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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 1 August 2015

Second Saturday Walk

Extra Walk 90:  Berwick to Seaford (or Exceat) -- Two beautiful downland hills on approach to the sea

Distance:  13.1 Miles (or 9.2 Miles to Exceat)

Difficulty:  7 out of 10

Train:  Take the 9:46 Littlehampton/Ore train from London Victoria (10:02 from East Croyden), arriving at Berwick at 11:20 (changing at Lewes arriving at 10:50 and departing at 11:09).  Return trains from Seaford to Victoria are at 25 (becoming 28 at 20:28) and 58 past the hour until 21:28. If stopping at Exceat, you will need to catch one of the frequent buses from near the Cuckmere Inn (formerly known as the Golden Galleon) for a short journey to Seaford.   Buy a day return to Berwick (Sussex). 
Given the uncertain summer conditions at this time, this walk seemed to offer a good combination of a picturesque downland walk, some nice hills and a chance for a refreshing swim in the late afternoon/early evening if the conditions merit.  While this walk covers some similar territory as others starting in Berwick, after lunch, it diverges to take in the pretty village of Alfriston and ventures up onto High and Over Hill with lovely views out to the sea.  The route to Seaford brings you past Cuckmere Haven, always a delightful place for a swim – though the tide will be getting fairly low in the late afternoon – but should still be swimmable.  Swimming is also possible in Seaford.  The walk instructions may be found on the website at Extra Walk 90 and here.
For those doing the whole walk, one of the many pubs in Alfriston would be the recommended lunch stop, about six miles into the walk -- The George Inn (01323 870 319) is a regular favorite.  For those only going to Exceat, another option is the popular Giant’s Rest in Wilmington (tel 01323 870 207), about 3 miles into the walk.   Tea and drinks can be had at the Cuckmere Inn in Exceat (roughly 9 miles into the walk).  For those going all the way to Seaford, Trawlers is a good fish and chip stop.

Enjoy the walk!

1 comment:

Poppy said...

n=20 w=sunny

A pleasant and peaceful day. Two stayed for a drink at the Giant's Rest but most ate at the George Inn in Alfriston. Alfriston has one or two new tea places since I last went there including a heritage building near the church. Everyone seemed happy with the pub. The group wandered around as is our wont, and as far as I know only two had tea at Exceat with about nine pressing on to Cuckmere beach only to find it unswimmable due to rocks and low tide. After a lovely evening walk over the cliffs, nine swam at Seaford and five were left at the Trawler fish and chip shop which served a delicious grilled fish with Florida herbs apparently. Two had neither fish and chips nor swam but watched the others eating fish and chips. Some brief maths will elucidate how many swam but did not have fish and chips and caught the earlier train.