We can’t find the cottage.

When I booked our summer holiday - three nights at a cottage in Dorset, buried deep in the countryside but close to the coast - I didn't know it was going to be off-grid. Here's how it went...

A painting of the cottage, in the cottage (there were several)

We can’t find the cottage. 

We’ve driven down long bumpy dirt roads taking us deep into the Dorset countryside and now, there’s a humble National Trust property in front of us and tracks shooting off in four directions. 

One leads to a wide wooden gate with a sign on it: access to Gabriel’s Steps permanently closed. My husband pushes it open and disappears into the woodland beyond. I start to worry that this cottage might be too close to the edge of a cliff.

While he’s gone, an older woman appears at the door of the National Trust property. Are you ok, are you lost? she says.