We're booked in for two nights at a Camping
and Caravan site at Crowborough, East Sussex.
On arrival it was very noticeable that the temperature had dropped significantly from when we had set off in the morning. Luckily we had packed a warm fleece!
After enduring a hail storm, the clouds cleared allowing us to get the grill out and cook some steaks, salad and potatoes (that Ant had prepared earlier).
Next day we explored Crowborough town, that didn't take long!
However, we did come across a statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who was a resident of the town from 1907 to 1930.
That was of interest to us, as Undershaw is a former residence of his. He had it built to accommodate his 1st wife's health requirements and where he lived with his family from 1897 to 1907. He wrote many of his works there, including The Hound of the Baskervilles.
We knew of Undershaw when it was a Hotel and restaurant where we dined quite frequently, I loved the Mackintosh style chairs!
We grabbed a coffee in Costa and checked out the restaurants, unfortunately we didn't think to book a table for that evening! Yes, the Chinese restaurant was fully booked when later we tried for a table. The other alternative was the pub, which was not that inviting from the outside and a Tai restaurant that looked closed. There seemed to be plenty of takeaways of different cuisines, we plumpted for good 'ol Fish and Chips! And went back to the twin and watched 'Lady in a van' !!!
Before feeding ourselves we had been on a walk of about 4 miles. After getting some directions from the site warden, we followed a public footpath through a tree plantation and up onto the surrounding hills.
We observed, of what we initially thought was a building development, where part fields had been cleared with defined fencing. But later discovered it was part of South East Water's
£1.7 million scheme to install a new water pipeline across agricultural land in the Crowborough area to help meet the increasing demand of main water supplies.
Remembered an ideal pit-stop on the way home at Benbow Pond at Cowdray Arboretum near Midhurst in West Sussex. Great having the twin, parked easily, had a great view and boiled up the kettle for a cuppa......
