Walks- Pagham Harbour-West Sussex.
After visiting St Wilfrids, Dan and I decided to take our mini dinner or crisps, water and sweets on a walk to the beach. It was 35 degrees plus, we had sensible shoes and there was promise of a visitors centre which held many precious things. Nothing could go wrong here. A warm welcome was bestowed upon us by the information board. Go HERE to see what we saw then follow closely to see what really happened.
Remains of a Norman Castle. Go HERE to see more.
Everything was very burnt and crispy including ourselves at this point but never mind on we walked and came to a deserted moonscape of pebbles.
A crisp break and small sit ensued. There was the grand total of 8 people on the beach including ourselves and although it was still a bit packed this pleased us.
TO THE VISITORS CENTRE!
Following all the instructions given to us and following all the signs we arrived at a small house. Maybe they will have leaflets? A pop machine or a nice chair?
No leaflets, no pop machine or a nice chair. Lots of flying ants though and we had to go off road to avoid their mass birthing.
At this point we knew we had overshot. We had walked for over an hour, all the sweets had gone, a butterfly almost flew into my mouth with which my current hunger would have welcomed. The water situation was running low and still no visitors centre. I spotted Fifi was also missing and wondered if she ever made it back. Would we be next on the lamppost?
Coming into hour number 13 we spotted land and could hear cars. Strange topics flooded our thoughts of ‘maybe the pop machine will be just around the corner?’ and ‘It was all a funny joke to make us work for the leaflets’.
A community in the distance silently carried on about their lives. They ate, drank pop and rested in dry clothing and laughed at how their shoes didn’t rub their feet whilst eating ten packs of Smarties.
A chance walk down a dual carriageway and the finding of a very worn 2p gave us the strength to continue. In the distance we saw a roof and this roof was going to lead us back to the car and the warm water bottles tucked inside the air conditioned cocoon we called hope.
Delirious and burnt we edged our way back up to the chapel where we had started our journey 6 and half hours earlier.
Thoughts and feelings now I look back on the day;
It is a really beautiful place and it is very quiet and picturesque. We didn’t take enough sweets. The signage had either been enveloped in the trees or had been stolen. Further thoughts about this now lead me to believe we should have turned right instead of left.
All in all a nice day out but maybe go in the autumn and not on one of the hottest days since 1849. The Brent Geese will be there now so that is very exciting.