Day 165 – St Leonards-on-Sea to Eastbourne: 14.7m: 4.9h

Alexander’s is run by Keith and Francesca. After a comfortable night, we come down for breakfast to find Francesca available to provide teas and coffees, but cooked breakfasts are slightly delayed due to Keith not becoming aware of our readiness until almost 10 minutes after our arrival. Not a major problem. The breakfast is good, we check out at 7:45, and wander over the road for what proves to be a short wait on the promenade for a bus. The older members of the team were hoping to be able to use their Freedom Passes for the return to St Leonard’s, but it transpires that this isn’t possible before 9:30. Our total fare of £8 is therefore slightly more than yesterday’s cab fare would have been if Mike hadn’t been so generous! We’re back at St Leonards’s around 8:05 and set off shortly afterwards. It feels as though it’s going to be another chilly day, even though the breeze isn’t as strong as it was yesterday. For the first couple of hours, the route is straightforward and flat. It takes us along the coast through Bexhill and on to Cooden by which stage we’ve completed just over 6 miles and there’s no indication that, as we continue towards Eastbourne, our pace will be affected by climbs such as those which we encountered yesterday. The only relatively minor issue is whether significant inland diversions will be necessary just after Pevensey Bay and/or at Sovereign Harbour on the approach to Eastbourne. For the moment, we do have to turn slightly away from the coast at the very smart looking Relais Cooden Beach Hotel, and walk for a short distance alongside the Hastings to Eastbourne railway line. However, we soon turn back towards the shoreline, pass through Norman’s Bay and Beachlands, and eventually get to Pevensey Bay. Here, we do have to spend 15 minutes or so walking along local streets but, as was the case at Cooden, we get back to the coast pretty quickly and no significant diversion is required. And this is also the case when we reach Sovereign Harbour around noon. We are able to walk across some lock gates at the harbour basin and are left with less than 3 miles along the sea front to reach Eastbourne’s bandstand where we finish at 1 o’clock. It's no more than a 15 minute walk from the bandstand to Eastbourne station. Once there, we call in at a Wetherspoon’s establishment immediately opposite but, because we’ll be catching a train just after 2 o’clock, there’s only time for one leisurely pint of competitively priced Ruddle’s (£1.79) before we get some sandwiches at the station café and wait for the train. It leaves on time, Mike gets off at Haywards Heath to continue his carefully researched journey back to Taplow, Ben and Gary change at Clapham Junction for their homeward trains, and John considers standing for remainder of the trip to Victoria so as to reduce the possibility (or probability) of falling asleep….again.