Pantiles and Photos.....

Following our trip to Brighton another trip was planned by bus...this time just a few miles up the road to Royal Tunbridge Wells.....

I had never been there before and neither had Anne... I particularly wanted to visit the Pantiles area which is at the lower end of the town....
We decided that we would start at the top of the town and work our way down and finish with the Pantiles.

The town is really like two small towns in one... The upper part is more modern with all the usual shops that you expect to find in any British town. 
If shopping is your thing then you would enjoy a visit to the  Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre. 
It is not a huge shopping centre but it does have some very nice shops including a branch of Fenwick that also has a nice Terrace Restaurant......`

Working are way down the hill we couldn't resist checking out the various jewellers shops which all had some very nice watches and unusual jewellery on offer......

One thing we noticed was that there are some very nice parks in and around the town and they seem to be very popular with local office workers taking their lunch there..... It's nice to see the parks well cared for and also being enjoyed.......

Eventually we had worked our way down to the older section of the town and the Pantiles.....
Still lots of high end jewellery shops indicating both that this is quite a wealthy area and also that it has a high number of wealthy tourists......

A view of the Pantiles

 The Pantiles has a number of coffee shops and small bistro style businesses as well as pubs and is very much a popular 'cafe culture' area in the town.
I went back to the Pantiles a few days later on a Saturday and the whole area was packed with people sitting outside drinking coffee and much stronger beverages

Another view of the Pantiles

 One of the shops in the Pantiles was an independent camera shop that I couldn't resist visiting...
For some time now I have been thinking about getting a high quality compact camera.....
Over recent years I have gone from DSLR to CSC and a Fuji X-Pro but although each change has given me in the main a smaller camera I still find that due to their size I don't carry them with me on the off chance of a good shot often enough......
These days most of my shots are taken with my phone camera and although ok for the internet the quality is not there if I want to print out a larger print....

Years ago I had a Rollei 35s film camera that I used to carry around everywhere with me. It was a very neat little camera and it was capable of some very good quality shots......
Part of that quality was down to it's Zeiss Sonnar lens..... 

What I was looking for when I entered the shop was something similar in size to the Rollei but digital of course and capable of producing really good shots......

Over the past few moths I have been checking out 'Best Compact Travel Cameras' online and the Sony RX100 series keeps coming up time and time again.

Over the past five years or so Sony has updated the RX100 a number of times and the latest model is the RX100 VI. The thing though with Sony is that when they bring out a new model they keep the previous models still available....

The guy in the shop had a flow chart with each model on it and I used that to highlight my requirements and the model that would suit me best.....
Whichever way I used it, it kept bringing me back to the same model....the RX100 III so I bought one....
4K video and long telephoto were not high on my requirement list and the newer models have improvements in those areas hence the reason the RX100 III kept popping up as more suited to my needs and photographic style.....

I won't bore you with all the technical specs except that it measures just 101.6 x 58.1 x 41.0mm and it weighs in at 290g.
It has 20mp and a 1 inch sensor....... 
I have a little Ricoh CX1 camera that I have had for a number of years and the RX100 III is really no larger than that but a lot more advanced with the larger sensor and higher pixel count and many more fuctions and controls....

A number of the reviews that I have read online that were posted two or three years ago rated the Sony RX100 III "possibly the very best compact camera currently available".
As I said that was a few years ago and things move on rapidly in the photo tech world but I am pretty certain that it will still fullfil my requirements and needs pretty well.

It has been said that the best camera is the one that you have with you.... so with it's small size I am hoping that I will be carrying it everywhere just like I did with my old Rollei 35s....

Retro style camera case for the RX100 series

The two panels on the top plate are Flash in the middle & Pop Up EVF on the right.

Zeiss Vario Sonnar means a quality lens.

**NB: I have received no payment or incentive regarding my mention of this product.**

Trying to Catch Up......

We are currently at the Polstead C&CC site in Suffolk....
We stayed here last year for a couple of weeks and really liked the site but felt that we could have done with more time here. 
This year we have come back to spend 28 days here.... The cycling in the area is first class and with nice walks and a selection of pubs close by it has a lot going for it.....

Unfortunately I am running behind in my posts to the blog and I am trying to catch up so as we are here for a month I hope to be all up to date by the time we move on.

Following our stay at the Osiers CS near Chichester we moved on to the C&CC site at Crowborough....
Now I think that it is fair to say that there is not a lot at Crowborough but our main reason for stopping off for a couple of weeks there was to enable us to visit Royal Tunbridge Wells and also have a trip to Brighton.

I did venture out on my bike when we were there but the condition of the roads was terrible... There were pot holes everywhere and that plus narrow roads and a high volume of traffic made me decide that I wouldn't go out again on the bike during our stay....
So from then on it was walking everyday rather than cycling.......

When we visited Brighton we travelled on the bus.... I find that if I drive I tend to miss out on a lot of the views of the countryside and you can see so much more from the upper deck of a double decker bus..... also when you arrive at your destination you don't have to bother with finding a parking place......

We had a good day out in Brighton visiting the Lanes...the Pier and the Royal Pavilion...
The lanes were packed with lots of small Jewellers Shops with some very high end items for sale. 
Our visit to the pier consisted of having some lunch and a beer and watching some of the braver youngsters taking rides on some of the scary rides..... 
Years ago I might have had a go on those rides but not these days.......

After lunch we then visited the Royal Pavilion.....
It is certainly a very interesting building and Anne had been wanting to visit it for some time....
Some images taken during our visit to the Pavilion are shown below.....

East Marden YHA....A Full Circle....

Last year I told you about my visit to a water mill near St Ives Huntingdon that had been a Youth Hostel that I had visited 55 years earlier while I was on a cycle ride with one of my childhood mates....
Well when we were staying near Chichester a few weeks ago I visited another of the Youth Hostels that I had visited as a youngster.....

This time it was the YHA at East Marden West Sussex.....
I remember the ride quite well...
Leaving home at Feltham Middx which is where we were living at the time the ride consisted of Milford YHA.... East Marden YHA.... Portsmouth YHA.... Southampton YHA.... Hindhead YHA and then back home.

This ride was really like a tester for the ride we did the following year when I visited the Water Mill near Huntingdon and although I remember all of the YHA's we visited on that earlier trip it was the one at East Marden that I remember the most....

I think the main reason for that was because we had met a couple of girls that happened to be staying at the youth hostel when we stayed there and Paul and I were a bit reluctant to have to move on.....
I remember taking a picture of my bike under the old thatched well in the village and also stopping at a bend in the road as we cycled away from the village and looking back at the Youth Hostel.... 

As Anne and I were reasonably close to the village when staying near Chichester I decided to cycle out there for a visit...this would me the first time that I had been back to the village since I was thirteen......

The House That Used To Be East Marden YHA

 The ride out to the village was really enjoyable and it seemed to have hardly changed....
Happily it doesn't seem to have grown at all... no new buildings and everything just as it was all those years ago....
Standing looking at the building that used to be the Youth Hostel that first visit all came flooding back to me.......

East Marden Village Church

 I remembered sitting outside the church eating a 'Fry's Five Boys' chocolate bar while we waited for the Youth Hostel to open on the evening of our arrival. The seat outside the church was still there......

East Marden Thatched Village Mill

 As I sat there eating that chocolate bar we could see the village mill opposite us.....
An image of the mill was used as an ink stamp that you had stamped in your YHA membership card when you visited the hostel.....
It was also used on a badge that you could buy to add to your collection of hostel badges and I remember buying one on the morning that we left the hostel......

Bike Lean Image at the Well...

As Paul and I sat there all those years ago we decided that it would be a good idea to take a photo of each of our bikes under the thatch of the village well.....
In those days the photos were of course in black and white......

On this my 2018 visit to the village I did the same thing..... my current bike is worlds away from the heavy bike that I was riding on that trip as a youngster but I stood it in the exact same spot for the colour shot taken on my phone....

I would never have thought as a thirteen year old all those years ago that I would be re-visiting the village as a seventy year old riding a bike and taking pictures in those same spots......
I really enjoyed my return visit and as I rode away I came to the bend in the road where I had stopped and looked back towards the hostel... I stopped and looked back... the only thing that had changed was that view...the trees have grown and now obscure the hostel...

I remounted my bike and headed back in the direction of Chichester.....

As I rode away the phrase 'Full Circle' entered my thoughts.... I thought of all the rides that I have done since that trip as a youngster and here I was again cycling that same route...In cycling terms it really was a 'Full Circle'

Around Bosham.....

During our stay at the Osiers CScs site we chose to have a little wander around Bosham...
It was quite a few years since I had last been there and Anne had never visited the area ....

Bosham Quay

We walked down to Bosham quay where everyone is told not to leave their car due to how quickly the tide can come in....
The tide was actually out when we were there and as we had walked we had no problems with leaving a car parked on the quay.....

Bosham Mill

 We looked a Boham Mill House... This is a grade 2 listed building which was listed back in 1973.
The Mill is quite an attractive L-shaped building. Timber framed in the north end and largly re-faced with red bricks...
I really love old Mill houses and this one is in very nice condition....

Holy Trinity Church Bosham

We then carried on to view Holy Trinity Church..... The church has a long history dating back to the seventh century it is Saxon in origin.. it is even mentioned in the Bayeux Tapestry...
Anne and I took some time to sit in the churchyard and take in the peace and quiet..... A very tranquil place......

Drive Slowly...Ducks Crossing....

On another walk we headed across the fields to Funtingdon....
On the way we passed a sign warning drivers to go slowly due to Ducks crossing the road..... Not something that you see everyday.... 
`

Funtingdon Church

The route took us through yet another churchyard...this time it was Funtingdon Church....
It was a blazing hot day and we were headed for a pub/restaurant for lunch.....
We had a very nice meal plus a couple of pints of beer for me (Anne just has soft drinks) and then we headed back the way that we had come.....

It's funny how it is always a bit harder walking back after a couple of pints and a meal but we did eventually arrive back at the site where I spent the rest of the afternoon taking in the sun....

A Real Gem......

For the past two weeks we have been staying at The Osiers CS near Chichester.....
We decided to try this little site because the C&CC site at Chichester has building work nearby and this has been causing both noise and dust so that meant we crossed the site off this years list......

The little Osiers Site has won the C&CC best CS as well as the best Hideaway site for a number of years so with the C&CC Chichester site crossed off our list it seemed the obvious choice for us in this area.
I also wanted to try a small CS as although I have stayed on them whilst cycle touring and backpacking I have never taken Eva the Eriba to one......
The middle weekend and following week of our two week stay was a Bank Holiday and half term holiday so we were hoping that the little site would be a haven of peace and quiet and not crammed full as a lot of the larger sites are over the bank and school holidays....

Hideaway can mean tucked away and this site is although it was not difficult to find....

Looking down the Drive to the Entrance from the Road.

 There is a small entrance off the road with an automatic five bar gate and a long narrow drive from the road to the site itself.......
The owners John and Jackie are a really lovely and friendly couple and Jackie was waiting at the end of the drive to see us on to our pitch.......

The little Facilities Block....

 The facilities were situated in a small and attractive building at one end of the site......
There are a couple of toilets and a shower and as this is a five van site these facilities seemed perfectly adequate..... 
There is a small washing up area set into the building as well....

At no time during our stay were the facilities overwhelmed and we never had to wait to use them......

The rear view of an old stable block...Eva and Awning is just to the left.

 The little site is well looked after and John and Jackie have done lots of things to encourage wild life and during our stay we saw many types of birds.....We spent hours watching the birds going in and out of the numerous bird boxes scattered around the site and the swallows swooping around the site gave us hours of pleasure.... 
In the evening the birds were replaced with bats swooping around.....

At the far end of the site there is a small meadow where Jackie keeps the grasses long in order to encourage insects and small creatures like field mice etc......

As well as the pitches for caravans/motorhomes and tents there are also a couple of Yurts setup in a small area of their own.....

This site was a Real Gem of a find and we really enjoyed our stay there.....
As for our desire for a quiet and tranquil site over the bank holiday and school half term break.... well it could not have been better....

It was quiet......
It was tranquil....
It was perfect......
Just see the image below of how uncluttered and quiet the site was.......

Perfect...!!

Sunshine..A Rasberry and on the Road Again......

Well the past 28 days have flown by....
It doesn't seem possible that we have been here at the Verwood C&CC site for almost a month....

In the main we have enjoyed some very nice weather although our first week here was a little bit 'iffy' with some sudden bursts of very heavy rain... Since then though it has been pretty well perfect camping weather.... It's probably too much to hope that this good weather will continue throughout the summer but it would be great if it did.......

This weekend Peter Calcutt and his wife Alison came over to join us on site and show us their new caravan....
It is a Freedom Caravan......Alison bought it and also chose the colour hence the rasberry red metallic finish.

My other mate Gideon showed Peter & Ali to their pitch and then came up to my caravan to let me know that they had arrived.
I made my way down to their pitch and this is what I saw..........

Peter &Ali errecting the awning...

 Peter and Ali were in the middle of errecting their awning..... Literally in the middle of errecting it...actually in the middle of the awning. All I could see was the awning seemingly moving around on it's own... Every so often one of the panels would stick out and then another one and then the whole structure seemed to collapse in on itself before rising up again.....
Peter and Ali were both inside it and I must admit that the whole thing was very funny to watch....... 

Awning up and attached to the 'Rasberry'

 Eventually everything was sorted and I was treated to a walk through of the new van.....
The colour certainly attracts attention and I don't think that it would ever be lost amongst all the other caravans on a busy site.......

That evening Ali prepared a very nice meal which we all enjoyed together..... it was a warm evening so we were able to eat our meal sat out in front of the awning.....

Over the past three years Anne and I have seen a number of 'Freedom Caravans' on various sites but this is the first red one that we have seen. 
Apparently it is a Limited Edition for the 2018 model year and next year another colour will be introduced....

Peter and Ali ordered it at last year's Caravan and Motorhome show and I believe that theirs was the first to be delivered in the UK.....

Peter... Ali...& the Rasberry leaving the site.

Sunday lunch time came around all too quickly....
All too soon it was time for Peter & Ali to head off back home....

It had been a quick one night visit but nonetheless enjoyable.....

The next time that we hope to meet up again will be in August when we will be pitched at an Adult only site in Suffolk.........
What better place to be during the school summer holidays than pitched on an Adults only caravan site..Lol.

After Peter and Ali had left the site Anne and I started to pack kit away and take down our own awning........  Tomorrow we are on the road again. 

This time we are heading for a small Certificated five caravan site near Chichester West Sussex...... We are booked in for two weeks.
With another Bank Holiday next weekend we decided that we fancied being on a small 'Hideaway' site as we hope that it will be quieter than being on one of the Clubs main sites.....

Apparently i-net connection is not good there so there could be a bit of a delay in replying to comments and also making my next blog post.......

Tenth Birthday and Good Weather.....

Yesterday was the tenth birthday of this Blog.....
Over the past ten years 'The Original PurpleTraveller' has covered lots of different subjects such as saddle comfort.... favourite tents for backpacking....the pain endured on long distance bike rides against the clock.... caravan life and lots more.....

When it was first started I had thought that it might be a platform for friends to follow what was going on and keep in touch when I was away on some hair brained challenge either on the bike or backpacking or something else......
The truth is that has not really been the case.....

In the main friends don't drop in on the blog all that often but new internet friends have been made and some of those have been regular followers for many years and in turn I have followed their blogs with interest......

I have always made a point of answering any comments left on the blog because I feel that if people have made the effort to read my ramblings and then made the extra effort to leave a comment then the least that I can do is acknowledge that fact.....

How many more years will I continue to make posts on this blog?
That is a difficult one to answer....... 
i suppose I might wake up one morning and decide enough is enough and stop posting entries for good.....

I do go through periods of not having much to say and during those periods obviously make fewer posts and then something happens and I think to myself that I must put that on the blog.....

Anyway..... I would like to say to all those readers out there who drop by on a regular basis "Thanks you are what it is all about"

Since my last post the weather has improved no end and like almost everywhere else in the country we had a stunning Bank Holiday weekend.......

The site was quite busy over the weekend.....
The lower field was the busiest as can be seen in the first picture below.......

The busy lower field...

 By Monday afternoon the lower field was almost empty..... They had come...camped....and gone again!!

Monday afternoon and most campers had gone.....

 So what did we do over the Bank Holiday.......
We kept off the roads.....took the front panel of the awning down and sat around in the sun enjoying all the nice weather....

Good enough weather to take the awnings front panel down....

Oh..! One last thing......
I have now brought Fiona the Felt out of her winter hibernation and am now enjoying the wonders of Full Carbon & Dura-Ace rides.......

Fiona the Felt....My summer ride now out on the road......