Details of The Brighton and Hove Childrens Festival were put up on one of the local lists a few weeks ago and I went through the programme with great excitement as loads of the events looked like things Davies and Scarlett would be really interested in. Sadly about 4 of the best looking ones are for this Thursday when I’m working, which I guess saved us from the dilemma of which to choose. But I did earmark The Devils Sunrise and The Starlings Sunset walks as worth attending. I booked places on the Devils Sunrise (and we’re intending doing the sunset walk tomorrow evening to give a nice contrast) and have promptly been dreading it ever since given the crazy time in the morning it meant getting up. I debated for a while whether it was worth going to bed but in the end I went to bed at 1130pm, was asleep by about 1230 and the alarm went off at 4am. I woke fairly easily and everyone else got up and busied themselves with getting dressed, eating / drinking whatever they could face at such a middle-of-the-night time hour and we set of at 430am. I made an error in not predicting just how cold it would be on the the top of the downs pre-dawn and none of us really had sufficient layers on to keep us insulated but many other parents had made the same error and there were a lot of shivering children.
I had a fairly good idea of where Hove Station was which was where we were meeting the bus so drove in that general direction, fortunately found it and a car park next to it (which I had to pay the full day rate of nearly £5 for despite only being there from 5-8am grr) and we hoped aboard the bus. Davies and Scarlett counted cars from our house to there and it was barely 30. I think we left home at that sort of time when we went to France a couple of years ago but it’s a long time since I’ve been out on such early morning roads – noticing the lack of milk floats is probably an indication of just how long…
There was paper and pens handed out for drawing whilst on the bus and it was only about a ten minute drive to Devils Dyke. We got off the bus, the kids donned high vis vests, we had a H&S briefing and then were handed over to the storyteller:
Follow a storyteller around Devil’s Dyke as you watch night turn into day – the ultimate transformation! Hop on the bus which collects dawn adventurers at 5am and drops you back at 8am.
He began while it was still pretty much pitch dark and we stood on the edge of the hill looking into the blackness which would be a view come daylight with the Weald spread out below us. The storyteller told us he was going to tell us the tale of the horned, hoofed devil, Pan and how he created Devil’s Dyke many hundreds and thousands of years ago.
We then followed him through torch and lantern lit woodland and sat on logs while he told us of how Pan loved to party and drink and rabble rouse. Down in the Weald Christians had come and were disappoving of Pan and his wild ways and would torment his hungover followers early in the morning with the ringing of their church bells. So Pan, inspired by the white horses which were the waves crashing on the shore down in Brighton decided to create a channel from the sea to the Weald to flood it and drown all the Christians. This was done from halfway up a tree with much pantomime 🙂
Then as dawn was breaking we followed him down one side of the Dyke and up the other,
where we were given croissants and hot chocolate and sat in a circle as the storyteller stood on a stone and completed his tale.
Davies was particularly struggling with the cold and said his tummy hurt and he felt sick so he refused the hot chocolate (which I’m sure would have warmed him from within and had him feeling better) and was a bit wobbly but listened to the story just the same.
The story of how the dyke came to be finished we walked along the top of one side, down and back up again and then back along the top of the other side. Everyone soon warmed up and the group were soon chattering away and watching birds wake up and swoop about the dyke.
We were rewarded midway through the very toughest part of the uphill walk when the sun finally peeked over the horizon through some trees and went very quickly from a tiny bump to a glowing ball in the sky. There is something very magical about sunrise. I’ve not paused to just drink it in like that many times (probably less than five in my life) but it’s always an intensely moving experience somehow, the promise of a whole new day ahead full of promise and only just beginning.
Back at the bus we were given glasses of water and feedback forms about the event, which we all filled out very enthusiastically with glowing reports. A short bus journey back to Hove Station, a drive home with a fair few more cars than on the way there and we were home by about 8am.
As suspected we were all far too awake by then to go back to bed so I surprised my parents by ringing them to arrange to go over there later (Dad asked why I was up so early and I enjoyed smugly saying actually I’d been up for about 4 hours already 😉 ). We had some toast, I had more tea and then chucked an ecclectic selection of food in a bag and we went over to Pulborough Brooks.
We were early so chatted to the volunteers for a while, did some of the puzzles in the Visitor Centre and waited for others to arrive. And they did, in droves :). It was a really good turn out today and we walked round in a decent sized group – Caz and Bid, Julie and her Mum, Emma, Katy, Rossi and I and assorted children. We saw very little in the way of wildlife but did have a lovely walk chatting and enjoying the sunshine, before spending a further couple of hours in the garden / play area with picnics.
It was just lovely, the children played some of the time in smaller groups but ended up all gravitated together playing in one large group, in complete harmony, it was just fab :). The adults did much the same with three tables full of us eating and chatting and moving about between each other. One of those perfect local Home Ed community days :).
We left there at about 230pm, got home for a quick cup of tea / sandwich (our poor bodies were most confused about what time it actually was and whether to be hungry or not) before heading over to my parents. They are off to China for 3 weeks tomorrow – 2 weeks touring with a couple on internal flights and a 7 night river cruise for the third week. Ady joined us there for half an hour and then he brought the kids home for tea, I detoured to the supermarket for a few bits and came home to run a bath and cook dinner.
Davies and Scarlett were in bed for about 745pm but both had only just gone to sleep by 9pm. Not really sure there is anything more to do to wear them out really, I guess they just don’t need much sleep! Ady and I watched the Joanna Lumley Nile programme which was really good, I love Joanna Lumley :). And now, a mere 20 hours after I got up I am also off to bed as I am dozing off as I type.