Getting our bearings

 I am finding the very small awning on this rig frustrating and difficult. In fact I’ve decided I’m never going to use it again (much to A’s annoyance. He said - OK, you buy a new one then). The tent next-door has a connection to the van but has a proper size bedroom and then an open front part which is so much more sensible and practical. Here we are so cramped & with nowhere to store anything. We have too much stuff. There are no points to hang anything, and we keep losing things. We have to grovel through all the various bags looking for things.

Despite the fact we (A) brought a huge tray full of food from the house, tins, jars, packages, etc., we called into a farm shop and bought salads, cheese, hummus etc. That was a good move as they will be shut over the weekend. Extraordinary. 
Then we went into Pulborough, to explore. At the library, they wouldn’t let us in, but said we could use their wifi which was kind of them - it meant in a rudimentary way I could post yesterday’s blog and leave the computer back in the car.  We met two very hot and red-faced traffic wardens ... We’d been lucky to bag a shady parking place.
We strolled down Lower Street, calling into a couple of charity shops to look for a salad bowl because our friends Mary & Stewart are coming for lunch on Sunday & the plan is to make a Salade Niçoise. We called into a brilliant delicatessen where the man advised us not to buy the mayonnaise because it wasn’t very nice, but we picked up various other delicacies. And then had a coffee at the Little Bean cafe where we had to give track-and-trace details, the first time for us. 
We picnicked up at Burton Lake, where we had once visited a few years ago. I’d completely forgotten about it but Andrew remembered straightaway. We hoicked our chairs & stuff through into the woods and had a lovely picnic in the quiet and cool. 

Outside the sun was beating down almost savagely at about 33°. 
The afternoon’s entertainment was to hire a boat at Houghton on the river Arun. We arrived in good time as they asked us and then spent nearly an hour waiting while they got everything ready. Our boat was a bright orange plastic thing and our lifejackets neat and easy to wear. We set off through the pretty bridge and down towards Arundel. After about 20 minutes chugging along, a man in a grey inflatable rowing forwards rather awkwardly, with a little girl as passenger, asked if we would give them a tow. He had been rowing since 2.15 - it was by then 5:20. He’d been against the tide most the way and had gone much further upstream than he planned. 

It took us 3/4 of an hour to get him down to the Black Rabbit, where we dropped him off at his request on some very dodgy looking steps. The little girl had been very distressed and he was very relieved not having to row against the swift and powerful waters of the river. However it made us late getting back because then we were against the tide - It was hard going even with a 6 hp engine. 
Luckily I had rung them to tell the boatyard what had happened. We did not have to pay an extra charge as we feared, and they said that this happened quite a lot. In fact they asked if was it a guy with an open shirt and a little girl, and we said yes- they had spotted them earlier on in the day. 
Back at the campsite we were amazed to see how many more tents and caravans and cars have been allowed in. It really is crowded now. Our neighbors in the yellow box box said ‘Don’t worry! they’ve built a whole new toilet block…’

We had a delicious supper of spelt and spinach pasta with pesto and a fresh salad. We are both very tired but not as tired as the night before.