Tuesday June 27 Eastbourne and the Seven Sisters hike
We had wanted to find a place close to the sea to hike and get out into the English countryside. My daughter had visited Whitstable and hiked the Dover cliffs so we wanted to try something different. This day proved to be the best of the trip. We went to Victoria and purchased tickets 8:35 am to Eastbourne. About an 1.5 on the train and the ride was smooth and lovely. I just love the way the English trains have the huge windows to see the countryside. Amtrak, take a hint would ya?
Eastbourne is a really cool town in itself. My son loved it’s not too big, not too small size. Shops that we felt were more our speed cost wise (Selfridges , Harrods are beyond our budget!) We got coffee and something sweet from a shop and then found the 12A Coaster bus which took us up to the Seven Sisters park. We had originally thought we would hike from Eastbourne to Beachy Head, but the kids wanted to do the Sisters and I thought oh well, why not? (I had NO idea what I was in for- more on that in a bit)
We found the trail right across from the park center (I had ordered the OS map beforehand, but the trail - at least this part was well marked). Part of me wishes we had walked the mile down to Cuckmere Haven, but we didn’t know how long the hike would take us.
This part of the South Downs Way… simply breathtaking. I found the steepness of the hills to be challenging; on a few I even had to use kind of a switchback method, but with the blue skies above, the blue/ green Channel below and the pastures all around…it took your mind away! I think we logged 30k steps this day, but I seriously didn’t feel it. We went up and down all the cliffs and arrived at Birling Gap about 3 hours later. Had a wonderful lunch and drinks in the National Trust Tea Room there. We asked about the bus to return to Eastbourne, but the only one running from there that day was the Sightseeing one that was 10 pounds pp. Cheapskates that we are, we couldn’t see paying that for a 3 mile journey, so we decided to walk a bit back to find the path going to East Dean to catch another 12A with directions given by a cashier at the gift shop.
Well, this decision quickly proved to be one that gave us some of the most memorable moments! In short, we veered left rather than right at the “red barn” (it had a red/brown roof -“ is that red? I don’t know- keep walking I guess!) Had a group of schoolboys and their leader following us because they thought we knew where we were going 😂, had a mass of dear sheep come within touching distance, baaaing like they wanted to say hello, then miraculously found the gate to East Dean. Wonderful little town that is! I’d stay there in a heartbeat.
We caught the bus back to Eastbourne. Back to London and went to a local pub to chill and rest! It was one of the best days of my life, seriously.
If anyone is looking for a side trip day out of London, I highly recommend this area. It is incredibly beautiful!