Mallory Franklin's road trip around southern England

Follow Team GB Olympian Mallory Franklin and her husband on their weekend road trip around southern England

As someone that travels the world every year for my sport, I'm disappointed in myself at how much of the UK I am yet to discover, so given the opportunity to have a small break in the UK I jumped at the chance. I had a look around at the different campsites and set my sights on Longleat Club campsite, with the Safari Park literally on the doorstep, and with Bath and the coast not too far away. I figured it would give us plenty to do, mixed in with some relaxing in the motorhome of course.

The first step of course was setting up the motorhome, getting everything in it we were going to need for the short break, so after popping everything inside we put the bikes in the back storage compartment and got on the road. The drive across to Longleat was super smooth and we even managed to catch a glimpse of Stonehenge on the way past. Once we arrived at the campsite we got ourselves checked in, picked a pitch, and filled up the water, just in time for the heavens to open, so we huddled up in the nice and dry motorhome and pulled out the games. We were both very thankful that we could sit inside and watch the rain.

Day two of our trip took us to Longleat Safari Park, being able to just walk out of the campsite and straight into the park made for a very relaxing start to the day. We started our visit by very confidently deciding we could master the hedge maze. After half an hour of walking around in what felt like circles, we realised that that was very much not the case. Finally, we made it to the middle and could only then work out that we think in fact we hadn't covered even half the maze, that thing was crazy big!

After we finally found our way out of the maze we headed over to see all the animals around the grounds, my favourite of which was the otters. Maybe that's my love of water coming out, plus they were very active whilst we were there. Longleat House was pretty incredible too! We headed back to the motorhome for some lunch, then we unplugged and headed off to the Safari. It was really cool to be able to see the animals up close whilst they roamed around, although the lions weren't doing much roaming.

Day three was time for some sightseeing. First off we started heading to Nunney, where there is a medieval castle (my husband likes old brick buildings) but in fairness, it was pretty cool! From there we headed to a car park south of Bath, just down the canal, got our bikes out of the storage compartment of the van, and cycled up the canal until we got to Bath. Bath is a very picturesque city - the Abbey, the Roman Baths, Pulteney Bridge and there is so much more. My highlight was Mrs Pott's Chocolate Shop - all the white chocolate I could eat! After a long but rewarding trip around the city, we headed back to the motorhome, then back to the campsite for some food and chill time.

On the last day we decided to head out to the coast. We drove out to Weston-super-Mare, parked up right on the beach, went for a walk along the coast, grabbed some ice cream and enjoyed the lovely weather. Having the ability to drive away with freedom, experience the great British outdoors and have home comforts travel with us made for the perfect getaway.