Sunday 31 May 2015
Last week was a Bank Holiday and one of the rare aligning-of-the-planets occurrences when the wife and I actually had a full 24 hours to spend together so leaving the city was an absolute no brainer. We really wanted to see the sea from somewhere green and any opportunity to explore and be somewhere new should be taken, so we decided to walk the cliffs from Seaford to Brighton.
As I sit on my couch writing this on a rainy Sunday in a flat in Clapham, the cliffs of the South Coast feel a million years and miles away. Logging in at around 15 miles, the day’s walk proved to be an interesting, windy and at times desolate experience.
Disembarking the train to Seaford in the midday sun we started consulted the map and started walking in the direction of Brighton. I knew we'd come to the mouth of the River Ouse pretty quickly, but I hoped there'd be an easy way to cross it. This proved to be nothing more than hope, and we ended up back tracking and walking into the next town of Newhaven down an assortment of overgrown back trails.
A bus carpark and graveyard was just a couple of patches of land along, this dream sat gleaming in the sunshine. Hitching myself up on the fence I managed to snag a quick picture.
After an hour or so, gorging on sweet potato and cookies we set off again. It was at this point the weather turned slightly, and for the rest of the day the wind picked up and the sun hid behind the clouds. (Not that this stopped the smaller, paler, half of the party contracting a sunburnt forehead.)
This was the most beautiful part of the journey. We spent around 2 hours walking along the tops of cliffs and across what felt like endless trails, coming occasionally to small clusters of single storey houses on our right with sheer drops down to the water away to our left. All along the cliffs beautiful wild flowers grew, gorse bushes rustled in the wind and birds glided on the thermals. It almost felt like there wasn't anyone else anywhere in the world.
Coming through a light industrial estate we passed the old Port Administration Office which has certainly seen better days and is slowly returning to nature.
Breezing through the town of Newhaven and past it's Lifeboat headquarters, we headed up what felt like a near vertical climb to sit above it's fort and eat a picnic packed the night before (recipes here), gazing out over the sea.
Soon we came to a point where the trail grew increasingly difficult to walk, and to our left down a flight of stairs packed tight into the hillside we saw a concrete promenade. Heading down there we hiked along it for a couple of miles a harsh grey comparison to the lush greenery metres above us. We took our time admiring the bottoms of the cliffs and looking on at the death wish children constructing pebble sculptures on the battered beaches as the waves raced towards them.
Eventually the flat concrete came to an end and up another steep slope we made our way through the next town which had little of excitement to report except a roadside absolutely littered with rabbit warrens. A good four and a half hours in we finally with relief entered Brighton and Hove.
From here it was another endless walk along a second concrete promenade, which walked us directly onto Brighton's beach and into it's town centre. Teeming with people due to the bank holiday, it was a treasure trove of vans, caravans and RVs. After quick look at the pier, we quickly inhaled a beer and hit the train back to the city. It felt like a six hour blur.
