Galloping home

What a fantastic day. The weather was so much better than forecast, so I decided to do some training for my long distance walk at the end of April. Caught the train to Lewes with Rufus, had a quick coffee with my friend Mike who lives there, and set off back to Brighton - around 10 miles in total.

Rufus disgraced himself as usual - chased some ducks into a horrible muddy, sludgy pond, and then later rolled in sheep shit. So even if I'd planned to jump on a bus to cut out some of the journey home, it wasn't an option then!

It was a really varied walk - through the old market town of Lewes, up onto the South Downs, past sheep with their lambs and up until we had sea views. Then we dropped down into Brighton via the Racecourse and onto the seafront, where there was a rally of old Austin 7 cars.

Brighton was packed with day trippers and it seemed such a contrast to the earlier tranquillity of the Downs.

The best thing of all was that when I reached the main beach, I saw that the Golden Gallopers were back. This superb carousel goes into hibernation every autumn. It makes me sad to walk past it and see the central mechanism under tarpaulin, as it's a sign that winter is on its way. Then one day in Spring, there they are again. It was a perfect day for them today and they glittered in the sunshine.

Rufus is fast asleep now after a bath and his dinner. I'm not far behind...