Bonfires, Fireworks (oh and the odd hike)

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What is not to love about combining hiking, countryside and mahooooosive bonfires! Bonfire weekend was made more special by a trip to Lewes in East Sussex for the annual bonfire procession.

Bless that in these days of health and safety and cotton wool coating of any activity with any, however minutely perceived risk, Lewes hold 2 fingers firmly in the air and says stuff it! Potentially the only place in the western world where fire is king and if you don't want to get burnt get the hell out of the way! The different bonfire societies parade throughout the town with blazing torches, aflame tar barrells and a seemingly unending supply of big, noisy fireworks. They push around effigies of public figures which get 'sacrificed' at the Society bonfires scattered at different locations all over town. Cameron with his puppet Clegg was easily the best, but the pope was also seen getting ready for a roasting. We decided to head down to 'Waterloo' one of the bonfire societies and do they do the bonfires BIG!!! It was funny to watch the people close to the bonfire scatter when the wind blew the flames towards them. Lewes may not encourage people to visit, but sneak in, it's well worth it!

The rest of the weekend was about hiking (badly as I managed to sprain my 'good' ankle), excessive drinking (medicinal) and the odd bit of karaoke (also quite bad). Unfortunatley on the Sunday I had to swap a hike up a really, really steep hill for a pub lunch ... injuries do come in handy sometimes!

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Photos

crosses
to remember martyrs

flares + bangers
check out the size of the firework he's lighting