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Saturday 16^th February 2008
The sixth annual Rye Scallop festival

Our day started at dawn with a very good omen; a sun pillar in the direction we were going to travel. This optical phenomena is caused by sunrise or sunset light being reflected by ice crystals that are all lined up in a horizontal position.
This was our second visit to this annual festival of fishy food and it wont be our last. We spent our first day in Rye walking for 10 miles out in Walland Marsh via Camber Sands, to the very furthest point East that you can go without crossing into Kent. We had forgotten to pack our passports, so we had to be very careful not to cross into foreign lands. On our way we came across a sheep that was stuck on its back, so Gill went to the rescue. This can happen easily to Sussex sheep because they are so wide.
In the evening we had a scallop meal in a restaurant next to the Ypres Castle. We accidentally ate far, far, too much and nearly died from splitting, so we went to our beds like bloated, beached whales. It was great!
In the morning we had a full English and explored every inch of one of the most gorgeous towns in Sussex. It seems to be made up of very old houses that range from the 12th Century to the modern day. They have all been adapted, renovated, added to, improved, ruined etc. The result is a higgledy piggledy mish-mash of styles that would keep an archaeologist insane for a decade. After a midday snack we went and had scallops and oysters. We are both now going to take up jogging before we end up like the sheep!
 

The sun pillar as seen from our window when we woke up

The marsh was actually very dry underfoot, not like a marsh at all!

Camber sands. The tide was out and the huge beach was mostly empty apart from horses.

St Mary's at East Guldeford built in 1502. What a strange shape for a church.

That's how close to Kent we were. We didn't cross into Kent as we didn't want to be classified as illegal aliens.

The last part of our walk took us south along the Military Canal back into Rye.
A beautiful sunset and a barn owl to welcome us back to the town

The distinctive outline of Rye from the Military Canal

The Ypres Castle in Rye

This is what the festival is all about. Juicy, delicious scallops!

The oysters were really good too!

This is St Anthony, one of the many ancient houses in Rye