Peaceful

We bought some avocados that were past their best and needed eating. Today, they made a delicious breakfast. But, it was rushed because I forgot we were going to have them before we left, and I was taking my morning slowly, thinking we only needed to be at the bus stop for 9:40 am. We met C&D and deposited their bags with the hotel reception. We walked to the bus, waited while the driver prepared for departure, boarded, and headed off.

To prevent excessive walking, we’d decided that we’d take the bus to Seaview and walk to the nature reserve there, hoping the hide was unoccupied. Christine had her binoculars, and we were wearing our Wellington boots again (although PY was carrying his for some reason). The bus goes quite a long way around for what isn’t really a long walk, but it did reduce the amount of effort needed to go and watch the wildlife.

It was muddy, but perhaps not as muddy as I’d expected after all the rain over the last few weeks. We spent about 45 minutes watching the wildlife. The hide was empty – although it had clearly been used by people smoking quite recently – and we got to see a lot of wildlife. There were a lot of geese that, occasionally, flew overhead. We only saw the swans when we arrived and didn’t see them again for the remainder of the visit. Compared to the last time we were here – when they were protecting their nests and quite defensive – they were very peaceful.

We walked back to the bus stop, leaving ourselves plenty of time. We spent the afternoon in the flat, and the sun was coming into the living room, so it was lovely and warm. Monkton Brook was much lower today. It’s quite impressive how quickly the water receded.

About 1:15 pm, we walked to Catch, the restaurant on top of one of the cafes on Appley Beach. We went for Sunday lunch. We did think it would be a bit busier, but there were only a few other tables there. I ate the pork, without cracking, and the cheese for dessert. The cheese came with a really unusual chutney pasty (all the chutney was in a mini-warm pasty), and it was delicious.

Afterwards, it was back to the flat, where a cab was ordered to take us all to the Pier Head at 5 pm. Of course, that’s way too early, but it also built in a buffer in case we needed to walk. We were in Woking by about 8:15 pm. We helped C&D with their bags all the way back to their flat and then made an 8:36 pm train direct to Raynes Park.