Day 132 - Seven Sisters with 4 other sisters

Back in my secondary school days where we were the last batch NOT to have the combined humanities crap, the only humanities subject I took was Geography. Yes, pure, untainted, and not-an-elective Geography.

Those who were part of this good-old-days would remember mugging the geography bibles by Marianne Chong. The green one for human, the light blue one for physical. For those who are doing O'levels now, don't bother looking for these old books. Even though it features some similar topics like "Coasts", "Rivers", "natural vegetation", "Development", the focus is at least 50% different from your current syllabus.

Well when I'm so sick of mugging this book, I would turn to the centre fold where there are nice beautiful coloured pictures. And one that never fails to be stuck to our head is the White cliffs of Seven Sisters in Sussex, England.

So since we are here, why not visit that place?

That's what we did.

I wanted to celebrate the end of exams, Janelle and Esther wanted a break before their next paper in June, Ying Hong and Ziwei needed a break from essay writing, Ming Li wanted to join but decided to bring her parents around, Heather had a paper to mug for.

So just the 5 of us, 1 brother, 4 sisters, to 7 sisters, reporting at Victoria Coach Station at 7.30am. Ying Hong barely made it in time for the bus. If not, all 4 sisters can't go as the tickets were with her!

Step 1: Take a bus to Brighton. Yes there are much faster alternatives and train routs, but given Fun Fare offers of £6 for a return trip, we're taking an extra hour of travelling time to Brighton. For some reason, our driver is in a mood to crap a lot. I emphasise A LOT!

Brighton on a much nicer weather. Although there aren't any gloomy clouds like when I was here for the field trip, it still looks kinda ugly to me. :P

Step 2: Take a bus(No. 12 if I remember correctly) to the Seven Sisters country park entrance. It takes about an hour. The TV screen there aren't no TV mobile - it shows what is captured by the CCTV in the bus. Why would I want to know?

In case of emergency, open the flap and jump down. Will I survive?

Yup, we are there in time for the low tide!

The walk towards the cliffs. Janelle is amazed

Concrete path somemore!

A channelised river in the country park.

Meander, meander, meander

It's spring. All the wild flowers blooming.

The lake that is left behind after the river got channelised. See how things are growing in it?

Wind tortured trees. The wind was so strong, birds who attempted to fly against it are stuck in the same position, cursing and swearing against the wind.

Sitting on the mat (kindly provided during Singapore Day), about to start our lunch.

There it is, the beautiful Seven Sisters cliffs.

Stupid strong wind.

Rock that has been fed on or burrowed. See, I got pay attention during my "Restoration and Management of Freshwater Ecosystem" lessons.

My attempt to show how small the notch is by using my handphone. Bad example.

Then I decided to use a penny for scale purposes. But how will my future students know the size of a penny?

Decided to stand there instead. :P

More notches with rocks inside. So what erosional process is involved?

On the cliffs. We were surprised that there weren't any barriers.

We saw loads of loose limestone lying around, and people who have formed words with it. Hence the crazy idea to form.....

THIS!

"Eh, must send this to International Relations Office!"

What we feel sometimes, especially when deadlines collide. (Just for laughs!)

The other "sisters"

Doing a Nature Wee Tribute.

Act 'seh' only.

It's time to go

This abandoned estuary looks like it's from some textbooks.

Black sheep?

We took the bus back to Brighton. Had an hour or so before our bus back to London.

At the old school pier. The weather is really bright.

Future lesson material. Guess if I'm at the updrift or downdrift portion of the beach?

The ugly Summer Pavilion - A result of the orientalistic imagination of some royalties in the 19th Century, mish-mashing everything he thought to be Indian.