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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 14 May 2017

Over the South Downs to the sea

SWC Walk 129, Berwick to Birling Gap T=SWC.129
Length: 18.7km (11.6 miles) Toughness: 5/10

10:06 Brighton train from Victoria (Clapham Junction 10:12, East Croydon 10:22), changing at Brighton (arr 11:03, dep 11:12) to arrive at Berwick at 11:35.

Trains back from Eastbourne are at xx:59 (journey time 1h 27 mins).

An Off-Peak Day Return to Eastbourne will cover both the outward and return journeys. But you’ll probably find it considerably cheaper to buy separate Advance tickets for each journey, provided you’re willing to commit yourself to getting a particular train back.

The regular 13X bus from Birling Gap to Eastbourne station at 40 minutes past the hour inconveniently arrives there 7 minutes after the hourly London train has departed. There is an extra bus at 17:15 that connects reasonably well with the train. Or you could catch the Eastbourne Sightseeing bus at 17 minutes past the hour, which takes you to the seafront, a 10-minute walk from the station, and connects well with the trains. An alternative is to walk (or take a bus) inland to East Dean (with its refreshment options) from where the frequent no. 12A or 12X buses run to Eastbourne station.

This walk is a variation of the Book 2 Berwick to Eastbourne walk. It visits the Long Man of Wilmington but then takes a different route across the South Downs to Jevington, before following a long ridge towards the coast, arriving in the middle of the Seven Sisters and ending at Birling Gap, where you take a bus into Eastbourne. Those with energy to spare can extend the walk by about 5 miles by continuing over Beachy Head and along the Eastbourne seafront.
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An early lunch can be taken at The Giant’s Rest in Wilmington (01323 870207) after 3 miles, or a late lunch at the Eight Bells in Jevington (01323 484442) after 6.6 miles. There are tea options at Birling Gap, East Dean or in Eastbourne.

You will need to download the Walk Directions.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this lovely walk chris, does this one avoid that horrible sheer vertigo inducing coastal path bit to Eastbourne ?
Ta

Anonymous said...

Anyone going on this walk as I am very interested. Interested in extending walk to Eastbourne via Royal Eastbourne Golf course?

Monica

PeteB said...

On Sunday there are celebrations and a parade in Brighton for the football team's successful promotion to the Premiership and trains and the station are likely to be busier than usual. I will catch the 09.47 from Victoria to Lewes arriving 10.51 and then pick up the 11.23 from there to arrive in Berwick at 11.35. You have a longer wait at Lewes than Brighton but this could prove less stressful than arriving at a packed and "rowdy" Brighton station. Also if you are at Lewes and anything goes pear-shaped with connections to Berwick you can easily improvise a lovely walk from Lewes.

Anonymous said...

Hi Pete B,

Many thanks for the update about trains and football etc. Like you I will also take the 09.47 train and change at Lewes.

See you at Victoria tomorrow.

Monica.

PeteB said...

n=15 on this lovely walk with the weather w=sunny-and-breezy. An ideal day for walking with the group fragmenting by the time we reached Wilmington where I had lunch in the churchyard by the ancient yew tree whilst others walked on to Jevington after booking a table at the 8 Bells. After my sandwich and walking alone I took a more circuitous ridge path with fine views to Jevington via the village of Folkington.
Most of us met up at Jevington and continued on to Birling Gap with one taking the short SDW route to Eastbourne after the long climb. We reached Birling Gap in good time to catch the 5.20pm bus to Eastbourne but sadly the journey did not work out as planned. Just beyond the car-park at the Beachy Head pub there had been an horrendous multi-vehicle crash so all traffic including our bus had to turn round and return to Eastbourne via the main road route. Most of us got off the bus and walked to Eastbourne station with one staying on in the hope of catching the 6pm train which she just missed by 6 mins. We all met up to catch the 7pm train to Victoria. A mixed bag of a day, further marred by some walkers witnessing a dog attacking a sheep after the incompetent owners had failed to secure a lead on the animal before entering a field!

David Colver said...

I'd like to express the view that a walk that ...
- doesn't start walking until after 1130
- has lunch as 1415
- has most participants on a 1900 train and doesn't get them back to London until 2030
- had me on the 1800 but only because I cut out Birling Gap and walked to Eastbourne

... all for just a dozen miles is a walk that would have been better starting earlier.