Where else would you get to take a selfie with a Gruffalo? Year 5 was the last place (apart from 2kool4skool Year 6s) I'd expect children to get excited about seeing this hirsute brown beast. But yes they did, and what a joy it was to see. The Gruffalo was at school to promote our Book Fair, walking up and down the corridor beforehand, funnily enough at the same time one teacher was "at a meeting". I found Gruff, as I call him, in the staff room having refreshments (a mouse smoothie) but he was willing to pose with me.
Well we just had to choose the worst day of the year to walk. The date had been set weeks before - who knew there would be the worst winds of the decade almost on this very day? But we didn't want to be beaten. We will walk to the cafe. At least it wasn't raining! Parking is free next the castle and obviously, it wasn't busy this day! We set off around the outside of this medieval monument. The sea wall affords views across to Portsmouth and Gosport, and Portsdown Hill if you look behind. You can see the Spinnaker Tower in my photos, but you'd have to zoom in. The sea wall leads to a walk along a path, switching between grass (a much more sheltered area) beside a playpark, and the beach. It is an easy, flat walk, made slightly harder in the wind. After 1.75 miles, you reach the Salt Cafe (@saltcafe66). This took us one hour - that wind did slow us down! I've had a breakfast bap there before and remember it being delicious, but slightly expensive. But today, we