We’re away at the moment down at the south coast. We only bumped into (at a bus stop, no less) the friendly older chap with the Captain Bird’s Eye beard with a tooth missing again who we met on Beachy Head when we were last in these parts (here).

We’d see him on various occasions throughout that holiday, sitting having a roll up or just walking, and he’d pass on some obscure nuggets of information about the vicinity, a lot more of an “out there” nature then the official tourist walks we went on.

He sat behind us on the bus trip into town the other day and told us the next morning he was going to put some tide tables up around Beachy Head. Trying to suss out who he worked for or was he a park ranger, we asked him was he employed by the local council to which he replied “There are ladies present so I cannot tell you what I honestly think of the local authority”.

He told us after he retired, he took it upon himself to make sure the walkers around the coastline at Beachy Head were safe and not cut off by tides which happens a lot as the lifeboats were always coming out to rescue people around there. He knew the area around there like the back of his hand what with serving on the lifeboats for some years.

Towards the end of the bus trip we asked him where he lived and he said “The other side of the lighthouse, where I was a keeper for a few years”. We then exchanged our goodbyes and he got off the bus with a friendly wave.

Then it struck us. Were the stories works of an over-active imagination? We sincerely hope not.