Hit The Hut

July 20, 2015 by Ray Morgan

Hit The Hut

Last week, I rented a beach hut in Thorpe Bay for a week. Considering it's less than 5 miles from my home, I couldn't have felt more like I had got away from it all. Each evening my partner and I would go straight there from work and forget about the stresses of the day. We would sit on the little deck out the front and listen to the tide coming in, watch the waves, and peek at Kent through binoculars.

On the first night, we had a barbecue (halloumi, gem lettuce and peaches if you're interested) and after we'd cleared our plates away our new hut neighbours passed the back door. I thought they were going to tell us off but simply beamed and said "Ooh your barbecue smelled lovely!" and bid us a good evening and pottered off. It was like being in one of those sci-fi movies where everything is a bit too good to be true.

The following evening, my parents stopped by and we ate fish and chips and drank ale and watched the sky turn from baby blue to pink and marshmallowy as the tide lapped against the hut steps. We looked out at the Isle of Grain opposite and debated what the various landmarks were; a gigantic fort out in the sea, for instance.

Over the other side, we could see the arms of wind turbines scooping on the horizon, like backstroke swimmers. It's amazing how sitting and looking out to see gave us a whole new perspective from the usual view we see every day from down the coast in Leigh.

Friends and family popped in on us in the hut over the next few days, all marvelling at how quiet and contemplative it was there. It was back to basics: no running water, very little phone signal, certainly no internet, and even the kettle had to be boiled on a little gas stove that whistled when it was ready. I've grown up with electric kettles but my parents were transported back to their kettles-on-stoves childhoods.

But mainly it was good escape time for me and Jo. When Monday, our last proper day, rolled around before the reality of work hit, it was rainy. We went to the hut at morning high tide; around 10am, and the silver sea licked the steps of the hut with a cold wind. We pulled the glass doors shut, made big steaming cups of coffee and sat with blankets on our laps and watched through rain-speckled glass the tide that slipped away from us as the hours ticked by. We sat in perfect quiet and worked on projects - I'm writing a novel and Jo is storyboarding an animated short.

Finally, when it got a bit too breezy and we'd exhausted our appetite for hot drinks, we left the hut and reluctantly handed back the keys. Upon arriving home, even though I'd not been away I felt like the week had been a holiday. It was the perfect antidote to modern living. I highly recommend it.

My top 5 things about a beach hut:

1. Cutesy vintage vibes
2. Being able to have a base to store food, inflatables for the sea, ale etc
3. Staying there all day so you catch BOTH high tides, morning and evening (yes we did this!)
4. The romance of a whistling kettle
5. Forgetting about the golden mile and Old Leigh hordes for a while...