WHERE ARE WE ANNE?: CAMBRIDGE TO BRIGHTON

I fancy a frolic on a Cambridge fen and a meadow meandering now and then.

I rather like the rivers too, long skinny houseboats with a rural view.

Cambridge was a lovely experience. 800 years of academia does that to a place. Even as an academic failure as Anne calls me, I could appreciate the mix that this place has of ancient buildings, extraordinary university landholdings, farmland, meadows, moo cows and fens, all criss crossed with plenty of bike paths to support a bike riding population second only to Amsterdam. Well almost.

Lesley and Angela were our hosts in their very comfortable, very vertical house. We pumped up the tyres on their spare bikes and did a nice little ride via the river to Fen Ditton for a pub lunch where we met Tony, an old friend of Anne's. We walked over to Rosanna's place for dinner along the river past rowing clubs, quaint waterside pubs and long slender house boats and all in perfect weather! Weather that I gather Britain has not seen for a long time. I haven't seen so much sunburn on white skin for a long time. As a sun shy Aussie, I'm usually the only one wearing a hat and sunscreen whilst all around me people are actively sitting in the sun, lying on the pebbly beaches or riding their bikes without shirts.

From Cambridge we drove down with Lesley and Angela to Brighton by the sea in Sussex to stay with Jenny and Steve. A fellow Cancerian, Jenny had an afternoon back yard party in perfect weather.
We followed it up with a walk along the white chalk cliffs of The Seven Sisters Country Park, England's newest national park. The cliffs are allowed to erode naturally with large chunks falling off occasionally. As a result, the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head remain a bright white colour, whereas the White Cliffs of Dover are protected due to the important port and are therefore increasingly covered in vegetation and are greening as a result.

After our walk we saddled up for a ride down to Brighton beach for a swim. Steve dived straight in and swam out to the wreck of the Brighton West Pier. I dived in, swam underwater a bit and manfully swam several strokes before I decided to quit before my core temperature plummeted. Jenny and Miriam happily swam about while Anne wrestled to summon the courage to go deeper than her knees. It was a gorgeous afternoon, dead still, lovely sunset light through the haze. A distinctive feature on the beaches is all the smoke from everyones portable/disposable/single use barbeque grills that seem to be all the rage for hot snags or burger patties on the beach.

All in all, the thronging humanity on the beach on a warm day is quite an experience.