Eastbourne to Easebourne via Goodwood (pt2)

...on then to the revival circuit at goodwood.

The Starbucks in Sainsbury's as it turned out, wasn't too far from where we wanted to stop off at. Well, I kinda knew but if traffic was going to be poor, then it would have been a pee-you-pants moment I'm sure. As it was, a free run pretty much up to the gates of the circuit, which very happily for me, were open.

Mother dear was more interested in the newspaper she'd just bought so she stayed in the Kolo. Kolo however was interested in going onto the track. This obviously wasn't going to happen, you have to book in advance and notify the insurance. Maybe next time, plus this was only meant to be a brief picture op and look about, not an all day thing.

Snapping away are the pits opposite and at the chicane, it was easy to forget time. Both the amount of it I was taking, plus what era I was in. S L Bartlett and I went to a Revival, in 2003 I think. It is well worth going to, the much talked about atmosphere and charm do exist and if you turn up in period clobber, then you can sometimes sneak your way into areas closer to the cars and the celebs. Plus the smell of oil and petrol, like your granddad's garage, is completely intoxicating.

Right, cliches all done, back to 2009. Oh, I would add one thing, Both the Goodwood Festival and the Revival are brilliant but they are different. I guess the best way to describe it is; the Festival is more static, it's all about looking at the famous and their fabulous, and fabulously rare and expensive, machines. Yes the sometimes go up a hill, but only once does a car flash pass and then they're gone, up the hill and behind some trees. The Revival is a moving thing; it's a complete race meeting from the mid 60's and if you want to see actual racing of these fabulous things, then this is more you. Plus the driver/owners really lose all sense of reality, if you want to see how a Lotus Eleven survives an off into a tyre-wall (and it doesn't) then go to Goodwood in early September.

So mother was still on the Audi, I was snapping away, and 5 lucky sods were circulating around the track in an odd mix of vehicles. There was a yellow pre-Audi-Lambo Diablo SV with a strange exhaust setup, 996 and 360 track day courtesy cars, then two real gems: a series1 E-type coupe in gunmetal grey and a rare DB4GT in almond green. There was a sixth car about, a late 60's 911 in a pale yellow, it only completed two laps before it retired with a smoking problem. Gasket of some kind I would guess, what would I know but normally, smoke: gasket, doesn't it?

Pictures of it all to come next post.

Opposite the main gated entrance, there is a narrow tunnel that goes under the track to the pit area and infield with it's grassed landing strip (circa WW2). Kolo and I were voting to go through and join the posh, mother with her 3 votes was against. She voted on behalf of my sister and Billy Piper, hmm. Still, I had my hour or more at the circuit. Mother got out and had a look around too, it was 10'c too much for her sadly but she did like what she saw, if Billy was here we could have stayed all day but as she wasn't, we couldn't, so...

...I'm not too sure whether a 'living with kolo' reader would be interested with the walk about in Midhurst and Easebourne but as I don't have any followers anyway, I might as well:

The drive was straight forward, up north for about ten minutes, or what felt like that. Past the Glorious horse racing track which semicircles itself around the top of a small valley, it really is an amazing location to see horses do what they do.
Then carrying on to Easebourne through Midhurst.

Easebourne's an odd place. a single shop, one petrol station and a school. Four pubs though, plus the church Ms Piper became Mrs Fox. Mother and I went it to see what all the fuss was about.

After exhausting the attractions Easebourne had to offer, we then went back though to Midhurst, which to be fair to Easebourne, is the actual town with which Easebourne now just seems to be an area of. We had another coffee and a lovely Sussex cream tea in a some cafe on the highstreet. Midhurst's main drag has a typical market town feel, very Hailsham but without the heroin problem. Almost trendy cool. Everyone but the teenaged girl who served us and myself are all retired here, just like Eastbourne then! After cake and a look in a couple of estate-agents' windows, we went into a charity shop. I looked at their books whilst mother looked at, er, trinkets? My book choices boiled down to two: how to read buildings & 100 years of motorsport, 1894-1994. Both £3 but I could only get one as they don't take cards. Cock. Well, I was reading Nigel Mansell's preface went we finally got back to mothers. (He knows shit all about architecture)