Jiggery-pokery, jumbo jets and fighter pilots..

Oh - and a 15.3 mile walk as well...

Julia and I headed off to walk from Berwick to Eastbourne on Saturday. My usual faultless train organising slipped a bit however, so for the first time had to get in a taxi to get to the start of the walk... Most unlike me!

The first half of the walk was a bit underwhelming - some nice bits, but nothing too amazing. Although it was interesting to walk past the Arlington Reservoir at the start and see that it looked quite full - couldn't help but wonder what its level had been last year - drought vs the wet summer we've had... It picked up once we'd sighted The Long Man of Wilmington however, and we did get to walk through a corn field that was very remniscent of The X-Files! We had lunch in Jevington at the Eight Bells pub - whose innkeeper in the 1780s was a well known smuggler, James Pettit - known as 'Jevington Jigg' who used to store the contraband in the pub (and the rectory....). Very nice it was too! Also the first time we saw signs about Foot & Mouth as well - including buckets of disinfectant by fields to scrub your shoes with before going across it...

Walking along the South Downs Way after lunch we missed the turn off so decided to do the long version of the walk and stretch it out to Beachy Head (which I'd never been to). As we walked towards it we were a bit suprised at how many people there were (and also why there were so many helicopters flying around...) and then realised it was the Eastbourne Airbourne show on... We'd missed the bulk of it, but did get to see the Jumbo fly past - and it is something to see a Jumbo fly low over cliffs and then fly at a 45 deg angle to skim the cliffs. Very very cool. But what was as good was the fighter plane that did fab fast things and then finished by spiralling in a corkscrew up into the clouds. Very very stylish - is it possible to have a crush on an unseen pilot??

A very long day, but a very good one! More photos on Flickr as well...