A quiet walk to Reigate Fort...

Ah, so the brilliant weather continues (although from the sounds of things today is the last day of that for a while, worse luck)...yesterday, after Thomas had his (extra long) lunchtime nap, we decided to go for a nice relaxing walk in the sunshine...

Our chosen destination was Reigate Hill (even though Thomas was absolutely convinced we were going to the "Sea side! Animals!"), he was, none the less, satisfied with the view when we got to the car park at the top, declaring that it was the "Sea side" after all (and then pointed roughly in the correct direction for Brighton) and the large number of dogs present did (admittedly) qualify as animals, so we couldn't really fault his logic or prediction in either case...

Anyway, we toddled up the hill, Thomas eagerly pointing out (and being swiftly distracted/hauled from) some nettles, some dog mess, the Catteries' front garden, a barbed wire fence, a smelly pond and a huge pile of horse manure...he resorted, with a confused, hurt look on his face to sucking dusty stones (whenever he could get away with it), as all his other obvious potential avenues of pleasure had been so inexplicably and cruelly denied...

After about 40 minutes we completed our 200 yard marathon to the top, and Thomas decided we were going into Reigate Fort (as the opportunities to place himself in danger so far plainly hadn't been sufficient) so in we went noting (with some alarm) the live electric fences ringing the site -

- a proliferation of tempting sharp, rusty objects -

- a multitude of treacherous, stone staircases -

- and venomous native snakes...

After weighing up all the remaining options, after trying and failing to mountaineer up to the electric fences...

...Thomas finally selected a small pit to throw himself into where he had a standoff with a rather large spider living in a drainage pipe -

- which the spider decided rather quickly it didn't want to participate in (and when Thomas finally consented to have his arm pulled back out of the hole) I lifted him back up onto the grass (where he sat perfectly still until all the food ran out)...

Of course, when it came time to walk back down the hill, Thomas wanted absolutely none of it, nor would he entertain (even for a moment) that Daddy carry him, so poor tired Mummy had to hand over all the bags to Daddy and pick him "Hup! Hup! Mummy!" and slog back down to the car in sub-tropical conditions clutching a wriggling toddler (who kept dropping his hat)...

What a lovely, relaxing country walk...*collapse*...

More pictures over here, if you like...