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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.

Sunday 1 May 2016

Sunday Walk 1 – the Seven Sisters

Book 2 Walk 28 – Seaford to Eastbourne
Length: 22.3 km (13.9 miles). Toughness: 9/10

09:45 Ore train from London Bridge (East Croydon 10:03), changing at Lewes (arr 10:48, dep 11:03) for Seaford, arriving at 11:23. Buy a day return to Eastbourne, which in practice is usually accepted on the branch line to Seaford.

Note that there are no trains out of Victoria this weekend, and limited connections from Clapham Jct. London Bridge is likely to be crowded so allow plenty of time.

Direct trains back from Eastbourne are hourly at 59 minutes past until 20:59. If you reckon you've got the energy to sprint across a crowded Brighton concourse to make a three-minute connection you could gamble on the Brighton-bound trains at 26 minutes past, but I wouldn't recommend it.

A Bank Holiday weekend is a good time for a long and strenuous Sunday walk since you won't have to think about going to work the next day. Mind you, the engineering works at Victoria would normally have tempted me to look elsewhere but four SWC regulars have requested this popular Seven Sisters walk, so let's hope that Southern are up to the task of getting you there and back.

The walk itself hardly needs any introduction, but it won't do any harm to bring Book 2 or print the details from the Walk 28 page. There's a choice of lunch places at Exceat, less than a third of the way through the walk, before you tackle the undulating cliff-tops in the afternoon. There are several places where you could duck out and catch one of the frequent buses on to Eastbourne (or back to Seaford). Eastbourne itself has plenty to detain you if it's a nice evening and you're not in a hurry to get back.
T=2.28

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buses from Birling Gap to Eastbourne (last two services on Sunday will be at 17.46 and 18.46). Takes 20 minutes.

DGA said...

2 of us commenced the walk 1 hour earlier to get maximum benefit of a gloriously sunny, warm day at a leisurely pace, enjoying a drink with a sandwich and the pub's crisps (30 mins) at The Cuckmere inn with fabulous views, tea and sponge cake/ice cream etc at Birling Gap (45 mins) and fish & chips with beer at Harry Ramsden's in Eastbourne and the 1859 home. Despite lingering on the pier and watching vintage cars with masses of people everywhere, we only encountered one of the main party who reckoned on 15 starters so that makes n=17 hot=and=sunny No mud! No rain! Perfick!

Anonymous said...

25 sun-cold-breeze. I reckon they were at least 25 on this walk. Five left the station before introductions due to crowding on the platform. An attempt was made to have lunch at the Saltmarsh cafe before it crashed out of catering on the bank holiday weekend. Having ordered food they then took 20 minutes to tell us that some of our choices were not available and having reselected they then returned sometime later to tell us that was no food at all. They then said that there were some preprepared sandwiches. They were disgusting. Catering at Birling Gap coped well. At least one person crossed the creek at Cuckemere Haven. Having waited at the Beachy head pub for a bus we gave up and walked into Eastbourne. It would seem that at least one 13X bus did not run on the timetable. Long day of small frustrations on a glorious walk in perfect weather.

David Colver said...

Others describe this as a day of frustrations, but for me it was about as ideal a day of walking as I can remember, largely because of the exceptional combination of w=brilliant-sunshine-without-excessive-heat.

The number I saw was closer to n=15 than 25. The group spread out pretty quickly. About eight crossed the water at Cuckmere Haven together with the intention of going to the farmhouse. I'll be interested to know how they got on.

I thought better of it and went alone to the Cuckmere Inn at Exceat, which wasn't crowded and produced a respectable roast reasonably quickly. Roast potatoes three out of five.

That Harry Ramsden's in Eastbourne was a mistake was plain to see when the waitress carrying it had five more metres of her approach still to go.

Anonymous said...

Hi, about 7 of us crossed the cuckmere - wet feet for sure - but cut out the long detour - was fine! - finished early - great walk - I make it 16 plus extra two you mention below - so thats 18!
hayley

Anonymous said...

Agree this is a lovely walk. As I was pushed for time on 1st May I did the short walk from Eastbourne to East Dean on my own. Not surprised that some walkers gave up on the 12X bus at Birling Gap. I waited nearly 45 minutes for an Eastbourne bus at East Dean until eventually a bus appeared. The bus got into Eastbourne seconds before the next London train was due to leave and really thought I'd miss it and have an hour wait for the next train - but fortunately we were rescued by the driver who stopped and opened the doors outside the entrance to the station (not the bus stop) - a dozen or so passengers ran and caught the train by seconds. Also, wanted to point out that the Belle Tout lighthouse between Beachy Head and Birling Gap now has a cafe serving tea, coffee, ice creams, cold drinks and hot snacks.