We Had A Great Day Out,

it was Diana's day off,

yesterday I had bought return tickets for today to go to Littlehampton, so glad rags on, I should say I am only making one post today as there are a lot of photographs,

I am glad I wore my coat it was so cold and misty, on to the tram to Croydon,

where the ground mist had started to clear,

coffee and snacks for Diana,

all we had to do was wait for the train, that was delayed for some reason by 15 minutes,

and here it is,

all aboard!

and settle down for the trip,

we were soon thundering along,

time for our coffees,

and a read,

one and a half hours later from leaving East Croydon and we were here,

a short walk from the station and we were at the River Arun,

looking up river just past the bridge many years ago in the 1970s I along with friends, would drive there and hire a boat to go deep sea fishing,

we started walking along the riverside,

looking back we had passed a café, but did not stop for a coffee,

naturally we had to have a pose,

or two,

or three,

there were numerous jetties on both sides of the river, some with pleasure craft moored along side,

others with out and out work boats,

it was a glorious day,

so lots of poses!

this building caught our eye, what was going on?

on the first floor a dog trying to get in,

on the second floor a lady waving,

we passed the yacht club on the other side of the river,

I mentioned in my youth we went fishing from Littlehampton, and above is the type of boat we hired for the day,

there were a few riverside restaurants along this part of our walk,

this Thai one had a nice play on words,

neat,

on the left a boating pond,

on the right a rather noisy seagull,

back to the pond, how do we know it is a boating pond?

the poster on the hut says it all,

we passed the now closed for the season fun fair,

no huge rides, 

but all of the usual attractions were here,

and a toy castle,

the walk way goes out to sea, but we took a left turn to walk along the Beach,

the lifeguard station,

it was really quiet warm in the sun, until the wind kicked up,

time for a pose,

or two,

the beach is mainly shingle with occasional sandy patches,

more poses,

these things just have to be done!

we looked inland to the fun fair,

every seaside town we have visited has had a crazy golf course, and Littlehampton was no exception,

there is a talking telescope and a beacon on this stretch of the beach,

the beacon first lit in 2016,

the legend says it all,

we continued,

on the left there were what looked like railway tracks, that had been made into a continuous seat, then they went underground,

some sections had a number of gayly painted seats,

underground again where access to the ground behind was needed,

they all looked really neat,

looking back to where the fun fair is,

in this area there were a number of students on a field trip,

I am guessing that at some time in the past a incident took place here,

I told Diana not to sit on that bit, look she has flattened it!

only joking, in a couple of places the tracks had been made into kids climbing frames,

past the beach café, 

to where the beach huts are,

unlike the huts in Bournemouth which are multi-coloured, and as it happens we hired one for 6 months, 

all of the ones here use just three colours,

combinations of green, yellow and blue,

the green and yellow looking nice against the blue sky,

Diana had to have another sit on the beach,

for a photograph or two,

we made our way back to the beachside pavement,

past the huts,

and started to walk inland to the town,

and yes Littlehampton does have a miniature railway!

but alas it was closed for the winter,

although it will open for winter Santa Specials in December,

but has already sold out, so run more trains!

the track is 12 ¼ inch gauge, my shoe a 43, if that helps to give an idea about the track size,

the turntable at the end of the line, the railway opened in 1948,  

I mentioned that many seaside resorts have a crazy golf course, well Littlehampton has two!

'I see no ships!'

tennis courts as well,

and a nice café nearby,

as we walked into town ,

we could not help but notice the berries on the trees,

the branches were almost weighed down with them,

past the town hall and museum,

into the pedestrianised part of town,

into the arcade, built in 1922, 

now only used by two shops,

a florist and a greengrocers,

shopping time for Diana!

just a couple, by now we were hungry,

so into The George Inn it was then,

chicken curry for Diana with rice and garlic bread, fish and chips for myself,

'Cheers!', I started with a large Kraken dark rum, Diana decided on a coke,

it was then on to the bubbly,

Diana is so thrilled with her new camera, and some of the picture changes she can make on it,

well Halloween was only last week!, the bill for the meal came to £29.04 at today's rate $39.56, which we thought was very reasonable,

we walked to the river and retraced our steps along the riverside,

past the café,

a lookback towards the sea,

as we continued to the station,

all set,

and here is our train arriving, and then everything went mustang, a row broke out between a ticket inspector and a fare dodging passenger, the incident escalated and the train was brought to a halt at Haywards Heath, all of the passengers in the 12 carriages were emptied out on to the platform, we were then told in a separate incident someone on the tracks at East Croydon meant that all London bound trains were temporarily cancelled, Haywards Hearth is a busy station and soon the platforms were filling up with passengers, 

then success we were told to go to platform 3 for the next train to Victoria via East Croydon, that was great, until another announcement said it had been cancelled, but a train should be arriving soon on platform 4, 

on our way home at last! but I have to ask, why does this sort of thing always happen to us? except for the journey home, what a wonderful day out, we relaxed with a New Tricks and then for us we were off to bed.