Mid Sussex District

So we got up as planned and were on the road by 6.30. We needed to be in Calais by 9am to check in for our 9.50am ferry, so were leaving extra time. In fact the journey went so well that we were there early and they put us on the 8.40am ferry. The journey went well – beautiful day with a calm crossing. England is an hour behind, so we arrived at the same time that we had left. Then I parked in a loading zone in Dover while Jody had a second approach at sorting out SIM cards – fingers crossed for this time! My 12gb card that I got for 30 days expires tomorrow, and I still have lots of data. Jody has gone through an 8gb and 12gb card – must be something on her phone eating the data. I got a few looks from courier drivers, but ignored them – where else could I park Nico for that long?

Then we were off to the white cliffs of Dover. Parking was 7 euros cash for the day for a motorhome which we managed to find between us, and was great. We only had time for a shortish walk, but on such a sunny day the view was spectacular. We walked for around 1.5 hours, and took some nice pics. Then it was off in Nico to pick my step sister Morgan up from the train station. Googlemaps failed again, she told us that we were there, but we couldn’t see the station. So then did a you turn, saw some policemen, Jody got out to ask them where it was and we got directions. When we drove back, Morgan was standing on the pavement, so we stopped and she got in the side door. Then a man knocked at the window and had noticed us doing a u turn, talking to the police, and then stopped so asked us if we were lost. We said we were picking someone up, so he started giving us detailed directions to the station. We had to shut him up to say that she was already in Nico, and we were ready to go. Very nice of him to take the effort though. So then we had a 1.5 hour drive to Rye which is a little town in the south of England. Morgan had wanted to visit there, so it sounded good to us.

We had a very nice lunch at a pub there, and then visited a few shops. What a cute little town this was. Lots of really cute nick nack shops with some interesting things we hadn’t seen before. It was rather surprising, but neither Jody or I bought anything today – maybe we are a bit nervous about packing our bags tomorrow? We walked around the town for several hours and it was lovely to catch up with Morgan who lives in London and I have visited her there in the past. This is the first time I have seen anywhere other than London while I have been in the UK. I had always wanted to drive through some more of the English countryside and I really got my wish today. I decided to drop Morgan off at a train station nearer to London – Royal Tunbridge Wells, and that driving really was an experience. Lots of traffic on fairly narrow roads with some pretty manic drivers. It was a bit hard to adjust to driving on the left hand side of the road, and I caused Jody a bit of panic when I tried to turn into the wrong lane at one stage – it took me a while to respond to her no No NOOOOO and hand waving, but luckily there wasn’t any cars coming, and the correction was fairly easy.

Once we dropped Morgan off, we thought we would head for Brighton as that is where we can sell our bikes in the morning, and I had been interested in going there. So we kept on driving until about 8pm and finally got to the campground. Jody got out to check in as per normal, and got a very gruff response – have you booked? No. We’re full! So she got back in Nico, we drove around the corner and tried to find somewhere else. We are dropping Nico off tomorrow, so really wanted to empty our water, etc as we need to have Nico clean, and empty of some things, and full of others before he is returned. One place I rang was lovely, the lady thought if we were desperate, then she could have fun negotiating the price. But turns out that they didn’t have full disposal facilities so that wouldn’t work. So then the guy came back to close the gate, so I thought I would ask him again. I said we only wanted to stay until morning and use the facilities, could we stay where we were parked, use the facilities and pay for that. He ended up finding a site for us which was booked, but the people hadn’t arrived and once he had closed the gate they wouldn’t be able to get in anyway. I caused Jody some great hilarity when she asked how I got him to change his mind, and I said I had offered him some special favours – as if!

So we then had to finish off the wine (full bottle for Jody), and limoncello (just a big glass for me). Then Jody started packing which seems like it is going to take a long time! In the morning we are dropping our bags off at a hotel, then dropping Nico off, then visiting London before getting back to the hotel. My plan is to sort out my bag at that stage rather than tonight. We got up at 5.45am, and it is now 12.15am on Bruges time, so well and truly time to go to bed!

So it might seem that after we drop Nico off tomorrow that we might be winging our way back to NZ. Well we are catching a flight on Saturday morning, but maybe not that far just yet…Read more