Haven't been doing much for the last couple of months-and that means anything. I've had a lot of problems but the one that has affected my riding has been a Joint and muscular discomfort. Even driving has been a problem but today--Fine morning- warm temperature- wind of 15mph from the SE. so timefor a ride.

Only a "Recovery" ride as I did did know how the hips-knees and thighs were going to stand up to pressure. one thing had to be on the cards though and that was a coffee and Breakfast on the seafront.


No pie but Scrambled eggs on toast as it was only 9am.

The history part. Back in the 18th. century England was experiencing a few problems with Napoleon Bonaparte so defences were built up along the Kent and Sussex coast in case of invasion. Locally we have several of the defence towers and a "Fort" called the Redoubt. This is right on the seafront at Eastbourne and was never used in anger as the invasion never came but it has been used as a military establishment ever since. Nowadays it is just a Tourist attraction but a lot of military history with Southern Army Regiments. As it was open when I passed- I took a look to find that it was an open day and the now defunct regiment of "The Diehards" was on show.

http://www.thediehards.co.uk/

Only a few young lads and a loud Sergeant barking orders to them but apparantly they were noted as Sharpshooters within the British Army.


The redoubt was set up as a Gun emplacement but by the 1900's- the fort had become redundant as a defence site and in WW1 the guns were melted down for the scrap metal as they were "Old Technology". One has been "Borrowed" from Portsmouth and shows the seriousness that this defence was regarded. "Bony" was considered a real threat to England. The other pic shows that if "Bony" had landed and the cannons fired- There would not have been much left of Eastbourne.


So on with the ride and a few miles to get in and a few slopes to see how I was going to fare. Plenty of other cyclists out today and I had a couple come past me on the back roads so decided to see if I could stick with them. Couple of youngsters in their 40's and I sat behind them for a couple of miles till a slope came up. Don't know how but I passed them and left them. These looked like serious riders and we were doing around 20mph before the hill. Then they just dropped into granny and spun--I didn't. Luckily the legs held up but the lungs did get a workout.

So only 30 miles at a gentle pace and not of much interest so just hope you enjoy the history.