Day 09 - Saturday 21st May

We organised to have breakfast at the B&B at 8am. You need to let them know the night before which main course you want and so Suzy opted for Granola and I chose pancakes. I don't normally have pancakes for breakfast because they are usually too heavy. However these pancakes were perfect. Rather than being covered in maple syrup, they had a selection of berries.

The dining room is very elegant just like the remainder of the building. There are five large rooms upstairs for the guests - each with ensuite bathrooms. Downstairs, there is a lounge room, kitchen and dining room. The owners, Carolyn and Roy, live on the top storey above the guest rooms.

Apparently the house was built in 1923. Back then, it was probably a mansion owned by a family. The current owners bought it 12 years ago and have been running it as a B&B ever since.

After breakfast, we set off for a walk along the beach. Once again it was a bright sunny day and it was starting to warm up after a cold night. There was no cold wind on the seashore as there had been last night when we arrived. When we reached the main swimming area, there was a row of changing huts but no swimmers. Even though the beach consisted of large pebbles rather than sand, I expect it would be a popular spot in summertime.

Next we walked a few blocks into the centre of town where we stumbled across Nicky, John and Amelia getting out of their car. They had come to town to find a coffee shop. The others went to the coffee shop while I took Amelia for a walk in her stroller to try to get her to sleep. She sang and babbled as we walked and eventually fell asleep after about 40 minutes.

Suzy and I decided to walk back to the B&B along the stream in the bushland behind the houses. Unfortunately, as we got close the B&B, we lost mobile phone reception and so we couldn't use the map on the phone to work out where to go. After asking directions, we walked through a field with wild horses grazing to get back to the road. It turned out to be a longer walk than we expected.

The girls had booked for us to have lunch at Pebble Beach, a 5-star restaurant on the seaside at Barton-on-Sea, the next town to the west. We had only been back at our B&B for 10 minutes when Nicky and John called by to pick us up.

It was a very nice meal indeed. We ate inside but there was an outdoor area that overlooked the sea. Hang gliders were taking off from further down the beach and some of them sailed past us as we dined.

In the afternoon, Suzy and I decided to visit Hurst Castle which a fortress built by Henry VIII at the entrance to the river about 1km from the town. To get there, you need to catch a ferry. It turned out that the ferry was just a small 12-person motor boat. The captain was very friendly and helpful. He chatted to us about the history of the castle and the area. He also explained the unusual tides in the area - they have two high tides about 2 hours apart.

The castle is low and long with a central turret area that gives you a good view of the river and the surrounding area including the Isle of Wight and a few tall rocks on the horizon known as the Needles. We wandered up and down and around the fortress finding all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies.

On the way back, we had the same ferry driver and once again he chatted to us about the area. We shared the ferry with a family with a golden retriever who looked identical to Cleo.

We were tired by the time we got back to our B&B and so we had a rest for about an hour before driving the short distance back into town to have dinner with Nicky, John and Amelia.

Once again, we went to a quaint English pub. This one was called the White Horse. It had low ceilings, timber beams and posts - and customers with dogs. The food selection wasn't as good as the pub we went to last night. However, we weren't hungry because we had a big lunch earlier.