, fields lined with trees and situated below an old beech tree. We decided to take Floss on a little walk from the cabin, some of which took in the Chilterns Way. We set out over scrubby fields, the sun starting to set, casting hazy shadows over the land. Past huge old mansions (more like palaces), between rows of trees and down empty lanes. Pheasants scuttled about between the hedges, calling and making Floss jump, she’d never heard a Pheasant before!
There is nothing quite like a walk to settle me into a place. Once we got back to the cabin I felt much more at home. We had showers (in a very luxurious shower) put on our pyjamas and settled down for the evening.
The idea of the cabins is to “unplug”, put your phones away, don’t use screens and switch off from the outside world. You are supplied with an old Nokia brick and an instax camera to take a few photos. I had some bad news from home, just as we left, and so decided to have my phone available incase of an emergency. The Nokia phone is meant to be for this purpose, but it was some quite serious news and so I decided I just wanted to be able to contact my family easily if necessary. But we made a pact to not go on our phones unless it was to contact my family, not watch any “TV” and not use any social media. I obviously had to use my camera to take the photos and videos, so I was using some screens.
You are also given some games to use. Now, I am not a board game person; we used to play them when I was little but my sister would get so annoyed when she wasn’t winning that she would sometimes wipe everything off the board so that no one else could win! I find it quite funny looking back and like to bring it up with Willow occasionally! But my mum got a bit fed up with it and so decided not to bother much with the games. Apart from Mouse Trap, that was always a favourite with us.
So anyway, we settled down to a game of Scrabble. I’ve realised I am awful at scrabble! Even though I love writing, for some reason my brain has a brick wall in it when it comes to Scrabble and I can’t seem to access any words at all! I resorted to making things up and hoping they were in the scrabble dictionary, often they were!
It was so cosy in the cabin at night, with the little fire on it heated up quickly and we even had to open the door at one point to cool it down again, it was so efficient. The first night we had clear skies filled with twinkling skies, while the valley began to fill with mist.
We slept with the blinds open so we could see the night sky and woke up to a hazy mist enveloping the trees. By this time I had really settled in and it felt very relaxing and peaceful, especially with the mist drawn in around us. We made coffee and breakfast and sat by the window for a while, really enjoying having such an expansive view! At home my windows are rather small and limited, being in an old stone building, so it was a welcome change.
After a slow morning we decided to head out to a bakery in the local town (which is very quaint) and then go for a walk to take in some more of the beautiful countryside.
The woodland that we walked in was a beautiful old beech wood. The arching trees dripping in a pallet of fiery yellows, russets and green undertones. The floor was covered in a light layer of autumn leaves which crunched underfoot. It has been a dream of mine to visit the chilterns in Autumn for years; to see the rich orange colours and floor carpeted in leaves. I am not religious, nor quite atheist, maybe a bit spiritual, whatever it is woodland feels like my kind of cathedral. And beech trees are the best example of woodland cathedrals to me; their towering trunks and arching branches shelter the floor which is mostly bare and echoing.
The beech is known as the “queen or mother of the woods”. Their dense canopy and thick layer of leaves on the floor make it a difficult habitat for most species of plant. But saprophytes can survive here; saprophytes are a plant, fungus or organism that lives on dead or decaying organic matter. And there are a lot of fungi to be seen at this time of year. Brochan is a fungi enthusiast so he particularly enjoyed taking them all in.
Something I only recently learned though is that beech are particularly vulnerable to climate change, their roots are shallow which means they struggle in times of drought. Especially on these thin chalky soils. Water stress can cause them to die back and die prematurely.
Although the last year has been excessively wet, in general I have noticed our summers getting drier and hotter and it makes me worry for the beech. I can’t imagine a world without these majestic and sublime trees. Or to know that my great-great grandchildren might not even know a beech.
This land is like my homeland. My mums side of the family have lived around the Sussex downs since the 14th century. So this chalky landscape of softly rolling hills and scrubby thickets is in my blood I think. Although I have never lived in the east of England there, is something very homely for me here.
So, it’s been so nice to have a little holiday somewhere like this. Somewhere we would never usually choose to visit. Because it’s quite populated we would never come to camp in the van here and probably never decide to book a holiday let somewhere here either. But it’s been such a refreshing change, to wander down old footpaths and ways, between huge trees and under wide skies.
Although it has been a busy time here, I’ve been constantly switched on to take photos, especially when the light is just right! There have also been some moments to stop and take it in. It’s been peaceful not looking at our screens and thinking of social media or hearing any news. I always have a slight apprehension when I’ve been offline and it’s time to go back, into the connected world again.
