Cropped

Fred, Heath and I headed to Balcombe to walk around Ardingly Reservoir. A couple of people from the train headed down to the protest camp. We saw plenty of "Balcombe – not for shale" signs around the village, but we didn't come across the camp until the very end of our walk, when the distant patter of bongo drums could be heard through the forest. On the platform awaiting the train home, we conversed with a chap from Camden who said "Imagine if people protested against coal in early 19th century. We wouldn't have had the industrial revolution." Perhaps that might have been a good thing. Burning coal hasn't done an awful lot of good for the environment and neither have many aspects of the industrial evolution.

Back to the peaceful nature* of Ardingly Reservoir – we had a lovely walk. Fred attempted to eat his weight in blackberries, I enjoyed spotting butterflies (mainly gatekeepers) and Heath was pleasantly surprised at how rural it was so near London.

*if you can call hundreds of honking geese peaceful