The Senior missionary in charge of vehicles, Elder Cannon, gave Reed information for driving, particularly, on the left-hand side of the road. Thursday we went on 3 practice driving trips with E. Cannon being in the front passenger seat giving instruction and guidance as we went. Reed did pretty well, but the roads were narrow and there was so much to get used to !
We were to take a ferry to Guernsey Island on Friday AM, but E. Cannon got an email that it was cancelled due to a damaged vessel. The next available spot wasn't until Monday, the 11th.
So, we had time for some sight-seeing. We left the mission home on Friday morning in a little mission car, and drove south towards Brighton. Our i-phones weren't functional yet, so we relied on a Garmin GPS the mission gave us. It was a lovely drive; bright green fields and foliage everywhere, herds of grazing sheep, and some horses. We were always on edge though, getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road !! And the round-a-bouts every few miles were quite interesting.
The senior couple serving in Brighton, Elder and Sister Dean, took us on a tour of the city and the surrounding area. This is a unique complex that was once a king's summer home.
They showed us this house, which has the most amazing carvings in the wood.
Along the coast there are areas with high white cliffs.
After saying goodbye to the Dean's we drove westward to Portsmouth, to a hotel Elder Cannon had booked online for us. It was dark when we arrived the city, and though the GPS showed we were at the hotel area we couldn't see any hotel signage. We were on a narrow street with houses on both sides, so wondered if it was a bed and breakfast type place, but no home looked like it. After driving back and forth around the area several times with no luck, we decided to follow a small road that looked like it led to a restaurant - which had a large bright sign showing high above the trees. As we found the restaurant parking area we saw a low small sign that said the name of the hotel we had been looking for :).
(I won't go into too many details of the driving challenges, but it is really a shock to think you're turning onto a little road, only to suddenly face two lanes of headlights coming straight at you :) )
