Touring West and East Sussex - a mini escape eastwards

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A mini escape to West Sussex

May 3^rd 2021

I am a member of the Dinghy Cruising Association; an adventurous bunch who cruise and camp aboard their dinghies. Anyway, the only reason I mention it is that I always admire the dinghy cruising rallies that the southern team put on; a comprehensive programme visiting some now to me, familiar named destinations……….Cobnor, Itchenor, Bosham, Birdham, Hayling Island, Emsworth and Langstone….to mention but a few.

And so, here we find ourselves staying at a lovely certified CCC site at Almodington with all these places within cycling distance. One of us is really quite excited by this prospect and one of us is possibly less so but is content to let her husband go chasing around the coastal villages and marinas of Chichester Harbour area because it means she gets some coffees and is by the sea.

We left Plymouth at 09.30 this morning and we arrived on site here at around 3.10pm. The route details and distances are at the end of this blog post.

Our welcome is warm and we discover a lovely site in the middle of the countryside with lots of walks across marsh dykes down to the sea and lots of cycling around the area and up to Chichester along coastal tracks, paths alongside canals and through narrow lanes. We look forward to a good bike ride tomorrow.

Everdean – a Camping and caravan club certificated site in Admonington

We have a large paddock field to ourselves. Surrounded on two sides by hedges, it is a grass pitch area with plenty of EHU’s and a water tap at the entrance. There is one toilet and shower. The pitch is level, mown short and sheltered. Surrounded by a soundscape of cooing woodpigeons and chattering sparrows, it is a peaceful oasis.

Two notable events for the day. After a year and a half owning Bryony, I finally managed to work out how to make the front driver seat lower. Until now, I have been riding high with no need to ever use a sun visor! Now I am lower, further back and so much more relaxed in the driver’s seat. Not only that but I can actually put the handbrake on and off without having to head butt the steering wheel each time. I found the two little flaps built into the seat side which I had missed before – a truly ‘Homer’ moment – “Doh”….obviously accompanied by the requisite forehead slap with palm of hand.

The second event? When filling your water tank for the first time after a few weeks when the motorhome has stood on its storage site, it really helps if you check that the freshwater drain tap isn’t open on the other side of the motorhome. It took me some time (15 minutes to be precise) to realise that the slow progress in filling the tank may be less to do with the amount of water coming out of the field water tap and more to do with how much was soaking back into the field on the other side! My forehead is red and sore as this stupidity required several hand slaps and a few smackings of one’s forehead against the door!

Anyway, we have arrived. We are level. I’d like to say everything works but we seem to have an intermittent airbag/seatbelt light coming on and off so we need to get that sorted asap.

Our route from Plymouth

A38 – M5 – A30 – A35 – A31 – M27 – A27 – A 286 to Birdham   Distance 190 miles.  

Journey time 5.5 hrs with small detour to Sainsbury’s Petrol station to fill up

Costs for day:

£98 diesel – we used just over a quarter of a tank but we hadn’t topped it up from our last trip out around Cornwall so by the time we reached Chichester there was only quarter of a tank left.

£6 for two Starbuck’s coffees (we prefer independent coffee shops to be honest but there was a lack of them on route).