Day 55 - Saturday 6 April 2002 - Eastbourne to Cuckmere Haven

12 miles walked today

652.5 miles walked in total (average 11.86)

Today started off sunny, but very fresh and blustery.  I had a new walking partner today – Sue from work.  I was a bit concerned as I always feel responsible when anyone new walks with me – I want them to have a good day.  I knew that we had a tough day as we were walking the Seven Sisters and it would be hard going with the wind buffeting us.  Luckily, though, Sue isn’t local to East Sussex so didn’t realise that we had seven hills to climb and I didn’t feel inclined to tell her.  Ignorance sometimes is most definitely bliss!

Our first climb was one of 534 feet to Beachy Head – this caused much laughter and gasping for breath as the wind carried us up to the top, where we had to stop for a breather and to find a little sheltered spot to sit and compose ourselves!

We could see the 142 feet high red and white striped lighthouse at the foot of the cliffs and decided that it looked like a “proper” lighthouse, as opposed to the Belle Tout lighthouse at the top of the cliffs a mile away.  This is the structure that was moved back from the cliff edge – a tremendous feat of engineering that featured in “Tomorrow’s World” a couple of years ago.  The whole thing was filmed over twenty-four hours and then speeded up to be shown in a half hour slot on national television on the very day it was moved.

I’ve grinned a lot today and declared the scenery to be fantastic every five minutes or so – luckily, Sue shared my enthusiasm and wasn’t so cheesed off at my cheeriness that she didn’t want to push me over the cliff.  It’s been so sunny and there hasn’t been a cloud in the sky as we scaled the Sisters, named Went Hill, Baily’s Hill, Flat Hill, Brass Point, Rough Brow, Short Brow and Haven Brow.  I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have “girly” names as they were sisters – something like the women’s names in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers would have been excellent!

We stopped at the Birling Gap Hotel for a coffee and a spot of postcard buying before heading down to the beach for an hour’s lunch stop.  How very civilised.

We carried on for three hours after lunch through the Seven Sisters Country Park and through the Cuckmere Valley.  Although tempted to stop at the Golden Galleon pub, we pushed on out to Cuckmere Haven itself and to a spot where we had a view back on the cliffs that we’d walked – what an amazing and rewarding sight!  After a quick photo shoot, we walked back to the pub for a beer and a cider to celebrate, before heading back to get the bus to Eastbourne pier, where we’d left the car.

An absolutely brilliant day.  And Sue was impressed enough to say she’ll come again!