Bank Holiday weekend 27 August 2016

Quite a weekend in the UK - pretty much the end of summer (bar a couple of hot days in September), end of the school holidays, long weekend - the roads are insane!  Nevertheless, I hopped in the car and tootled off to West Sussex.  Having to drive on the M25, that's about as much as you can do.

Today was the day, at last, to take a better look at the Ouse Valley Viaduct.  I've driven past numerous times but this time I stopped.

It's impressive!  Built in 1841 of 11 million bricks, making it 29m high with 31 arches. The viaduct is still in use.  This is the main Brighton line and 110 trains a day cross over.  I've been on that train a couple of times and have to say that I've not noticed.  I'll look out for it next time.

Then stopping off in Haywards Heath to collect Dayne and Lara, we headed off toward the coast - the Birling Gap to be exact.  Where? People ask, but if you say "the Seven Sisters", that's more familiar.

That GPS, it really doesn't always take the most direct route.  I'm still entirely capable of getting lost while using the GPS, so this time we ended up driving down some of the narrowest lanes in England and we came across this really strange sign.

Caviar farming? In the middle of East Sussex? Why?  Well, apparently there has been such a dramatic decline in Beluga Sturgeon populations in the Caspian Sea and a resultant ban on wild-harvested eggs, that Caviar farming has become a big thing around the world.  But not in East Sussex if the neighbours have anything to do with it.  Signs on every tree, gate post, lamp post indicate strong support for their cause.

Finally we arrived and first priorities first - lunch.  Birling Gap is owned and managed by the National Trust so there's a good tea room, shop and visitor's centre where they cater for all types of visitors - yes - Doggy ice cream!

Fortified, we headed down the steps to the beach.  The cliffs are the Seven  Sisters - quite spectacular.

Pebbles - just wrong...

Gorgeous girls!

We weren't planning on swimming so we took a couple of pics and were back on the road.  We had passed through Lewes on the way there and decided we would like a closer look so that was our next stop.  What a pretty little town.

With a very large brewery ..

And this awesome bookshop.  Hard to find stuff though.

Tea Time ..

With a strange sign on the wall.  What do you think it means?

So that was our day and it was fun.