Early morning start as I was excited to get back on the road again… breakfast at the Manor hotel at 8am and headed out at around 9:30

Weather was SO windy! The wind was whistling like crazy and the clouds were low and grey, didnt stop me though, I went ahead with all my plans even though it was raining every now and again

Meeting so many people along the way really is a highlight for me – there are such interesting people and the further out you get from the main cities the friendlier and less stressed the people are (like anywhere I guess)

DAY 1 – ITINERARY

A – Crawley – West Sussex
B – Ouse Valley Viaduct – pass by – West Sussex
C – Hayward Heath – St Wilifrids Church – West Sussex
D – Bramber Castle Ruins – West Sussex
E – Worthing – West Sussex
F – Ferring – St Andrews Church – West Sussex
G – Littlehampton – West Sussex
H – Rusper – West Sussex

ROADWORKS – I was lucky as I got stuck in PLENTY of roadworks heading along the coast

DRIVING ON THE TRAIN TRACKS – I nearly turned left onto a bloody railroad track instead of the street just behind it! the GPS tricked me… that was smart… wouldnt want to know what would happen if I got stuck there – that would be embarrassing

In the 2 days of driving ive already been waiting for 78,001 trains to pass by at the train crossings… I dont think Sydney drivers would have the patience for these train crossings LOL the english dont mind at all! Im actually starting to really like driving on the roads here, people seem to be more patient and give way and wave to each other, maybe its a country thing when you get out of the main towns but Im enjoying it

CRAWLEY

Oh I really liked Crawley! I found an ASDA car park as its easy and close usually to the town centre – I just feel that in aus we are constantly paying so much for parking no matter where we are, but here for example, it says its a paid car park, and free if you buy 10pounds worth at Asda so I went in and bought a personality, okok, I just bought thermals 😛 and I went and found out that you can park for free for 1.5hrs and then its free if you buy something but then was told by the cashier, its ok just drive out and dont stress about it… so in the end I thought “whats the point!?” it wasnt too expensive in any case, I like how its sort of a trust system here still , there seems to be a bit more trust in the people on the roads to make good decisions where as we have rules stating how many times we can breath in and out in the car per hour

Stanhill Court Hotel -> Crawley
The Brewery Shades – the lovely lass let me go inside and explore even thouhg the werent open, its a family owned and run pub which caters and cares for the locals and mainly the elderly who are on their own, they have activites for the locals and for the kids, its really sweet how the girl cares for her friends in the village – this is the good side of living in a smaller place, its all very personal
The inside of the pub, medieval, they cant change anything due to the laws… and GOOD! who would want to get rid of such character for modern boring straught lines (not me)
Crawley High Street – cute as always!
The quiant buildings didnt stop here, it was actually a quiet little town not much going on – but ASDA was packed though
St Johns, Crawley
High Street and where they used to have the hangings of prisoners

OUSE VALLEY VIADUCT

This one was a quick drive past and illegal park in someones driveway to get a picture type of visit

Construction of the Ouse Valley Viaduct was started by the London & Brighton Railway company in 1839 and is known to be one of the nicest viaducts in Britain, the London to Brighton railway line runs across this. Designed by John Urpeth Rastrick and is 29m high with 37 beautiful arches and 450m

Road side shot of the viaduct

HAYWARD HEATH

Another cute little town with its own unique beautiful church smack banf in the middle – I found a car park right at the front – it was a 30min no return spot so it was perfect for a quick tour of the town and local pub hunting

St Wilifrids Church, Hayward Heath

BRAMBER CASTLE

I love how you can park on the narrowest roads which then turn it into an even smaller lane even though there is 2 way flow of traffic! but who am I to argue!?

I took my drone as I thought this would be a fabulous location to fly it BUT the wind was SO strong that I couldnt keep the drone up for too long – was trying to land it on my hand but the wind wouldnt let me so had to make a semi-crash landing on the high grass! got a few good shots so its not all bad

Bramber is a little quiet sleepy village with its main attraction being the remains of this once beautiful castle
Parking without feeling like im doing something wrong – I just follow the others lead for now!
St Nicholas Church which is part of Bramber Castle
A bit of the remains of the main keep – sad to see only a little bit remaining

BRAMBER CASTLE

The remains of this Norman castle are perched on a high natural knoll overlooking the River Adur, defending a gap in the South Downs. Built soon after the Norman Conquest to help protect William I’s newly won territories, the castle was the Sussex seat of the de Braose family. The one surviving wall of the tower, standing 14 metres high, provides a glimpse of how imposing the castle once was. Climb to the top of the motte for stunning views of the surrounding countryside

Dronie shot of the castle remains
Dronie shot! The little village where Bramber castle is situated

WORTHING

A seaside town in west sussex, a larger town than where I have been yesterday and today, it has an pier which I wated to check out, so I parked at Lidl, bought some cashews so I could part there, was free parking anyways so even thought it said paid parking, so I shrugged, and walked off to explore.

Population is around 110,000

Worthing Town Hall – built in 1933 – The buildings were really different and more elegant, very grand and domineering, I liked the architecture here!
another gorgeous building with its own unique and outstanding style
The pier – the weather was so crazy windy that it was blowing me back as I was walking towards the coast – when I got to the pier it got worse and I was barely walking – but I didnt still keep going and….
Found this fun land type old school games room inside the building on the pier!
A quite dreery beach front with wild brown waters

LITTLEHAMPTON

I think of was one of the only few people walking through the streets here! There was no one around, it was windy and dreary – Littlehampton is a seaside resort and “pleasure Harbour” (whatever that means!) and there are around 55,000 people living here

The High Street was very small, there were a couple of nice churches around – plenty of car park areas which to me said that in summer this place must be BUSTLING!

PLenty of boats in the harbour area, I can imagine how beautiful this place would be in summer!
Parking was easy as there were so many places to choose from
only a pound for an hour – cheap!

Randomly found out that the Body Shop is headquartered from here and is one of the main employers of the town

The main green of the town with beautiful buildings in the back
There were plenty of different styles of buildings here and all different colours

RUSPER

Literally just a few buildings on part of the main road, very small and cute place with 2 pubs and a church – what more coupl a village need!?

There are around 1400 people living here though, I think they are all hiding under a bush cos i didnt see anyone

Im learning to drive like a brit! im just parking wherever now without feeling im going to get caught by a cop and pepper sprayed
St Mary Magdalenes Church with its lovely medieval tower – the interior was so dark and eerie inside but so beautoful just to sit in silence and appreciation 🙂
one of the 2 pubs just 20metres away from each other
book club in the phone box! Love love love this!
Ended up filling up today and im not going to complain about the price of fuel in aus!
Got back to my Manor accomodation
and in time to see the gorgeous sunset…

All in all a great day, meeting new people, everyone in general is really friendly! even more so down south and what ive always liked about living in the UK is that people dont just talk to their own friends they are with, they lean over and start getting to know the other people next to them and randomly start chatting, Ive really missed that!