Things finally fell into place and we had a small window of opportunity to drive South. Other destinations were considered only very briefly. Four days goes very quickly when you factor in the two five hour journeys. We tried to treat the journey as part of the holiday with leisurely stops, having a campervan makes this much easier.
Although I had my reservations about travelling with two old Springers we seemed to manage just fine. Harvey has some level of arthritis but gets about ok. For reasons unknown and despite a deep thick rug and layers of fleece dog blanket he refused to lie down for the entire journey, preferring to sit instead. We stopped after the first hour and he was a little stiff in the back legs so we decided to stop every hour thereafter. It was a case of stop, walk the dogs, make tea, use the van loo and off again. We avoided using public services as much as possible. Our Thetford toilet lasted the whole four days and if you aren’t familiar with these and that sounds gross trust me it isn’t. What is gross is digging a hole in front of your family, children and complete strangers on a public beach, having a wee and pushing a few handfuls of sand back over it. Ugh.
Having seen the news reports about overcrowded beaches I wasn’t sure what to expect, luckily the beach we went to wasn’t one of them. Plenty of beach to go round, most of it dog friendly and parking parallel to the prom is ideal for side opening camper vans. M would have been happy to stay there from nine in the morning until 9 at night. I did manage to drag him away for visits to a few places on the South Downs. We spent a long afternoon at Butt’s Brow where they had an archaeological dig going on. They showed us a flint sphere the size of a tennis ball and Harvey started to back up with one eye on it as though it was suddenly going to be a game of fetch. Although walking country we stayed with the van and had lunch, I carved a few hooks and generally just tried to relax and switch off.
It seems we’ve never quite resolved the issue of being a couple where one is limited in mobility and the other has a passion for walking. One beautiful summer’s evening I said I was going to take a walk along the promenade with the fittest of our two dogs. He couldn’t believe I would want to do something that he couldn’t do and I couldn’t believe he would cause a scene knowing that I sacrifice the possibility of a lovely walk wherever we go. I went anyway but under a black cloud. I log it here because it’s really baffling. When I returned after my promenade walk he was perfectly happy sitting in the warm evening sun with his book and had been chatting to passers by about the van.
Talking of walking speed, my 96 year old Grandad walks much faster and I had to break into a jog to catch him up at the Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne where we met for a coffee and a walk. It was the first time he’d been out for a coffee anywhere since well before the official start of lockdown. He wasn’t entirely comfortable and the two of us are useless in cafe situations where nether of us are pre-prepared with the questions we’ll be asked. Somehow we managed to order coffee but it was easier to chat outside afterwards watching boats go by. The Harbour car park had a height restriction barrier and with our roof rack M didn’t think we’d make it through so he (threw a massive strop) decided to stay with the dogs in the shade in a neighbouring car park. We really need to work out the van height for future car parks!
East Sussex is a fairly big county and whilst I’ve certainly played golf or hockey all over it most of that was before I could drive so my memories of small towns and villages is pretty random. Not only that but in the twenty odd years I’ve been living elsewhere many new roads have been built. Despite all this we had a few moments where I was expected to know how to get from town a to town b, neither of which I’ve ever actually been to. Wrong turns are truly an unacceptable thing for M. Let’s just say I’m working on handling this differently.
Although we picked the wrong car park (a well known local pick up spot for men looking for men, oops!) we did have a lovely meet up with my cousin and her husband. Thanks to I’s job we were fully educated on the car park situation and we’ve been pretty careful not to make the same mistake again! When we did later park up at the proper Devil’s Dyke car park it provided the most stunning view and we were happy to sit and admire it for hours.
A lovely moment happened when we strolled past a large Indian family having a picnic on several blankets. The Father was taking photographs and trying to get all of his children in the frame. There was a burst of happy laughter as they wriggled in together and then he looked at us and smiled triumphantly. M said, ‘that’s going to be a lovely photo’ and then to our surprise they asked if we’d like to join the picnic. We have plenty to go round they said. M politely declined. I just hope we didn’t offend. It was a really touching gesture.
Every time we take Bert for a road trip we fine tune the way we store things or the kit we need. It wasn’t as easy finding drinking water as you’d expect. We could have asked my Grandad but we were avoiding actually going indoors to keep him safe so in the end M cheekily asked a cafe owner that we’d bought coffee and pastries from. People are only too happy to help in general and this time it led to an enthusiastic chat about classic vehicles. We’ve invested in two more water containers to save future cheeky requests, they can easily be tethered to the roof rack. Not taking a wind break to a seaside location was also a mistake so I’ve resurrected an old habitat fabric one I’ve had since I was twenty and dyed it blue for next time. We are also going to do some research on solar power for topping up our leisure battery since we don’t always drive far enough to keep it topped up.
I’m well and truly stuck in Lincolnshire for now and that most definitely contributes to my post Sussex blues. I’m always determined they won’t kick in but they usually do, swiftly followed by an urgent need to find interesting places in this county to visit. We took Bert to a new patch of woodland about half an hour from home and whilst very beautiful it was inches deep in all kinds of rubbish and litter. So it’s sadly off the list for a return visit. I did collect a bag of litter and take it home but it was a drop in the ocean. It needed a whole task force of volunteers.
One good thing about road trips is the amount of laundry they generate. Clothes, tea towels, bedding, dog towels, the odd blanket. I no longer dread it. I simply look upon it as preparing for the next trip. I replenish the non perishable food, restock the books, clean the stove top and fridge, get M to deal with the toilet (it’s the only thing he contributes!), restock the dog food, sweep the floor, shake out the floor mats, fill up the water, remove sticks, shells and other nature finds and we are good to go at any time!
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