This last two weeks has been a whirl of catching up with friends, but also trying not to compromise my new way of living too much. It does feel nicely familiar dropping into friend’s lives, but knowing it won’t be long before I am saying farewell again.
A lovely walk along the Wey & Arun canal at Loxwood with Katie & Michelle. Starting point is at the Onslow Arms pub, and of course it’s a great finishing point too for a drink. Not that we had one as baby had to get back before feeding time and of course it’s not in the budget!
With my van safely parked outside my friends house in Shoreham I could make the most of one of the few sunny days I’ve seen since being back in Sussex, with a cycle along Brighton seafront. I feel like a tourist now even though I lived in Hove for a few years. I think it’s because I’m no longer working, so have time to see familiar places in a new light, noticing what others don’t in their hurry with life.
Back to Bolney for an afternoon walk in the sunshine and stop at the Cider Tap in Bolney, which I can highly recommend, just off the A272 to Cowfold. They serve ciders, beers, wines and wobblegate crushed fruit juices, made there at the Rebel Root Ciderworks. An oven fired pizza wagon is there serving pizzas at around £8 and they are delicious.
From Bolney I headed to Bury for an overnight stay, but this time I slept in ‘Lucy’ parked up in the countryside outside my friends house. I had started to miss sleeping in my ‘home’ so I was happy to do just that.
The next day was rainy but undeterred with the urge to travel again I ventured out with my school friend Helen to find a spot along the Sussex coastline around Chichester where we would have a nice view and a van lunch. It wasn’t quite so easy as the carparks for quite a few places along the shoreline do not actually have a view so we ended up on Selsey East Beach, where after driving around the roads near the beach found a nice little hard standing right on the beach. It actually stopped raining for a little while too!
Back to Shoreham/Brighton before heading to Ferring. On the way I did a recce of Shoreham beach and there are definitely a few places you could wild camp there, although you would be close to houses, but with a beach view. I visited Shoreham Fort, as had always meant to take the children there when they were younger but never seemed to have got around to it. Definitely no overnight parking allowed there! although there are a few places outside the main carpark that are free and you can park there for 4 hours whilst you have a nice walk along the Shoreham Nature Reserve board walk. I didn’t even know this existed and I have lived in Sussex for 25 years!
This is what people with too much money spend it on! although I do like the mermaid one above. Maybe its the male naked bottom…
One of the things I really like about living in a campervan is that you get to eat meals pretty much alfresco even when its too chilly to sit outside, with an amazing view. This is Ferring beach, where you can park right alongside the beach with a seaview from 9am to 10pm. I was going to try my luck staying the night right there but everyone else seemed to move so I thought it prudent seeing that there are multiple signs saying you will be fined and removed to move the van to the restricted barrier parking just opposite the beach. There are no parking restrictions here and I stayed the night with no issue, although you do have to put up with cars using it as a drive through.
There was no-one accept me on this beach as the sunset. I cannot understand why! The people that live here have forgotten the reason why they moved here, nice for me though! Sitting on the end of the groyne with the water gently lapping around me, as the tide came in, was so calming. This is all that is needed at the end of a stressful day, not that I had a stressful day!
In the morning, it was very windy, following a night of heavy rain, ideal conditions for the kite surfers. Pretty impressive stuff. I think there was a bit of showing off going on as I was taking photos! I can’t believe how high they sail (if that is the right word) when they jump off a wave.
Back to Bolney again for a weekend with the children, and even the driveway can offer unexpected views. This time of the moon from my bed! What more could a girl want. No answers required!
I have now bought some video editing software so hopefully my next video will be a little more professional, lets see what happens. All this social media stuff is a big learning curve for me even though I’ve been working in IT for years. It it’s a whole different world. I’m still trying to get to grips with the drone but there should be some footage soon. It is a very cool piece of equipment for making creative videos.
