In a series to celebrate XPENG’s partnership with new movie A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, four writers share memories of the journeys that made them who they are.
There are few childhood memories that truly stand the test of time. Favourite haunts or trips so often fall flat when heading back years later – somehow smaller, less whimsical and devoid of the unmistakable charm or magic they once held over us. It’s something I’ve thought about lately, having recently revisited a childhood beach-hut holiday in Dorset – only this time, with my fiance Adam and our twin toddlers in tow.
As an only child growing up by the seaside in Dorset, life could have been quietly humdrum: just my parents and me. But my mum’s family – all 10 of her siblings, and the mountain of cousins I enjoyed boasting about – were often nearby, so the days felt loud, busy and excitable. As a family, we were lucky enough to share a small beach hut, complete with bunk beds, a tiny kitchen and fold-out sofa beds, the wooden decking idyllically overlooking the sea. We’d visit most weekends and divvy out overnight stays between families, one organised aunt or uncle colour-coding each family’s dates.
When it was our turn to “stay”, my parents and I loaded overstuffed cool bags on to our mountain bikes, our rucksacks heaving with fizzy drinks, rice salads and burger buns, crammed haphazardly between toothbrushes, teabags and jelly shoes. Together we’d cycle down the road we lived on at the time, our labrador Toby lolloping ahead, cutting through an opening to reach the headland where the beach huts stood. The whole ride was probably less than 20 minutes, though at the time it felt nothing short of Olympian.
I remember arriving at the hut as a child, hot and sweaty from the ride, impatiently peeling off layers and flinging off bags as my parents greeted our hut neighbours and heaved open the wooden shutters. Slipping off my shoes, I’d pad across the hot sand to the water’s edge, eager to alert friends and family – some already bobbing about, their shouts carrying over the waves – that we’d arrived. The days were long in the way that only summer days can be, and my cousins and I would spend hours ducking under the waves or crabbing in the harbour, noses neon with overzealously applied sunblock.
This time around of course, it’s different. It’s not our hut, for starters (sadly we no longer own our share), but one belonging to a kind family friend, who generously offered us hers for the week. Instead of the picturesque bike ride down to the huts past the harbour, we pile our twins, Joni and Edie, along with accompanying toddler paraphernalia, into the car to make the journey from London to the coast.
Giddy chants of “Beach hut! Beach hut!” fill the car as the girls peer nosily out the windows, waving enthusiastically to what feels like every single vehicle on the M3. The journey’s longer now, though immeasurably more comfortable, and peppered with Baby Shark renditions and Radio 6. Three of us even manage a nap en route. The trickier second leg of the trip, to the hut itself – where “regular” cars aren’t permitted – involves pre-booking a designated 4x4 to transport us, cumbersome double buggy and all, to the water’s edge.
Of course, the rigmarole was all forgotten once we found ourselves on the hut’s decking (just a few doors down from our old hut) admiring the view. And with the heroic effort of unpacking behind us, we began sinking into the leisurely pace of hut life surprisingly fast. Together, we watched our girls navigate the sandy shoreline with growing confidence, collect shells from shallow rockpools and giggle with nervous excitement at the enormous seagulls that swooped perilously close. At night, we sat drinking rosé on the beach, the girls finally asleep, phones nowhere to be seen.
In the mornings, our daughters woke to the sound of waves lapping on the shore, their little faces pressed up against the hut’s windows to watch early risers and their dogs marching over the sand dunes. We sat together in our pyjamas on the sofa as the kettle whistled, the sun already warm through the curtains, just as I did with my parents all those years ago. And as we open the hut’s doors to let the day in and begin to hear the gentle stirring of fellow hut-dwellers doing the same, the girls clamber down, ready – very loudly ready! – to begin the day’s adventures.
Revisiting such a special place felt especially poignant this year, a year marking the 20th anniversary of my dad’s death. I think of him as we make that familiar winding journey towards the huts, the tropical smell of the gorse bushes on the headland carrying on the wind. My mum, now tackling late-stage Parkinson’s disease can no longer make it down either – the journey to the huts sadly proving too ambitious. So we show her pictures instead: Joni and Edie nervously splashing in the water for “treasure”. The crab shells they stumbled upon on the walk to the cafe. Their happy little faces streaked with sun lotion, sand and chocolate ice-cream.
The beach huts were – and still are – pure magic and adventure. And how lucky we’ve been to relive it all.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Some doors bring you to your past. Some doors lead you to your future. And some doors change everything. Sarah (Margot Robbie) and David (Colin Farrell) are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey – a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present … and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.
XPENG, the high-tech global mobility brand, collaborates with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, the highly anticipated romantic adventure, only in cinemas 19 September 2025. Together they share the spirit of discovery and transformation through cutting-edge technology, reflecting on defining moments and life-changing adventures. Just as the film’s protagonists Sarah and David embark on a fantastical journey that allows them to revisit pivotal moments from their past, XPENG’s ultra-smart vehicles are designed to take drivers further – enabling your very own big, bold, beautiful journey. Discover more
