Meanders.

meandering

adjective

following a winding course.

Going Solo.

Empty piers and stormy skies .

I blew the Monday workday blues away with a lunchtime walk on the pier.

Empty but still lovely.

Beachy Head Lighthouse Challenge 2023.

This walk is organised by The Rotary Club. There is a cost of £8.50 with money going to different charities, including the RNLI and also towards the upkeep of the lighthouse’s famous red and white stripes.

There are very few days when it is possible to walk around the lighthouse as it must be during spring tides and when it is light enough.

The meeting point was at the foot of the Downs by St. Bede’s school in Eastbourne. We then proceeded up the lane for approximately half a mile to Whitbread Hollow where we checked in. Once checked-in, we set off across the Downs to Cow Gap, down the steps to the beach and over the rocks, boulders, sand and slippery seaweed to the lighthouse.

It was a fairly strenuous walk; the beach part the hardest. You could go right up to the lighthouse and climb the steps up onto the base. Stewards were there counting people on and off, ten at a time. Stewards were also strategically placed along the route, as were paramedics and the RNLI shoreside.

Beachy Head is a notorious suicide spot in the South Coast and the sad part of the walk as we came closer to the lighthouse along the cliff base was the rusted remnants of car parts caught in the rocks. We had a silent moment of contemplation for those who had been driven to such drastic measures.

On return, all participants received a certificate to authenticate that we were one of the few people who have undertaken the “Lighthouse Challenge”.

It was a beautiful still and sunny evening for this unusual walk in a beautiful part of the South Coast.

The Beach.

Eastbourne Funk and Soul.

The Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show came to the Western Lawns at Eastbourne.

He was part of The E-Festival- Eastbourne’s very own ECO and MUSIC festival held over three fabulous summer days July 29-30-31 across the towns most iconic seafront locations. And what a treat it was. Headlining artists were Toploader, the Symphonic Ibiza Orchestra and of course the Craig Charles ‘Funk & Soul Show’

It was also my first experience of bhangra, from the energetic Bhangra Smash Up; a three piece drumming band based in Birmingham and playing all over the UK. Find them on Facebook and TikTok.

Well done Eastbourne E festival for putting on a high quality, professional event.

Paro natural Co- de la serra gelada.

A ‘last night’, very hot and sultry walk up to the nature reserve above Benidorm.

It was worth the effort to look down and say a sad ‘goodbye’ to Benidorm.

Adios Benidorm. You were fabulous 😎

Road Trip Alicante to Benidorm.

Yesterday we hired a car in Benidorm, wanting to explore beyond the coastal town and resort.

Car hire was from Europcar and was approx. 69€ (£54) for one day. Bargain.

https://www.europcar.es/es-es/oficinas/espana/benidorm?utm_campaign=BVNC05&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=local

[We also hired bikes earlier in the week from Monkey Bikes- 13€ for a days hire] http://monkeyrentbenidorm.es/monkey-bike/

We took the coastal road down to Alicante, where we stopped for a picnic lunch and a wander.

We wanted to drive the mountain roads, so took the CV-800 to Alcoi, then the CV-70 down to Benidorm. We wound our way up, over and through the mountains in a very sultry 35 degree heat. The landscape was mostly barren, interspersed with a very occasional villa, a derelict building or a small village.

The drive took approximately two and a half hours. It was a rugged, parched and lonely terrain- just us and the cicadas. We loved every minute of the drive. Certainly a vastly different Benidorm from it’s traditional, stereotypical boozy image. Get out and explore this beautiful Costa Brava region.

Benidorm Cross.

Took a drive up to the Benidorm Cross yesterday evening. A long, winding drive in a sweltering 32 degrees brought us within a quarter of a mile of the Cross. The rest was walking. It was worth the effort.

‘At the end of 1961, at the request of Father Salvador Perona, people from Benidorm, in an evangelizing mission in order to redeem the city from its frivolous reputation, carried a
huge cross on their shoulders from San Jaime and Santa Ana church to Sierra Helada. Over the years, the Cross has become another of
Benidorm’s beautiful tourist attractions.’