There’s something gloriously atavistic about sleeping in a tent. 

A simple shelter from the elements and the beasts in the night. 

It’s easy to feel the connection to ancient ancestors as the wind whips around the guy lines and rain patters (or pours) on the tarp, 

“You can’t get me in here. I’m safe from everything in my chrysalis.” 

Waking in the dark and hearing the sea less than 100 metres away is the icing on an already exceptionally elaborate cake. Having the tent slap you in the face as it buffets in the wind is distinctly less romantic. 

I’m in Eastbourne today. Well, I woke up in a wind-whipped Norman’s Bay and now I find myself in Eastbourne. 
There’s something a little flashier about Eastbourne than your standard English seaside town. It looks a good sight better than many resort towns, despite, or perhaps because of, the extensive bombing of WWII. It does however retain the inescapable aromas of salty air, fried dough, and really sticky weed, that all English seaside towns excel in. 

Walking along the front I find myself thinking about The Cure. 
Beachy Head rises to its plateau in the near distance- the locus of the song Just Like Heaven and the music videos for Just Like Heaven and Close to Me.

On the front lies The Wish Tower, a Napoleonic era Martello tower (Wish being the 1992 album featuring a personal favourite ‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’). 

In a departure from my normal process I’ve embarked on this trip with no film cameras whatsoever. I could come up with dozens of different excuses at to why this is the case but the long and short of it is- my Leica is currently being repaired. 
This has come at a good time though. I feel the need to share with a bit more candour: photos from the day, words by the photographer. So that’s what this is. 
Nothing too polished, photos edited on Lightroom mobile, words hastily shoved together. Some might say this confers some authenticity to the work, and maybe it does, in a sort of Hiromix I-Novel sort of way. In reality and under any scrutiny whatsoever I would probably say it’s more to do with me actually sitting down and getting it ‘done rather than perfect’. 

This is the start of a much longer trip. A much needed trip, after this year. After the last four years. 
We move.