Peaceful

We brought 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 9:40am.  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 were 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 need 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 clearly had 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 reminder 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 1:15pm 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 the cracking, and the cheese for desert. Cheese came with a really unusual chutney pasty (all he 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 5pm. 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 8:15pm. We helped C&D with their bags all the way back to their flat and then made an 8:36pm train direct to Raynes Park.