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!
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