Mosaics, boat houses and Piers (Shoreham by Sea ~ England)

 Second week in August

Our next destination in the UK with Doris was Shoreham by sea but before this was a Beagles family get together. Unfortunately a few people were missing but still quite a crowd.

Must admit we didn't know a huge amount about the Shoreham  area and our choice on the coast was mainly driven by what accommodation was available. 

A bit of googling once we were there revealed the presence of the remains of a Roman Villa at Bignor, a short distance from Shoreham, that has been open to tourists since the early 1800's when the mosaics were first found (they know this as they still have a visitor's book from back then). 

Have to say that the mosaics are quite stunning and something I, Richard, would like to try my hand at one day (when I retire - not long now).

Shoreham by-sea is bound by the sea to the south and the Shoream river to the west, and along the banks of the river is a nice long walkway. It was in one of our morning perambulations along this path when we spotted a very odd collection of modified boats. The walking path runs along side them and then all have connections to power, water and sewage and have postal addresses. 

What is odd is that they are all extremely high and dry and they might get a bit of water under the an extreme king tide. From what I can gather about 30 to 40 years ago a local eccentric found himself homeless and decided to live on a modified boat in Shoreham (as being a modified boat it wasn't constrained by the usual building rules and regulations). There's even a facebook page for the group. Plus a handful of them are available to book via AirBnB.

This was a very recent addition and was once a minesweeper. What I want to know is who advertises a minesweeper for sale.

Being on the coast a visit to a local Pier was of course mandatory, and the nearest one was a short drive away at Worthing. Very typical pier of the UK with lots of shops selling rock candy, a small fair and if course an amusement arcade. In the distance is the remains of the old Pier at Brighton that burnt down a couple of decades ago.

Tucked out of the way in Worthing is a small memorial garden dedicated to all the carrier pigeons that died in the service of UK in WW I - v odd.

Whilst down that way we checked out the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. This place was built as the retreat for the then Prince Regent (future King George IV) and was decorated with a mixture of Indian and Chinese motifs - again quite odd.

Banisters made of wood and carved the painted to look like bamboo.

From here it's back to Warminster for a few days and then off to Penzanace (where every days is "Talk Like A Pirate Day") to catch up with Liz and Bill - old friends who have retired there.

Beer - the village (Beer ~ England)

 First week in August

From Canada we flew to the UK using Air Canada,  an airline we will never fly with again. We were right royally stuffed around by them as when we booked them we were unable to reserve seats, after multiple emails and phone calls we got a confirmation email from Air Canada. On check in found that this was a confirmation that our request had been received and we both had middle seats - sorry, not sorry. This was resolved a couple of hours later as Sally took the off chance that the boarding desk could help, and they did. Two aisle seats and one with extra legroom - woo hoo.

Heathrow airport was the quietest we have ever seen and getting through security, immigration, picking up bags and out was the fastest we have ever done. Think we got very lucky.

First few days in the UK were spent with Sue (Sally's sister) and Steve where we got over jet-lag and generally relaxed (thanks guys) before heading off to Warminster via London for a quick brunch catch up with Kate (Richard's sister). The last time we were here plans for renovation were drawn up and now three years later ground floor is done and looks amazing. Front half of house is in keeping with Victorian roots (with bathroom to die for - lions-claw bathtub) and back half (kitchen/dining) is sodding amazing.  Pity I forgot to take photos.

From there it was a few hours drive to Warminster to pick up Doris (Sally's mum) and then down to Beer. Beer is a quaint little fishing village on the south coast that we have been to a few times when we lived in the UK (twenty years ago now) and the centre hasn't changed but has sprawled a bit - but still lovely. 

Our accommodation was a great old house on the hillside overlooking the coast and v close to the coastal path.  One plus was that it came with its very own beach hut. Which we used for a day's and quite happily sat on the promenade watch the world go by. Beach huts are a v sought after commodity in the UK and the average one will set you back $NZ 60,000 - think this one would cost a bit more than that!

Given that we were here in the middle of the school holidays it was a tad manic on the Seaton and Chamouth beaches which we found when we visited.

Seaton is also home to a rather cool little electric tram which has been restored and runs back and forth through wetlands. If you squint you can see Sally and Doris in the middle on the bottom deck of the tram.

Did some quite pleasant walks along parts of the coastal path (which I think pretty much runs around the perimeter of the UK) and given the time of years lots of flowers were out - v pretty.

From Beer it was back to Warminster for a few days with Phil (Sally's brother), Lynne and Alfie (the dog).

Warminster is a typical little market town in Wiltshire and like other towns in the area was hit badly by Covid withs lots of small stores closing down and being boarded up. A young local artist, Tanya Hinton, decided to lighten things up by adding mostly small pictures of wildlife to boarded up buildings, and then to various shops.

From here we next head down to Shoreham-on-Sea.

eBikes, totem poles and crows (Stanley Park ~ Canada)

 Late July

One of the things we will be purchasing once both of us have retired are a couple of eBikes and over the last few years we have rented them a number of time and have a good feel for the features we like. Hired eBikes for a ride around Stanley Park, and the various  cycelways of Vancouver city, and found one feature in an eBike we really don't like and that's the throttle. Say this as if you are pushing the bike and you accidentally tweak the throttle the bike will jump forward, triggering the throttle even more with the net result you are dumped on your are with the bike doing a wheelie in front of you - not fun as Sally found out whilst wheeling her bike on a busy footpath.

Apart from that unfortunate incident our day cycling was great. The main cycleway takes you round Stanely Park past various sites. First  sight was a small park with totem poles (which are unique to the north west coast of BC and lower Alaska and are dating from the 1920s to the 1980s).

Further round takes you past Lions Gate bridge,  various rock outcroppings and then to a small but v popular beach.

In New Zealand we have seagulls in town and Keas in the mountains that will raid your carefully packed lunch. In Canada they've got crows. This fellow managed to open the bag, pull out the plastic tub of grapes and peck his way inside.

Had a good tootle round the interior of the park (away from the crowds) and amongst the stands of massive redwood (I think) trees.  Though the signs warning cyclists about coyotes denning in the park was a bit worrying. 

Vancouver is  clearly a long way down the track of making the city cycle friendly there is a promenade pretty much all around the city where the bulk of it has cycle and pedestrian lanes, various roads that were once two way for traffic have been converted to one way for cars and the other lane has become a two way cycleway. Round the promenade are various, slightly odd, sculptures and buildings

This one is meant to inspire joy and laughter,  though does feel slightly creepy.

Next stop is the UK for four weeks catching up with family and friends. 

Birds, Grizzly Bears and Lumberjacks (Grouse Mountain ~ Canada)

 Late July

Many years ago we lived in Christchurch and one of the perks was being able to get to the nearby ski fields within a couple of hours in the weekend. For Vancouver it's similar but rather than a couple of hours it's 20 minutes.

In the summer shuttle buses run up to the mountains where various adventure sports (zip lining, abseiling etc) and shows are run. But the main attraction are two grizzly bears that were rescued as orphaned cubs and given a large enclosure I  which they can do things bears like to do - eat, scratch and have the occasional swim.

First show of the days for us was the flying of various predators - always fun as the birds have a mind of their own.

The national symbol of America - the bald eagle.

Kestrel

Turkey vulture with a face that only a mother could love.

Horned owl - inscrutable. 

The second show was the lumberjack show. Which was incredibly corny but at the same time fascinating and was played out as a competition between two lumberjacks (along with a very hyper mc) as historically competitions like this gave people bragging rights as to who was the best chopper, climber, log roller etc and was quite important.

Chop the top off the stump. First thing though is to get to it by cutting notches and stuff foot board in repeat a couple of times to get to the top.

Now this was impressive.  A 20m tall post and the aim was to climb to the top, ring the bell and climb back down again and the winner was whoever did it the fastest. This guy didn't so much as climb up and down as scamper up and not quite free fall down. Took maybe 5 to 10 seconds. 

These guys were the reason most people go up to the mountain in summer. Grinder and Coola. Both rescued in 2001 and now live in quite a large enclosure, complete with den for them to hibernate in winter.

Very cool.