Day 166 – Eastbourne to Newhaven: 16.5m: 6.1h

British Summer Time began over the weekend. We are taking advantage of the extra daylight which this will afford in the evenings by catching a later, off-peak (i.e. cheaper) train to Eastbourne than would otherwise have been practicable. However, its 9:54 departure from Victoria still requires John to leave home at 6:15 which is a mere 3 hours earlier than Ben and Gary who both board the service at Clapham. Mike has again travelled from Taplow and joins the rest of the team at East Croydon thus enabling him to reminisce – not too gushingly – about his journeys to what was the location of Nestlé’s UK head office. We arrive in a bright and sunny Eastbourne, wander back to the bandstand and set off along the promenade soon after 11:30. For much of the first 9 miles, the coastal route is along the high cliff tops of Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters which Ben has decided to avoid. The consequent parting of the ways occurs after half an hour, with Gary accompanying Ben on an inland route. John and Mike take the most direct path up to Beachy Head which is also the steepest climb and proves to be a considerable challenge for both of them. Once at the top, and having experienced some amazement at the sight of an intrepid (i.e. foolhardy) group having a picnic on the edge of the cliff, they move on to deal with the ascents and descents of the Seven Sisters. Again, these provide one or two challenges, but they pale into insignificance compared to the final descent into Cuckmere Haven. In order to ascertain tide levels as close to the shoreline as possible, John decides that the descent should be assayed not by the conventional marked route, but via a more precipitous and less well defined chalk path. In places, Mike concludes that the safest way of achieving this is on his backside – something to which the resulting white marks on his trousers and rucksack bear eloquent testimony. However, the two of them do reach the foot of the cliff where they discover that the water in the Cuckmere River is not at a sufficiently low level for a paddle. Instead, they walk along the east bank of the river to the bridge at Exceat and stop at the Cuckmere Inn for a glass of refreshment, and to wait for Ben and Gary who turn up 15 minutes later. Their journey has perhaps been less eventful, but no less enjoyable. It has involved several climbs to get up to and across the South Downs, initially through a series of fields to reach East Dean and Friston, and then through wooded areas to Westdean (featuring two ladies training a couple of Icelandic ponies) and on to Exceat. With the team reunited, we set off again around 3:15 down the west bank of the river and then turn to climb and continue along the coast towards Seaford. However, it immediately becomes apparent that the coastal path is still going to run quite close to the cliff edge, and so we split once more into our by now traditional cliff top and inland pairings. On this occasion, the split doesn’t last too long. After no more than an hour, we all arrive at just about the same time at a point where a couple of paths meet on the edge of Seaford Head Golf Course. We watch a couple of men coming down what we assume, given the proximity of the clubhouse, to be the 9th or 18th hole. They seem to be pretty decent players and, based on the amount of time they spend on reasonably short putts, rather competitive. Having sunk the putts, they don’t shake hands and so, being charitable souls, we conclude that they must have been playing the 9th hole. The route from Seaford to Newhaven is along the sea shore. At the entrance to Newhaven Harbour, we turn up towards the town, cross the bridge around the ferry port and continue back down towards Newhaven Fort. The day’s walk concludes just shy of the fort and only a couple of hundred yards away from the Hope Inn where we’ve arranged a cab pick up for 6:45. Our arrival at 6:15 gives us time for just the one leisurely pint of Harvey’s, and the presence in the pub of a large and excitable dog (with an owner who looks as though he could turn equally excitable) doesn’t serve as an incentive to linger. Further excitability is provided by a driver in the car park who appears to resent our cab picking us up in a place which blocks and delays his departure by almost a whole minute, and then by the speed with which our driver takes us to our overnight stop in Peacehaven, the Greenwich Rooms (with Burger & Bird Bar and Restaurant). Thankfully, no further excitement materialises during the rest of the evening. Just good showers, sustaining burgers with bacon cheese and skin-on chips, a bottle of white, a bottle of red, double stickies for all except Ben, and finally up to our rooms on the second floor for well earned kips.