The Seven Sisters

Today I had a grand day out....a few months ago I organised a special event for the arts society at school. However it was not without its problems...it took many phone calls and emails to finalise the itinerary and logistics for the day with the company doing this event, and then even more to negotiate the cost per head. When it was finally advertised in the arts program the price was incorrectly printed, it was half of what it should have been! People applied for tickets at this incorrect price and then I had the arduous job of telling everyone about the error, allowing them to cancel if they no longer wanted the tickets at the increased (but now correct) price and then finding others to take their tickets. However....today was finally the event and it thankfully turned out to be a fantastic day.

We met at the tiny village of East Dean in East Sussex where we had a quick coffee at the hiker's hut - then set off on a 6-7 mile walk over the undulating cliff top hills of the Seven Sisters. We had a guide with us who is a geologist and he explained the nature of the chalky cliffs and the formation of the South Downs. Here is a view of part of the walk. I did not know which image to blip but I liked this one due to the three figures coming over the brow of the hill - I have added more of a cute lamb, and some of our group walking.

We then descended into Cuckmere Haven where a coach was waiting for us, and we were driven to Bluebell Vineyard. On our arrival lunch was waiting for us - a delicious array of unusual salads and cold chicken - this was followed by a tour of the vineyard. The wine maker was very interesting and we learnt why English sparkling wines are so expensive compared to prosecco! I was also very interested to learn that the UK is the biggest importer of champagne and prosecco in the world - we certainly are a nation that loves our prosecco! By the way, the difference between the two is that champagne is bottle fermented whereas prosecco is fermented in a stainless steel tank, which offers a greater yield. After hearing about the problems that English wine makers are challenged with - frost, deer eating the plants, badgers eating the grapes....we then went and had a wine tasting. They market their wines under the label of Hindleap and they have won many awards - the tasting proved why they have won so many awards! Finally the coach took us all the way back to where our cars were parked at the start of the walk, and I then had the long drive home.

Of course the day was very special because of the weather - blue skies and sunshine throughout the day, and a good breeze when we were walking to cool us down. It has been a very long day, I only got home at about 7.30pm and I am quite tired after the drive and the walk. I will look at journals tomorrow.