Off to Sussex

Up early this morning as it was moving on day. We chose a route to Hastings which took us along roads we hadn’t used before and so after leaving Canterbury we headed for Ashford. The cross country road took us to Tenterden and as we travelled south we crossed the River Rother …

After driving through Hastings we found the seafront at Bexhill-on-Sea and stopped for coffee …

The next town on the route was Eastbourne followed by East Dean and down to the Cuckmere Valley …

We wanted to stop at Seaford and found a car park very close to the Newhaven & Seaford Sailing Club where we had sailed our Fireball ‘Thor’ back in the late 1960’s. It had changed quite a lot since those days as they now have a new Clubhouse …

instead of the shack that we’d used and there is a new ramp for the boats from the dinghy park to the beach. After lunch we went over to watch the start of the afternoon race and got chatting with a chap who knew Dave Long our ex fleet captain who is now living in Norfolk and sailing regularly on Hickling Broad! Small world!

It was now just a small hop to the campsite at Sheepcote Valley – well it should have been if we hadn’t missed the road and ended up driving around the Whitehawk estate! We found it in the end though and parked up for a cuppa and a rest.

We’d arranged to meet my cousin Peter at a pub at Saltdean so we drove over and accosted some chap in the car park who turned out not to be him! The last time I’d met Peter was when I was about seven years old so I had no idea what he looked like! We met up though and had a great time chatting about the family with him and his wife Jan and we’re determined to come back some time soon and have a big family get-together. It was then back to the site for a meal and to see a fox walking about the site as bold as brass. Unfortunately it was now dark and I didn’t get a photo of it.