It was time to move on from Battle and our next stop was determined by two factors: the first, a couple who followed our blog last year and who are now planning their own trip to the Baltic states and Scandinavia, invited us to pop in for a cup of tea if we were passing through Littlehampton; the second Sarah remembers Littlehampton as the place she came to as a child, if they were looking for a sandy beach on the south coast. So Littlehampton it was.
The first part of our journey, before we reached the main south coast road, the A27, was through archetypical Southern English countryside. Lovely wooded rolling hills interspersed with pretty villages full of clapboard cottages and old pubs. The sort of places that haven’t changed their appearance much in the last 70 years, presumably because of stricter planning laws than we have in our county of residence.
Before reaching Littlehampton we called in at the small town of Arundel. Situated on the River Arun, it is dominated by a huge mock castle, the home of what were one of Britains most senior aristocratic families, the Dukes of Norfolk. I term it a mock castle because although it looks very “castley” it was in fact built in the 19th century when the need for fortifications in Britain had long since past. It is built on the same site as the Duke of Norfolk’s Norman castle, which was inconsiderately demolished during the English Civil War.
Arundel “castle”
In addition to the castle, this small town has a large cathedral, unusually of Roman Catholic denomination, due the the Dukes of Norfolk being one of the few British aristocratic families to remain adherents to that faith.
We didn’t have time to either look round the cathedral or the castle, not that I think we would have done even if time had allowed. So we limited ourselves to a wander around the antique shop ridden streets. It’s a pretty little place, and if you are a fan of stately homes, I’m sure that you could happily spend half a day here.
Arundel
Next we went to meet Andy and Jan at their home in Littlehampton. They had already assured us that they were big fans of dogs and so Melek and Mabel were both recognised from the blog and made very welcome, as were we.
Andy and Jan are fairly new to motorhoming like us 14th months ago. Jan had read many of the same blogs as me, such as Ourtour and the Woolywanderers, but they have not yet been on a long trip. They set off for the Baltic and Scandinavia in April, which is part of the route we did last year. We spent a lovely couple of hours generally chatting and answering as many questions as we could about last year’s trip and other motorhome topics. The tea was very welcome and, for us a real treat, they had biscuits, which along with other tempting snacks are usually banned from Basil’s interior. It is great and a bit of a surprise to meet new people through the blog and it will inspire me to keep going.
Basil on Littlehampton site
After we said goodbye to Andy and Jan we filled Basil with LPG, who had nearly emptied his tanks keeping us warm over the last few days and then headed for the Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Littlehampton (50.828026, -0.543584), where we will stay for two nights. Upon our arrival we were astonished to find that the hard standing part of the site was probably two thirds full. The season is clearly starting down here for us oldies and reminds me that we better get something sorted for Easter weekend as soon as possible.