Arundel

Last week I went to the small town of Arundel which has a really fairy take atmosphere.

It is famous for its castle.

But also has a number of impressive churches.

Arundel is surrounded by the South Downs which puts me in mind of Robin Hood and Merlin.

While waiting for the train I spotted a very large spider hanging from the station sign.

This will probably be my last trip along the Sussex coast for a while since my traveling companion is moving to Dorset. From now on I will likely be exploring the hidden delights of Dorset and Wiltshire.

Archive Photos: Burntisland to Arberdour

In the summer of 2007 I walked from Burntisland in Fife to Arberdour along the Fife Coastal path. On the way we passed:

An abandoned railway line.

An old fort.

A pretty little waterfall

The black rocks

And an abandoned jetty before heading back to Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth.

Shoreham-by-Sea

Last weekend I went to a place called Shoreham-by-Sea which is between Brighton and Worthing.

The town itself was quite small with lots of seaside cafes and shops. This pretty little church was one of the most interesting buildings.

North of the town is this rather impressive private school with a large chapel.
Walk along the stony beach and eventually you will come to this old fort which apparently was a film studio at one point.

From this point you can see Brighton in the distance. By the way Brighton is where I was born.

Chidham Penisular

I visited the Chichester Harbour area again last weekend, partly to celebrate my recent birthday with a friend whose birthday was on the same day. This time we took a circular route around the Chidham Peninsula beginning in the village of Nutbourne. The scenery was very nice although a bit similar to our last few trips so I feel it may be time to move on from Chichester Harbour.

It was a rather warm day and we didn't take enough liquid so as you can imagine we were very relived to come across a pub after walking through miles of fields. Of course when we left the pub we discovered we were only a short distance away from our start point.Strangely enough we did pass a small local festival called Cobstock which had plenty of food and drink stalls but only for ticket holders and there didn't seem to be anywhere to buy a ticket.

By the train station we found this single rose laying on the ground. Wonder if there's a story behind that?

Fishbourne

Yesterday I went to the small village of Fishbourne which is near Chichester in Sussex.

First we visited the remains of a Roman Palace with some very well preserved mosaics and a good musuem explaining the history of the site.

Next we took a walk alongside Chichester Harbour. It was a beautiful day with calm, sparkling and plane free skies. Except for one pulling a UKIP banner.

We had dinner in the Crown and Anchor pub which we stumbled upon half way along our walk. It had an outdoor seating area overlooking the water and simple but tasty food.

We then headed back into Fishbourne, catching a glimpse of Chichester in distance.

Littlehampton

I recently went on a random trip to Littlehampton. Not much there other then the seaside but it was fun despite the bad weather.

We found a dogfish on the sandbanks.

Halloween and Bonfire night have been and gone and I'm still unemployed despite none of my job applications actually having been rejected yet. At this rate I might have to wait till I go to Japan to get a job. Oh well, at least I carved an awesome pumpkin this year.

Say hello to my friend Bob who sadly I was forced to lay to rest in the rubbish bin today.

Guildford

On Wednesday I met up with Kathryn in Guildford. We saw ducks and cows and canal boats. Every-time I see a canal boat I can't help but wonder whether Rosie and Jim are in there.

Oddly enough the day after, I was watching a program about street crime and saw various trouble makers and arrests right where we had been walking. What a comforting thought.



Apart from that I can't really say much about Guildford.

Blair Atholl

On Monday I went on a random trip with a friend.

Random trips are where we go to the train station and buy tickets to a random destination without any prior knowledge or planning. So far this has worked out well for us, and we've been to places like Dunbar and Dunfermline, both of which we enjoyed. This time we went to Blair Atholl, not far from Perth, which is a little further then we had been before.

It turned out to be a bit smaller then we had hoped but we headed to the main attraction, Blair Castle, and spent a couple of hours exploring the grounds, although we didn't go in the castle itself (cos it was like £9 and we are cheapskates).

It was quit interesting, despite the rain, with lots of very tall species of trees and pretty flowers. Though I swear the birds there were pocessed or something. This one peacock especially seemed to be following me.

There was even this slightly spooky, ruined chapel that we spent some time examining.


This garden appeared to be locked up already, though supposedly it was open for another half hour. Shame, since it looked really pretty too.



We did get a good look at naked Hercules though.


Next we attempted to get to a nearby glen which started off fairly well, with a walk past a fast flowing river and through some picturesque woods.

Here we stopped for vital provisions. Thats my friend in the picture.

Somehow between completely missing signposts, terrible senses of direction and fear of the local neds, we ended up back where we started from at the castle. Eventually around 7, we found the right path to the glen and made a desperate attempt to reach our goal. However, due to the fear of missing the last train, (we had no idea when this would be since neither of us checked the times) we had to abandon our search just short of the end.

On the way there though, there was this odd wooden building, containing and surrounded by derelict cars, and for some reason, what appeared to be a heap of rotting turnips. To make things more bizarre the car in the picture above, despite missing most of its wheels, contained a variety of puzzling objects, including an Eeyore air freshener, some novelty Christmas antlers and a ring binder. Definitely wins the prize for biggest WTF of the day.

On the way back to the station we got fairly lost and ended up wandering through the wilderness for quite some time before we finally found this glorious way out sign.

In turned out that we had nearly an hour and a half left until the last train. We would have eaten in this period, but the only place that seemed reasonable was closed for the day. To top it all off, we couldn't change in Stirling due to diversions and would have never gotten back to Edinburgh at all if it wasn't for Inverkeithing. But all in all it wasn't a bad trip and I will definitely go on more random trips in the future.