My Camino de Santiago - An Oasis in Spain

After a very simple peregrinos dinner that included garlic soup with soggy bread floating in it I went to my bunk and slept like a log. The following morning I decided to forego the breakfast on offer as it consisted only of cafe con leche and sugary cakes. Outside in the courtyard I brewed up some tea on my little gas stove which I shared with Pablo, while we waited for Jacques who succumbed to the temptation for sugar. A decision that he later regretted when they charged him five euros for this meagre offering.

Our destination for today is the small town of Shahagun the site of a battle in the winter of 1808 during Sir John Moores retreat to Corunna in the Peninsula campaign when the British 15th Light Dragoons saw off two regiments of French cavalry. It was a short walk of only twelve kilometres which hopefully would allow my aching leg to rest and heal. It was also roughly the half way point of the Camino Frances.

A few kilometres into our stroll we came across what seemed like an oasis in the middle of this vast flat plain. A small private hostel run by a German woman and her Spanish husband who she met several years earlier whilst walking the Camino herself. It was spotlessly clean and delightfully decorated in the southern German style plucked straight out of the schwartzwald. For three euros fifty I had a delicious breakfast consisting of Greek yogurt, a banana and a massive mug of coffee.

Looking out of the window across the street I noticed several little houses dug into the small hillside. On closer inspection it seemed that we had walked into Tolkien's Shire as the small dwellings appeared to be Hobbit holes complete with grass roofs with chimneys poking out. Apparently these houses are actually used for storing food and wine although I noticed that at least one of them had a television aerial.

We arrived at Shahagun by 11:30 am and booked into the municipal Albergue which was located in a church. All three of us were suffering from various muscle strains in our legs so we took some time to rest and recuperate. A little later we went exploring the town and discovered a bar that sold cold beer and hamburgers. We were in heaven and devoured them with gusto. What a fantastic way to end to the day!

Rain and Roadworks

Summer appears to be over for the time being down here in rural East Sussex and the monsoon season has firmly set in. Little dog and I have just got back from her daily perambulation around the block and we are both soaked through. She is now catching up on a few zeds in her basket after drying herself off by rolling around on the front room rug.

We started the morning off by taking Mrs C to work in Royal Tunbridge Wells which is a bit posher than Royal Uckfield and is also legitimately allowed to call itself by the title of royal. Normally this journey takes us approximately twenty-five minutes but not anymore; well not for the next twenty weeks at least.

Today it took us an hour to travel this distance because as we passed Boars Head near Crowborough we hit a traffic jam. It then took us thirty-five minutes to crawl to the head of the queue near Bunny Lane where we discovered a road works sign and temporary traffic lights. Something however appeared to be missing though from this bucolic rural scene and that something was a gang of workmen and assorted machinery who should have been digging great holes in the road.

A cynical person might think that this is just a ploy by East Sussex County Council to slow down and manage the flow of traffic crossing the border into Kent. Or are they just jealous of Kent County Council, who are having all sorts of fun at the moment turning the M20 Motorway into one giant lorry park, by creating their own mini version of Operation Stack on the A26.

After dropping Mrs C off at her work place I decided to find a different route back to the old homestead. In the pouring rain on greasy roads I took my life in my hands on the back lanes of deepest darkest Sussex. Have you ever seen the film 'Deliverance'? Whilst I stayed alert for danger (and more road closures)  Little dog got into the spirit of things by falling asleep and snoring loudly for the entire journey home.

I've spent the rest of the morning baking bread which is very therapeutic. It's a great way of relieving all that pent up stress by kneading and punching back the dough whilst imagining that it is the head of the East Sussex Highways department (makes a change from the Home Secretary). I'm really looking forward to repeating the journey later when I collect Mrs C who upon arriving home will say 'I never eat bread' as she cuts herself a thick slice.

Kingstanding

In December 2013 I posted a blog about the WW2 Bunker at Kingstanding on the Ashdown Forest little knowing that just over a year later I would be working there. My new position is as a Facilities Assistant for Sussex Police who now own the bunker and surrounding buildings set within a fifty five acre fenced compound. The site is used for storage and as a training facility for police officers but we also allow paramedics and fire and rescue personnel to use it occasionally.

I started work here in the depths of winter and now six months later I am getting to grips with the job which is a cross between a caretaker and security officer. They even gave me a Landrover to patrol and check the security of the site and perimeter fence with.  Every day brings a different challenge but the first job each morning is unlocking the bunker. In the early days in the pitch dark and with the wind blowing through the trees it felt very creepy up here as most of the supporting buildings are deserted and derelict. The perfect location for filming a zombie apocalypse movie.

Being at one of the highest points on the forest, Kingstanding has it's own weather system. The sun can be shining brightly five miles away at home but up here you can be in low cloud even in what we laughingly call summer in these parts. When the wind and rain are lashing against the windows of the gatehouse it can feel like you are on the bridge of a small boat in a storm. On hot sunny days I can't think of a better place to work, however the sun tends to bring out the adders so you have to be careful where you tread.

The complex was originally constructed by the Canadian Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 to house a radio transmitter code named 'Aspidistra' which purported to be a German station based in Calais transmitting light entertainment programmes to the U-boat crews. In between the music and rants against our Royal Family and Government we inserted disinformation to demoralise and cause confusion to the German armed forces. Although the German High command was aware of the station they never discovered it's location.

When it was built there was only one entrance to the bunker but during the nineteen eighties at the hight of the cold war it was converted into a nuclear proof bunker and a second entrance was constructed. In the eventuality of a nuclear attack on this country Kingstanding was to be the seat of local government, however what there would be left to govern is any bodies guess. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the thawing of the cold war the role of the bunker became defunct so the site was sold to Sussex Police.

If anybody reading this article is concerned that I may be giving away state secrets don't worry, as everything that I have written and photographs similar to those shown above are freely available on the internet. We even conduct tours of the site occasionally.

A few changes

It's been a little while since I last posted an article on this blog, well ten months to be exact. I stopped posting because I fell into the doldrums and couldn't motivate myself to write anything interesting.........'That never stopped me writing for the previous eighteen months' you might well say. However having recently discovered a couple of other blogs which I found absorbing, I am feeling reinvigorated and freshly inspired to set my inane ramblings loose on the internet world again.

The best way to start I think is to give you a brief resume of what Little dog and I have been up to in the intervening months. I have had several changes in both my work and leisure time and Little dog is slowly succumbing to old age, spending most of her time asleep or wondering around bumping into things. She still gets very excited though when her lead comes out and we go for a walk, unfortunately they are only short ambles around the block these days.

Just before writing my last post I was laid off from my part time job at the art company. It would appear that the online art world was not as buoyant as the new highly paid CEO led us all to believe. His services were dispensed with a few months later, the difference being though was that he left with a golden goodbye (apparently). It was a little bit sad leaving the company because I worked with some brilliant people with whom I had a great craic and shared some really good laughs.

After several months of working a night shift for a well known supermarket chain (and hating every minute of it) I secured a part time job working for the local Constabulary. My new title is 'Facilities Assistant' and the role is a cross between a security officer and caretaker. My new work place is a training facility set within fifty five acres of prime heathland on top of the forest centred around a cold war nuclear bunker.

I still very much enjoy walking up on the Forest and in the Downs and am presently in training for a long distance walk in North Yorkshire in early August. I've also become a Search Technician with Sussex Search and Rescue and am on call 24/7 to assist in searching for vulnerable missing persons in East and West Sussex. More about all these recent changes in later posts as I have to stop writing now because Little dog has woken up and is pestering me for her walk.