Sunday 27th June

We arrived at Heathrow Airport at around 6.30am, breezed through immigration and customs and then scurried out the nearest exit to engage in our favourite vice......

We grabbed a coffee and then waited in vain for the rep from the hire car company to meet us. It turns out I had stuffed up and they weren't expected until 10.00am! anyway we sorted that and ended up not in a Prius, but a VW diesel Golf. Nice!

Getting out of Heathrow was not too drastic, except for turning on the windscreen wipers every time I needed the blinkers!! Much of the drive to our first port of call was on motorway, so rather boring, but as we got closer to our destination it became much more interesting, we made our way through some beautiful country landscapes, literally littered with quaint villages. Exactly what I expected - How cool is that! I wouls have taken photos, but there never seemed to be anywhere you could pull over.

The narrowness of the roads was a little worrying on occasion - stone walls literally at the edge of the road on one side and hedges on the other. There are some interesting road signs as well - where we would have a sign to tell us there's a one lane bridge, here there's a sign to tell you 'caution - oncoming traffic in middle of road' - true enough I guess. There are also some wierd curved arrows in the middle of the roads and I have no idea what they mean. traffic lights can be a bit of a worry. The lights on the left are not necessarily the same as the ones on the right. the drivers are very polite though - when you wait for oncoming traffic to go through, they all wave.

We arrived at our hotel in Bognor Regis and headed across the road to check out the beach.

What can I say - it's almost the epitome of what an Aussie would expect of an English beach. Pebbles (rocks), and little cabin thingys (like Brighton in Vic). I confess to being disappointed that ther was not a man in a deckchair with his long pants rolled up to the knees and a hanky tied at the corners on his head. There was, however, a pier - complete with amusement centre and a fish and chip shop (or two or three), where Ray was happy to reminisce with Cod and Chips on the beach.