John Muir

After a good night’s sleep, it was time to find out what was on offer for breakfast. Cold buffet options were on display but hot food was cooked to order. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my favourite breakfast options; tomatoes on toast, mushrooms on toast, egg on toast were listed as options on the menu rather than me having to pick the items from the full English breakfast choice.

The weather was perfect (hot and sunny) for our planned visit to Slimbridge wetlands centre for Mr C’s birthday.

Slimbridge was every bit as good as I remembered it from my childhood visits. There is an abundance of birds to see and most of them were out on display rather than hiding. With the help of volunteers and local enthusiasts we were introduced to wildlife and fascinating conservation tales that we would not have discovered without their enthusiasm to share information.

Amongst other things we learned about how Peter Scott rescued the nēnē goose from the brink of extinction and were shown a large number of cranes congregating on the Severn estuary.  We didn’t see the advertised pelicans but enjoyed seeing all six species of flamingo.

Despite my declaration that I wouldn’t be buying anything from the shop, I came away with two books…

Back at the hotel we chilled out with a cup of tea in our room before a pre-dinner Prosecco on the hotel terrace. After dining we returned to the hotel terrace and watched the sun setting over the Gloucestershire countryside.

We enjoyed one last breakfast before checking out of the Norfolk Arms ready to travel to our next destination; Brighton.

I succumbed to the temptation and called in at the Wildlife and Wetlands Centre to purchase a pair of binoculars. I tested them out again eventually settling on a pair that I thought would be best for my needs. I had to wait a short while to purchase them due to a long queue of visitors booking in for a day in the wetlands.

Next, we visited the nearby Bignor Roman Villa; a large Roman courtyard villa discovered by George Tupper when he struck a large stone whilst ploughing his farm in 1811. The villa has some interesting and unique finds.

By now it was time for elevenses so we set off for a nearby village. We never arrived in the village due to being repeatedly drawn back into, what we started to call, the Bury triangle. Instead, we ended up at Petworth just in time for lunch. The eagle eyed will realise that Petworth is in completely the opposite direction to Brighton. The National Trust carpark for Petworth House was full so we left and parked next to the deer park hoping that there would be a lunch opportunity there.

We weren’t disappointed, we found the delightfully named ‘Toast Me Up’ tucked away in one corner of the car park. It was perfect and my toasted sandwich was delicious.

After lunch Mr C headed off towards the coast thinking of a coastal drive towards Brighton. Mr C chose to include Bognor Regis in his itinerary. When we arrived, it was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. Next town along the coast Littlehampton where once again we elected not to stop and continued inland straight to Brighton.

We drove straight to our hotel, the Grand, arriving at the drop off point in front of the hotel. We were greeted by 3 suited and bowler-hatted concierges. Mr C was directed to park his car and, before I could get out of the car, the boot was unpacked and they had whisked Mr C away along with our luggage. When he returned to the car, one of the concierges explained how to get to the car park and back to the hotel.

When I eventually got to the room it was WOW! All that I hoped it would be. We left the bags in the walk-in luggage area and went for a stroll around Brighton before returning to freshen up before dining in the French-styled Bistro du Vin. We had intended to dine in the Cyan restaurant at the Grand but we found that it closes early on a Sunday.

We had a brief visit to Weatherspoon’s before taking a leisurely stroll along the seafront back to the hotel for a nightcap in the bar.

Anne Eleanor Roosevelt

This evening the sunset over my garden was more soft and gentle than it was yesterday.

Earlier in the day I had a garden walk in the sunshine

Henry David Thoreau