Just photos of my walk to get the bus to get into Brighton and Hove. I admit that the scenery in the morning is quite nice, although I’ve got to traipse back to the campsite later again which I’m already pre-annoyed about.
If I’m being honest, I don’t feel that I offer the same inspirational commentary on walking as Dave Morgan provides. But I do more food and drink photos, so half a dozen of one, half a dozen of the other…..
Back in February, when the world was a different place (and hotels were shut), I decided it might be interesting to go camping on my own and see if I liked it. I don’t entirely dislike it with groups of friends, but I thought it might be nice to get away from it all and be at one with nature. YHA had a deal where the campsite was just £7 per night, so a four night stay cost just £28. Given the accommodation prices in Brighton and Hove (any half decent hotel is £75+ per night), that’s considerably cheaper.
I booked YHA Truleigh Hill, which is, as far as I’m concerned, in the middle of nowhere, although it is on the South Downs Way. It’s a 70 minute walk each way to Shoreham, although then it’s well connected with buses to the Brighton and Hove area.
The YHA itself is a bit worn out internally, but they had been about to launch a refurbishment in 2020 before Covid hit. The renovations are on hold and might not take place for some time given the financial hit that YHA have had. One of the biggest problems is the lack of electrical points, which they had hoped to fix, but they can’t do this without an expensive electrical systems upgrade which was part of the planned renovations. The friendly staff member did though point out the four-way plug in the cafe where I could charge my devices, so that’s sorted that.
The staff here are all perfectly friendly, although one is slightly exuberant, although I don’t suppose that’s really a complaint. There are more rules here that I’ve experienced at other YHAs, although that’s perhaps because others are a bit more lax sometimes in how they operate. There’s nothing off-putting though and the staff are doing their best to keep everything clean and organised.
I picked this spot, which overlooks the sea (well it would have done if I had pointed the door that way).
There’s a lower area to the camping area as well where visitors can pitch their tents, although given all the benches around there (and probably flies), I can’t imagine many do.
My tent, which is slightly wonky but I’m not really into camping and tents. I messaged my friend Liam distressed at the complexity of putting the tent up, although the good news is that it’s still there (well, hopefully, I’m no longer near it) and I put the damn thing up unaided.
The view from the tent. I sent this to some people who thought it must be marvellous to watch the sun go down. I’m not convinced, I spent five minutes extracting a moth the size of a seagull out of my tent.
Anyway, I noted earlier on that it might be “nice to get away from it all”. I’ve realised that I actually really like “it all”, which is civilisation, Prets, good beer guide pubs, craft beer and public transport. I’ve come to realise how much of a city person I am and how I’m not going to set off on some solo expedition with a tent in the future. This camping thing is an interesting experiment, but I can’t see me repeating it, unless it’s with a group of friends, in a pub beer garden or in the middle of a city. The experiment isn’t yet over, but I can’t imagine my views of this whole thing will change.
I stupidly, and now regret to be fair, decided to go on a little camping trip to the south coast this week. That meant leaving the comfort of London with its bars, Prets, Greggs and other home comforts, for the wilds of the South Downs.
With not much time spare (very unusually for me) I arrived at London Victoria. The platform for the train to Littlehampton wasn’t announced until 10:41, which isn’t entirely ideal when the service leaves at 10:45. Although, that gave me time to play guess the platform, and I guessed correctly that it would be platform 12, so I was ready and waiting. Any passenger in another part of the railway station with mobility issues would have had a rather more entertaining and stressful four minutes.
Here we are, ready to board. At this stage, I didn’t think there would be much of interest during this rail journey, so I didn’t expect to use these photos.
The Southern Train pulls in, all seems to be going to plan. It was a long train which was nearly entirely empty, but all was on time.
The carriage. And with that, I was expecting to arrive into Shoreham-by-Sea around an hour later with no issues or delays.
We got past Gatwick and there was then an announcement that the railway network on the southern coast had run out of power or something similar. This didn’t sound ideal, but a staff member at Haywards Heath said to just board the next train to Brighton and then change there. So I did that, whilst carrying my bag and traipsing another bag about. It’s fair to say, I’m not really getting into this camping thing. Indeed, I’ve spent most of the day moaning about it to people.
Boarding the 11:43 to Brighton.
On board that train into Brighton, carting all this bloody camping equipment with me.
When at Brighton railway station it was evident that I had about fifteen minutes until the train to Hove, where I could catch a train to Shoreham from. I popped to the gateline and asked to be let out of the railway station (implying I also wanted letting back in shortly afterwards) so that I could visit Pret to get an emergency hot chocolate.
I still have my Pret subscription, so this was a handy stop and got me an unexpected free drink.
Back in the railway station I boarded the train to Hove, also relieved that I had been let back through the gateline without any problems.
This train journey wasn’t particularly busy and since it only went to Hove it lasted all of around five minutes. My hot chocolate was so hot I still hadn’t drunk any of it by the time that we got to Hove (not that anyone will be too bothered about that).
Anyway, I got off at Hove and this railway employee was giving advice on what to do next as it was clear not much rail traffic was leaving this station. The advice was primarily to get a bus and this was all arranged with the local company so that rail passengers wouldn’t have to pay. I liked his “there’s no point standing here” as some customers didn’t believe him when he said there were no trains for some time. As I understand, it transpired that it took the about three hours to fix the problem, so anyone waiting at the station for the services to be restored wouldn’t have had a quick departure.
And a five minute walk saw me find a bus to Shoreham, which helpfully dropped me off slightly nearer to the campsite than the train would have done. But, I was well over an hour late, so at least this rail fare will be refunded under delay repay. With that, my camping adventure would begin, although writing this one day later, I can’t say that this is my favourite adventure that I’ve ever had. But we’ll see how it goes from here.
