the big hike from rye to hastings.

as a group of us from youth group will be off to uni in september, a hike was organised by our youth leaders. we met early at 9am during rush hour at london st. pancreas international to jump onto our train, and about 2 hours later we were set in rye to start our hike, not knowing what we would expect along the way...

our first view was this windmill, and all was looking good!

braving the hills weren't so bad either!

...until we got lost and were forced to walk through bushes of stinging nettles!! coincidentally, two guys decided they needed skateboards to go hiking with. it was the daftest idea ever, but turns out we needed it to battle our way out of these brambles and nettles! it was just meant to be.

back on track, walking through these beautiful poppies

our team and scout leader searching for styles to cross.

be-friending sheep

after around 8 hours of walking, talking, moaning, and hobnobs distributing, we discovered this beautiful scenery and all suddenly became worth it. isn't God's creation just so amazing??

sunset dawned on us, it was getting dark quickly, everyone was tired and hungry, and our shortest route to hastings was unfortunately closed! it didn't look too good for a while.

but as a team we pressed on to find a good kfc bucket and our accommodation for the night.

after 10 hours of hiking, we made it to hastings at around 10pm, and it was silence as we sat and devoured in some fried chicken - never had it tasted so good before. i reckoned i would have a pretty good night's sleep that evening, but card games, cards against humanity and conversations soon took me on an all-nighter. no regrets though, this is what being young is all about - living it wild and free!!! here's to more eventful days like this in uni!