5 June 2010 Rottingdean Bike Ride
An impromptu trip: we cycled along the coast to Rottingdean today, a little village to the east of Brighton. Once we got past the throngs of people shuffling around near the Brighton Pier and Marina, it was a lovely ride, if a bit incongruous: on one side, lovely grassy coastline and cliff views; on the other side, the busy A259. And then the incongruity peaks just as you crest the hill before the descent into Rottingdean in the figure of a large black windmill.
“Wait,” I thought. “Is this supposed to be Rottingdean or Rotterdam?”
Beacon Mill, built in 1802, has not been a working mill since the 19th century. Wikipedia says it’s been restored as a seamark; indeed, AC told me once I caught up to him and Sam, that he’s not allowed to sail past the windmill from the Brighton Marina. There were clumps of people in the large grassy area surrounding the mill and I assumed they were visiting the mill, but no, upon closer look, they were playing golf. Of course.
We headed down into Rottingdean and then took the main drag into the village to the Kipling Gardens.
I was quite keen to see these since I’ve been reading Sam The Jungle Book and have Kipling on the brain. Kipling rented a house in Rottingdean for only a couple of years, but while there he wrote some of the Just So stories. The gardens next to his old home have been preserved and they are gorgeous this time of year. Quintessential English gardens to my mind: lovely winding paths and stone walls and a carefully cultivated sense of wildness in the arrangement of flowers, plants and trees. We had a little rest in the herb garden overlooking a croquet pitch, and we enjoyed sticking our noses in various herbs, especially the fragrant curry plant (not pictured here.)
Back to Brighton– total trip about 9 miles, which is literally a stroll for AC (even when he’s also pulling Sam’s weight) but was a Big Deal for me, especially as I’m trying to work up to do a longer ride (32 miles) sometime later this summer to visit Ashdown Forest, former home of A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh novels. Apparently I need a literary carrot on the end of the stick to get me on a bicycle.
