Battle and Pottering Around East Sussex

After our quick foray into Kent we headed back out into East Sussex for a couple of days. We spent a couple of days chilling out and recharging (ourselves and batteries) in a small C&CC site in a small village called Stonegate.

We had a bit of rain but then were treated to a big rainbow.

We then had a bit of nightmare trying to get to our next site as every road we wanted to go down seemed to be closed! East Sussex countryside is lovely but SO many roadworks.

We were going to go to Eastbourne but it didn't seem to work out after we had been diverted miles out of the way so we spent some time in Battle instead, which we inadvertently ended up in.

Battle is where the Battle of Hastings (1066 and all that) took place. We didn't visit the actual battle ground as English Heritage wanted £7.50 each and we are umemployed you know!

Our next site was next to a nature reserve called Stoneywish in the village of Ditchling. We were about to turn right into the road and there was another 'road closed' sign! We followed a really long diversion just to end up being directed by a workman back to the where we started.

Eventually we found the site. This campsite was a basic site (just a tap and a toilet in a field) but it was cheap (well cheap-ish - for East Sussex - £10 a night). As we turned up, another VW camper (T5) was just leaving and we spent the whole night on our own.

You could have campfires here so we got one started and cooked our dinner on it and used it for warming water all night. It was pretty windy so we kept getting smoke blown at us, and by the end of the night we ended up stinking of smoke.

We decided to just spend one night here as it was a bit weird being all by ourselves - even the campsite office was empty from 5pm and we had no mobile signal whatsoever. Plus we both needed showers and some laundry facilities!

Dungeness to Tenterden

After Rye were drove to into Kent to the area known as Romney Marsh. The whole area used to be under the sea so is unsurprisingly very flat (making for a happy campervan). We stayed in a lovely little campsite on a farm and I made friends with a butterfly. It absolutely chucked it down during the night but we woke to sunshine.

We then went on to a place called Dungeness. The whole area is a RSPB nature reserve, and it is a really weird place, with wide open expanses of wild flowers and shingle, bits of broken and discarded boats and machinery lying around, and an almost eerie air to it. There is a massive power station, two lighthouses, a wide shingle beach and loads of little wooden houses and shacks where people obviously come to get away from it all.

I thought our van fitted in quite well; a bit rusty, a bit old but well lived in.

Even though it was quite warm, the clouds were quite dark and the whole place was very atmospheric, like you would imagine life after a nuclear war or something. Bright sunshine would not have looked right here.

We stopped here to pick up some fish to barbeque for dinner.

On the way out of Dungeness we planned to stop at the first petrol station as we were getting low on fuel. Unfortunately we didn't quite make it to the petrol station and the van cut out less than a mile away, oops! We pulled over and put the hazards on, and Nick walked up to get a can of petrol. Unfortunately, having the hazards on for half an hour and then trying to get it started again had drained the battery! Out came the nice AA man to jump start us and we were on our way again. Lesson learnt - do not run out of petrol again! In our defence the petrol indicator must be a bit out as it wasn't showing as completely empty.

Our mpaac is dropping (miles per AA callout)!

We then headed into the Kent countryside where we could cruise along with no one in front or behind, and we passed some lovely little villages. We stopped for lunch in Tenterden where I remarked that I needed a book to read. We passed a corner and there was a second hand book fair and I found exactly what I wanted for £1.50. Bargain.

We are heading back to Hampshire now for a couple of weddings of some good friends.

Rye

After leaving Hastings we headed to our next site; Brakes Coppice near Crowhurst.

Again, there seemed to be an unusual number of Europeans around, including a large group of French kids, which we think may have been scouts or a school group as they all had the same tent, and two huge communal mess tents.

The next morning we were packed up and on the road to Rye by 10.30am. Rye is two miles inland, but in medieval times it was almost entirely surrounded by the sea, so it has a very coastal feel to it. It still has access to the sea via rivers, so there is still a leisure and commercial maritime industry.

There were lots of cobbled side streets and old cottages and buildings, a bit like Lewes and Hastings.

There was a bit too much traffic in the town centre for our liking, it would have been nicer it had been pedestrianised.

We went for a walk along one of the river banks where there was lots of active fishing activity going on.

The weather was cooler today, not such an intense sun but still pretty muggy. Apparently we are in for some heavy rain now!