Day 58 - Saturday 29 June 2002 - Brighton Palace Pier to West Worthing

13 miles walked today

684.5 miles walked in total (average 11.8)

I started at Brighton Pier at eight thirty this morning - unfortunately it didn't open until nine o'clock so I couldn't have a wander.

The weather was glorious and, by the time I walked into Hove half an hour later, there were already people on the beach and in the sea.   Brighton always seems really relaxed to me, despite the number of people there, and even though it was Saturday, there were very few cars or people about, except a few joggers, dog walkers and keen sunbathers.

At Hove Lagoon, I stumbled across the Ocean Carnival, some sort of windsurfing mecca.  I then had to head onto Basin Road South down towards the lock gates across Shoreham harbour.  Things got surreal along here, as I had to walk past my old office where I'd spent two days a week for the best part of 2001!

Right on cue, I got a 'phone call from Andy and I had to describe the site to him.  He was a bit cross that I was walking as I'd felt a bit fluey all week and he'd ordered me to take a day off . I've been reading a lot of walk books lately though and have got re-inspired.   To be honest, I think about giving the walk up quite a lot, but I'm trying to prove a point now.   I start so many things that I never finish and this would be a chance to prove to myself that I can achieve something if I really want to.

From the lock gates, I was back on the main A259 to Shoreham town where I crossed the River Adur by footbridge to head along the beach.   I used to drive home this way from work and I was never too impressed with any of the houses en route  However, having walked along the back of them, I've totally changed my opinion.  They all have their own moorings on the Widewater Lagoon, a local nature reserve.  Superb!  It's been very quiet on this stretch, just the constant low drone of the 'planes coming out of Shoreham airport.

Past the lagoon, I was back on the prom to Worthing and lunch, which I took on the balcony of a very nice little tea room, from where I had brilliant views back over to Brighton and the Seven Sisters.

The bottom of my feet were quite sore at this time - it's been all tarmac and shingle this morning - and I think I may need better insoles for my boots  However, I had an emergency pair of socks in my bag, so I put those on over my other pair and I tried to carry on, albeit with a slight limp!

At West Worthing, I had to give up finally and go and find Milletts to get insoles, which turn out to have some rather marvellous shock absorbers in them!  My shins, calf muscles and soles of my feet were crying out for me to stop.   But I'm very pleased with thirteen miles - that'll push my average up a little bit.

Day 57 - Sunday 21 April 2002 - Newhaven Fort to Brighton Palace Pier

10 miles walked today

671.5 miles walked in total (average 11.78)

By coincidence, Katie and I started walking at twelve minutes to eleven again!

The day started off very hazy but soon warmed up and we walked in teeshirts for practically the whole day.  We started off by popping into the fort to ask directions out onto the footpath over the cliffs and we were soon on our way, passing the hang gliders and looking down at all the divers down on the beach.

Newhaven Heights is a new housing development of prefab bungalows on top of the cliffs.  If the houses - and I've lived in a prefab which was brilliant - hadn't been on top of one another, but had been set in their own fields, they'd have been great.  But, in their setting, they looked quite astoundingly ugly!

As we walked along the cliffs to Peacehaven, we marvelled at all the flowers growing along the cliff edge - namely, marigolds and wallflowers which stretched on for miles.  Again, we saw lots of people out - on the prom at the bottom of the cliff - and in their gardens and on their balconies.   We passed the Meridian at Peacehaven which was quite a milestone again.   It's marked in a memorial to George V and gives the distances to various places in the commonwealth and must once have been a fountain, although the water features seem to have disappeared.

From Peacehaven, we made our way along the cliffs - with a short detour onto the main A259 road - through Telscombe to Saltdean where we stopped for lunch.  We had to do a bit of decision making about whether to have lunch on the beach or on the cliff - the cliffs won.  But only because, if we'd walked down the steps to the beach, we'd have only had to walk back up again.  As it was, we made sure we were at the top of the next cliff, before we stopped to eat.   We knew that the wind had changed direction as the weather vane on the monument at the top suddenly swung round on its axis as we passed!

The view from our lunch stop was superb.  We could see any number of art deco buildings - the Saltdean Lido, the Ocean Hotel overlooking all of Brighton, and the tearooms on the prom, to name a few.  By this time, we were feeling quite hot and it wasn't until later that we discovered the extent of our new stripey suntans!

We spotted some quite wacky characters on the beach too.  We watched as two chaps, one of whom was done up in red teeshirt and shorts, and blue Crocodile Dundee hat, manoeuvred a bright red canoe down the A259, through the underpass and onto the beach.   That would have been enough exercise for me, never mind rowing the blinking thing as well!

We came down into Rottingdean after lunch and had a quick mooch around the shops and stopped on the front for some more people watching.  Katie pointed out a pretty little tearoom - The Old Cottage Tea Rooms - so we felt it only right that we stop for a beverage.  The garden was fantastic - crammed full of tables and benches - and the borders were full of fantastic, healthy looking shrubs and trees, not to mention bird houses, gnomes and animal ornaments.

We sussed out where the bus stop was in Rottingdean in case we couldn't be bothered to walk any further.  I think that, if I'd been on my own, I might have given up then, but Katie was eager to carry on and provided some much needed encouragement.

From Rottingdean, we were back on the cliffs for a while past St Dunstan's School for the Blind, Roedean School for Girls and Brighton Marina.

Just past the marina, we made our way down the path into Madeira Drive and past Volks Electric Railway towards the pier.  We then got caught up in a coach rally which was quite bizarre - dozens of coaches done up and gleaming and being judged - the trophy table was huge with trophies for best driver, best coach, best make of coach, etc.  The overall winner was Banstead Coaches, which made me laugh - I used to go to Sunday School in Banstead!   They won about a dozen trophies, I think.  We also spotted a Club Cantabrica coach - the company I used to be a holiday rep for.  I made sure I spat on that one as I walked past.  Only joking!

We had about two minutes to catch the bus back to Newhaven from opposite the pier - so we made a mad dash, running along the pavement with our backpacks knocking people out of the way.  We weren't too impressed when the driver saw us and drove off anyway.  Humph!  We only had to wait ten minutes for the next bus though back to Newhaven, and we walked through the marina again and down to the Hope Inn, for a beer to celebrate the weekend's walking.

It was an excellent weekend, but I'm sure Katie was sad that we'd missed the swingbridge opening twice, today only by ten minutes!