Last real day of doing stuff, what will we do? Let’s see some of the villages along the south coast.
This involved nothing more strenuous than getting on a bus, and as all the Brighton buses are double-deckers, it’s also quite a thrill. Riding up high is not at all like being in traffic. You’re almost flying above it, while also speculating about whether the bus will wipe out a sign, traffic light or cars coming the other way. And there’s not much in it. Roads are narrow and buses are big.
We made our way out to Peacehaven, on the Sussex coast, first up.
Traffic in England is mostly polite and relaxed. When the bus is blocked by a garbage truck picking up bins, nobody gets their knickers in a knot. We wait patiently at one end of the street, holding up a line of cars. Another bus waits patiently at the other end, holding up their line of cars. And when the garbage truck gets clear, we all take it in turn to zig zag our way down the street, in and out of the parked cars. I’m not sure what would have happened in Australia, but not that.
Hopped off in the middle of Peacehaven to look around. No choice really, the bus terminated. We wandered into the local shopping centre, and were the only people there. There was a supermarket open, and a newsagent, but everything else in the centre was shut or closed down. If you’d run amok with an automatic rifle the only person in danger would have been you, from a ricochet.
We left the centre and thought maybe there’s something else? No there wasn’t. The town was just, basically, dead. We tracked down a few Shaun flock sculptures and went and got back on the bus.
Next up we stopped at Rottingdean. This was a bit more productive. We’d been to Rottingdean before, with Emily in 2017. It was no less attractive six years later, with plenty of nice buildings and great stuff to photograph, like the following. Kipling’s garden is very nice, as is the place in general.
There was a Shaun statue at the library, but even though the library was open, you couldn’t get in without a PIN. We’re guessing that it’s how you can open a branch without manning it. Anyway, that Shaun had to be photographed through the window. Back on the bus and back to Brighton.
A couple more Shauns and the day was done. we collected 36 out of a total of 121 Shauns. Some of them were ‘flocks’, little Shauns painted up by primary schools. I think we found 27 of 42 big Shauns. A good, fun pastime and great impetus to getting out and looking around.
The day turned cold and windy at lunchtime. Despite the fact it’s autumn and we expected cold, even wet, weather, the trip has seen nothing but good weather and decent temperatures in the 20s (apart from that day in Paris). Next week it’s low teens in England, so we timed our exit about right.
Dinner with Emily and Chris at a tapas restaurant and our trip is all but over.
Tomorrow we leave Brighton and head for London. We’re staying at a hotel at Heathrow on Wednesday night, as our flight leaves at 9am Thursday, which means check-in is before 7am, so we’ll need to be up early and into the terminal.
London to Munich, Munich to Singapore then Singapore to Brisbane. We get back into Brisbane about 7:30pm on Friday.
So this is the last official blog (which won’t get posted until Singapore – when I get some wifi). I might do a wrap up and some observations on the trip when I get home.
That’s all for 2023. I haven’t counted up the blogs, but there was a lot.
Stephen and Michelle
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