Up this morning feeling slightly jaded to meet Anton and a new friend of his called Martin in the station. I began to feel better after gulping lots of water. We got the train to Haywards Heath and then a cab to the pub where Anton and I had left off on our Ouse way walk a couple of months ago.
Today the conditions were ideal, and we had a wonderful five hour walk under a spitfire sky; blue with big puffy clouds.
Martin was a nice bloke and also proved useful. He was, for example, skilled in dog management, dealing decisively with approaching hounds. He also claimed to be a mosquito decoy too, which was vindicated shortly after when he was bitten painfully by a horsefly.
The most beautiful view on the Brighton to London track is when the train goes over a viaduct which spans the Ouse Valley. The walk took us through this lovely valley and under the imposing brick structure, with 37 arches. It was completed in 1841, and made from 11 million bricks imported from Holland.
Ended up hours later sitting in the beer garden of a pub called The Sloop Inn while we waited for a taxi. As we climbed into it a rather refreshed older regular poked his head out of the door and said "Why don't you walk, you lazy gits", which was odd.
Easy journey back to Brighton and I had a short sleep and a shower and then Anton and me had a night out in Brighton. Anna and the bairns being up in Burton at her parent's place. Brighton in full swing, and everywhere busy getting on with being the party town it is. Seemed to be lots of hen nights going on. In the restaurant where we settled there was one group. The bride to be was wearing something faintly humiliating, while her girlfriends endured matching teeshirts.
We drifted around the lanes popping in here and there for a drink. Went into a Polish bar, where we drank a brace of those Zywiec bad boys and talked about Anton's Polish dad and how Anton is becoming less exotic now that the diaspora of young Poles includes many settling in the UK. Ended up at 12:40 in the Eddy which was was like joining a party.
Home. And definitely not needing to be rocked to sleep, Below a farm we passed, a field of sunbleached grass and horses with the viaduct in the background.
Today the conditions were ideal, and we had a wonderful five hour walk under a spitfire sky; blue with big puffy clouds.
Martin was a nice bloke and also proved useful. He was, for example, skilled in dog management, dealing decisively with approaching hounds. He also claimed to be a mosquito decoy too, which was vindicated shortly after when he was bitten painfully by a horsefly.
The most beautiful view on the Brighton to London track is when the train goes over a viaduct which spans the Ouse Valley. The walk took us through this lovely valley and under the imposing brick structure, with 37 arches. It was completed in 1841, and made from 11 million bricks imported from Holland.
Ended up hours later sitting in the beer garden of a pub called The Sloop Inn while we waited for a taxi. As we climbed into it a rather refreshed older regular poked his head out of the door and said "Why don't you walk, you lazy gits", which was odd.
Easy journey back to Brighton and I had a short sleep and a shower and then Anton and me had a night out in Brighton. Anna and the bairns being up in Burton at her parent's place. Brighton in full swing, and everywhere busy getting on with being the party town it is. Seemed to be lots of hen nights going on. In the restaurant where we settled there was one group. The bride to be was wearing something faintly humiliating, while her girlfriends endured matching teeshirts.
We drifted around the lanes popping in here and there for a drink. Went into a Polish bar, where we drank a brace of those Zywiec bad boys and talked about Anton's Polish dad and how Anton is becoming less exotic now that the diaspora of young Poles includes many settling in the UK. Ended up at 12:40 in the Eddy which was was like joining a party.
Home. And definitely not needing to be rocked to sleep, Below a farm we passed, a field of sunbleached grass and horses with the viaduct in the background.
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