Newhaven

Margie, Margie here we go again!

With the house fully bleached, it is with excitement, nervousness and some trepidation we set off to take Marge to Italy.

By the time we hit the M25 Marge had settled into a steady rhythm, and bowled along quite happily in the afternoon sunshine, glad to leave the showers of earlier behind. New Marge is left hand drive, but a little trick with a water bottle placed in the holder on top of the dash board resulted in a happy driver and co-pilot.

As we approached the south downs, we were on the last leg of our journey, and just after 6 pm we arrived at Newhaven ferry terminal once again, where we would rest Marge overnight.

After securing Marge in the car park with the other vans, we took a walk into the town centre, spotting various sculptures of cormorants on the way.

Newhaven town turned out to be yet 'another down at heel' coastal town with it's resident drunks, so we decided to walk up to the west quay, where we enjoyed a much welcome alcoholic beverage, and meals of fish & chips and lamb and mushroom pie. Our holiday had begun...

After the meal we took a gentle stroll back to Marge, accompanied by the background noise of scrunching scrap metal being loaded onto a ship to 'goodness knows where', a harsh sound in comparison to the murmur of the lifeboat as it was put to bed after a practice night, probably with the crew hoping for a quiet night. The time 8.40 pm and still daylight. Tomorrow evening we will be in France, where it will stay light until at least 9.40 pm, what's not to like?