Walk 38. Eastbourne to the Cuckmere River

 I’m looking forward to today’s walk as it takes me over the white cliffs of Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters, perhaps the most iconic bit of English coastline after the White Cliffs of Dover!

I start back at Eastbourne Pier…

Heading south-west along the busy prom I pass the “busiest bandstand in the UK”! Seems an unlikely way to rank bandstands, but there you go…

After a mile or so I reach the path up to the cliffs…

Twenty minutes of climbing later and I look back to a great view of Eastbourne…

The path from here is nice and easy, smooth and grassy with a few gentle slopes. Soon however, I reach Beachy Head itself - famous for being very high. Yep, it’s high alright, and very, very steep! The camera does not really do it justice…

I arrive at the top with my legs on fire, where there is a memorial to WW2 aircrew…

You also get a cheeky glimpse of Beachy Head lighthouse, which is in the sea not on top of the cliff…

It’s pretty busy up here, although most people have arrived by car. There is a road and a pub just a few yards away!

I watch some people paragliding for a moment while getting my breath back…

Then I set off across the cliff tops toward Birling Gap…

The views are pretty stunning…

A bit further along I look back and get the money-shot of Beachy Head Lighthouse…

Not long after this I reach the Belle Tout. Famous for its numerous appearances on TV and film, it was built as a lighthouse in the 19th Century but then decommissioned when the Beachy Head Lighthouse was built. After a spell as a private home, it is now a B&B. The building’s other claim to fame is that in 1999 the whole thing was jacked up and moved 50ft inland because of coastal erosion!

From the Belle Tout the path is downhill all the way to Birling Gap with a good view of the Seven Sisters beyond…

Birling Gap turns out to be very busy, despite it being the middle of winter! The car park is packed and there are a lot of people wandering about. What the hell is it like in summer?! 

Although famous as a ‘gap’ in the cliffs, the beach still needs a set of steps to be accessible…

I walk through Birling Gap and follow the path past some houses and up onto the cliffs again…

The walk over the Seven Sisters is spectacular but quite tiring! Each ‘sister’ is quite steep and as soon as you get to the top you drop down to the next - and repeat seven times! Despite this, it is a great walk and definitely to be recommended.

It takes about an hour of going up and down to reach Cliff End overlooking Cuckmere Haven. This is the bay at the western end of the Seven Sisters where the Cuckmere River flows into the sea.

I follow the path down the cliff to the beach…

…and cross the short stretch of beach to the river. At low tide it is possible to cross the river as the water is only ankle high, but it’s clearly not low tide now!

I turn to my right and take the path along the river bank. 

About a mile inland I arrive at the Exceat Bridge, the first crossing point. 

This is my finishing line for today. It’s been a great walk, but now I’m off to see if the cafe at the Seven Sisters Country Park visitor centre is still open!

Walk 37. Cooden to Eastbourne

 The first walk of the new year begins at Cooden beside the hotel.

The view ahead looks very pebbly…

Work is being done on the beach which involves a large digger with caterpillar tracks and the sort of large tipper trucks they use in quarries. They must have been at it for quite a while as the pebbles have been compacted under their tracks/wheels where they have driven up and down the beach. This is good news for me as it’s much easier to walk on! I set off past the back gardens of the houses to the right.

The houses come to an end but the tyre tracks continue into the distance…

About a mile further on I reach the small settlement of Normans’ Bay, so called as this is believed to be the spot where William The Conqueror landed his army in 1066!

A short way past Normans’ Bay is a Martello Tower that has been turned into a cool place to live…

About fifteen minutes later I get to Beachlands which is festooned with ‘Private’, ‘Keep Out’ type signs. I continue along the beach as it is apparently only private above the high-water mark!

The line of beachfront properties is uninterrupted all the way to the far side of Pevensey Bay. The digger tracks are not as solid along this section and it turns into a bit of a two-mile slog over the pebbles with nothing much to see!

Eventually I approach the outskirts of Eastbourne at a suburb with the magnificent name of Crumbles! I amuse myself with various custard jokes as I pass the fancy new flats on the the way to the fancy new marina…

I pass a fairly derelict Martello Tower…

…and an information board…

…before arriving at the marina.

The entrance to the marina, called Sovereign Harbour, is guarded by a couple of locks. The lock gates form a pedestrian walkway when closed, but I get there while they are open and have to wait a few minutes for the lock to fill.

Once past Sovereign Harbour I get onto a nice prom which runs the length of Eastbourne sea front. The firm path makes a welcome change after so many miles on the pebbles!

Eastbourne is surprisingly large and it takes about forty-five minutes to reach the pier, my finish point for today. On the way I pass a good selection of seasidy stuff - ice cream kiosks, kids play areas, and so on. There is also The Redoubt, a fortress built in 1805 to defend against a French invasion in the Napoleonic Wars. Today it houses a museum…

So I arrive at the pier. Next time I’ll be climbing over Beachy Head, which should give the old legs a bit of a workout!

Walk 36. Hastings to Cooden

 Today’s start point is the RNLI lifeboat station on Hastings seafront. This sits in between the Stade, with it’s working fishing fleet, and the ‘touristy’ area of kid’s funfair rides, penny arcades, crazy golf, and ice creams etc.

Fortunately the sun is just starting to appear as I set off past the attractions, most of which are closed at this time of year.

Just across the road is a tall cliff with the remains of Hastings Castle on the top…

Meanwhile on the beach we have some ‘municipal art’…

A few minutes further on is Hastings Pier. Originally built in the Victorian period, it seems to have had something of a chequered history with various episodes of storm damage, fires, changes of ownership and so on. It was largely rebuilt a few years ago and reopened to the public in 2016.

Past the pier the prom continues into the distance…

At some point I pass from Hastings into St Leonards, although it’s hard to tell where as they are thoroughly merged together! I only know I’m there because I pass this sign…

Apparently St Leonards also used to have a pier but the only visible evidence I see is this info board…

About an hour into the walk I come to a place called Bulverhythe. There doesn’t seem to be much to it. The path passes between some beach huts…

…then runs alongside this railway depot…

The railway actually hugs the beach for quite a way here…

It veers off inland when I reach Galley Hill on the approach to Bexhill.

Reaching Bexhill I walk along the East Parade past some neat white beach huts and blocks of flats across the road that look well kept and maintained…

A little further on is a sculpture of an old car and a sign to the Motor Racing Heritage Centre…

Apparently Bexhill-on-Sea bills itself as ‘The Birthplace of British Motor Racing’! 

In May 1902 the 8th Earl De La Warr organised the first ever motor race in Britain along the sea front here. He was able to do this as it was his own private land and so not subject to the blanket 12mph speed limit that applied across the rest of the country.

Talking of the Da La Warr family, a few minutes later I discover the De La Warr Pavilion. This grand-looking building was opened in 1935 and today is a centre for the arts and culture.

Continuing along the well-maintained prom there are more white beach huts and more flats. There are no signs of the usual beach front businesses such as penny arcades and the like - Bexhill is obviously far too gentile for all that nonsense! It does have a colourful old clock-tower though…

A few minutes later the road heads inland and the prom ends. I am now walking along a concrete sea wall that skirts the back gardens of some pricey-looking houses that have great sea views!

The sea wall ends after a while and I plod along the pebbles for the rest of the walk.

Fortunately I don’t have far to go and soon reach my end point for today - the Cooden Beach Hotel

So that’s it for today. It’s been a nice easy stroll on good paths although quite urban for most of the way!