In the spirit of Tracy’s Fitbit reports (“We did 27,400 steps today”) I think I can say that I did under 1000 steps today. As reported yesterday, we agreed that I would take a day off from walking and bus it to our next stop, while Tracy walked the 16 miles.
The morning was cool and kind of foggy on the downs and windy, looking very much like it might rain, despite the forecast of sun and 70s. So, after a nice breakfast (scrambled eggs and salmon for me, yum!), Tracy set out to get back up on the hills, while I dawdled and worked on blog entries to catch up. I had worked out the bus schedule to get down to Brighton (maybe 10 miles away) and then back up north and east a bit to a bus stop along the highway near our hotel, a chain inn set mysteriously not in a town, but near a town called Kingston, which is further referred to as Kingston-Near-Lewes. Close to things, near things, but not quite there.
I walked perhaps 100 yards to a shop to buy Diet Coke (I really should have worked out a sponsorship deal for this blog!) and a pork pie to be my lunch later, because I was still a bit unsure about the timing of the connection of buses in Brighton. An uneventful and inexpensive bus ride down to the coast brought me to the honestly somewhat ugly seaside resort sprawl around Brighton. Brighton was perhaps lovely and exotic long ago, with its stately spas and lovely long lines of stately houses have been layered over with each generation’s new effort to keep the tourists happy, So now you get blocks of Georgian rowhouses, but also an ugly 1960s enclosed shopping center right in the middle of town and places to play laser tag.
I walked down to the sea in the windy, clammy air, wondering if Tracy was getting this same wind and possibly even rain, or if a few miles inland and uphill it might be sunny. I saw, but opted not to walk all the way over to Brighton Pier with its amusement park, then headed back up to town center to wait for the next bus passing by Kingston. Excuse me, Kingston-Near-Lewes. Damn it, no, Bus-Stop-on-the-A27-Near-Kingston-Near-Lewes. Hung out in the square outside that unfortunate mall, and was surrounded by a veritable U.N. of teens in mass school groups on tour. Italians, British kids, and others, in little flocks with either matching backpacks or T-shirts. Had my pork pie lunch, vaguely annoyed to note that I could have gotten a fresher one right in the square at a place that is literally called West Cornwall Pasties (the pasty is the Cornish meat pie that I love the best–oh well).
Caught my bus, got my stop right and rang the bell for it before we got there, crossed the busy A27 (it had a little safe area in the middle, thank heavens: two lanes each way, going very fast), and hung out to wait for Tracy.
Tracy, meanwhile, had a lovely day of hiking, very grey and windy but full of animals and even a golf course in the morning, and then suddenly clearing and warming up to the mid 70s.
She seems to have had a great day of walking, but I have no regrets, feeling energized for the last two days of our hike.
ramblinghank 