Flyin' Rye-wards

Those of us who went had a brilliant time. You should all think about coming next Thursday if you couldn't make it today. We decided we shouldn't say in the journals where we're going next time or where we're leaving from, so if you want to come, drop me a PM or an owl, and I'll tell you the details.

Anywiz, it was great. We met up at Greenwich at the top of the park, by the Observatory, and we left from there. We gave everyone's brooms a look-over as they turned up and had a bit of quarreling about whether everyone who came really knew what they were putting in for, but everyone wanted to go, so we did. Hope we didn't leave anyone behind who wanted to come, but we'd given you fifteen minutes by then, so we went ahead. I mean, it's Greenwich, innit? No excuse for not leaving on time from there!

We flew along the Thames for a bit and then turned south across Kent. It was really decent weather--just some drizzles in the morning. But we hadn't even gone close to an hour before the whingeing started. So we set down someplace called Sevenoaks, where Archer knew there's this awesome house called Knole that's almost big enough to be a castle. We set down in the park outside it, which I hope the owners didn't mind, but there were a few people who decided they needed to drop out, and it turns out there's a Floo office in town, so they went off there and I hope they got home with no problems.

It was all brilliant after that, though. We got to Rye in time for lunch out on Camber Sands. And after that we did some sprint flying up along the shore to the marshes, but then the winds came up well stiff and were buffeting people right round. Which, one way of thinking about it is that it was a true agility drill fighting through those sorts of gusts, but it wasn't what we'd meant to do, exactly, so then I decided we should go back up into town and see if the streets were less windy, which they were. So then we flew squadron pursuits through the alleys in the old parts of town where the houses are really close together and hang out over the streets.

It was too snitch for snidgets, that, really. Only, it was a shame about the spill you took, Li. Those cobbles looked fierce where you went down on them.

Anywiz, when the rain started really chucking down, we stopped into this inn called the Mermaid that's been there since medieval times, and we got to talking to a couple of old chaps who told us all about how the fishing'd come back and was best in the country now that they'd got muggle crews to dredge out the old harbour right up to the old docks and fish stalls. And how they'd completely got rid of all the hideous muggle buildings and roads and all and how the estuary was recovering and all the birds and fish and animals were back.

But then they told us we'd been well daft to go flying out over the marshes like we did, because the other thing that's back out there is smugglers! So that got everyone buzzing, you can guess. About how people thought they'd seen something or heard something or wasn't there smoke from a cooking fire out over the horizon and a load of nonsense, really.

And then we came back by Floo from Rye because we were all well tired and the rain wasn't letting up.

Mum had stew ready for supper and loads of it, which was brilliant because I could've eaten a horse I was so hungry when I got in.

But I'm totally ready to go again next week, y'know. Who's in?!