9.24 train from Victoria (9.31 Clapham Junction, 9.40 East Croydon) to Eastbourne, arriving 10.51
Buy a day return to Eastbourne. If the weather is fine trains to the coast are likely to be busy today
I guess we can't let a summer pass without posting the classic Seaford to Eastbourne or vice versa, but this version of it offers you a bit of a twist, if you want it..
You can of course just walk along the coast from Eastbourne to Seaford (13 miles)....or to Exceat (9.2 miles), from where you can get the very frequent number 12 bus to either Seaford or Eastbourne. But there is the option to do a shorter walk to East Dean (7.1 miles) - also on the number 12 bus - or an extended walk to East Dean which takes in four of the Seven Sisters before turning inland (8.4 miles), or a circular walk back to Eastbourne (11.1 miles), which crosses some lovely bits of downland. The decision point for all these options is at Birling Gap, after 5.7 miles.
Why do any of the inland options? Because these days the coastal stretches can be very busy - not just with the usual summer weekend crowds, but also international tourists for whom the Seven Sisters have become something of a bucket list item. But as soon as you get away from the coast you have tranquility.
Refreshment: The Beachy Head pub after only 3.3 miles is always busy. The NT Birling Gap tea rooms after 5.7 miles do sandwiches, pasties and possibly some hot items. If you do the Eastbourne Circular walk via East Dean you could have lunch in the lovely Tiger Inn on the village green in East Dean (so, after 7 miles), which does food all afternoon. Next door is the Hiker's Rest tea room. At the Seven Sisters Visitor Centre at Exceat there is both a cafe and a tea kiosk. You have to walk 400 metres along the main road to get to the Cuckmere Inn, and then annoyingly back the same way to get the bus, as there is no longer a bus stop by the pub, though this is not a problem if you are walking on to Seaford.
Swimming: The sea temperature is at its summer best at just above 19 degrees. If you want to take things easy, and maybe do one of the shorter options, the western end of Eastbourne beach (beyond the Wish Tower) will be awfully tempting for a swim, as high tide today is at 10.37. To swim at Birling Gap you will need to be there by about 1.30pm, because beyond that time the sea level will be too low over the rocks (though in extremis, try the section of beach exactly in front of the steps, which was relatively rock free last time I looked). You may be able to swim on the eastern beach at Cuckmere Haven at low tide (which is 16.58 today) by wading out through the shallows: midway along the beach is relatively free of underwater rocks: but swimming on the beach on the west side of the bay (ie beyond the river) is almost impossible at low tide. Seaford can be swum at any state of the tide.
Trains back from Eastbourne are at 05 and 33 past until 22.05. From Seaford trains are at 24 and 53 past until 22.24
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The seaside walk poster’s dilemma illustrated! I posted this walk in the expectation of a solid week or more of fine weather. But today decided to be the first day that it was w=windy-and-cloudy. Seas at Eastbourne were mountainous (well, a metre high at least…). Definitely no swims there.
You might think that the poor weather forecast would at least make the trains less busy. But Walker’s Law is that people decide whether to go to the sea based on the previous day’s weather. Friday was hot and sunny, so the train was full, particularly with shiny-faced youth types. But we all got seats, and some even sat together.
15 emerged from the train at Eastbourne, one joined who had got an earlier train, and another materialised thereafter, so n=17 in all? It is hard to be sure because some were in the toilets and the station was noisy, and if we left anyone behind (we did wait a good while….), sorry.
So we walked along the seafront, the pounding waves looking rather impressive, and up onto Beachy Head (steep hill climbing practice for Scottish holiday types). Five then stopped for lunch at the Beachy Head pub, two took a slightly inland path to look for butterflies (a few whites at one point) and the rest walked the cliff (encountering a dead stoat).
I was one of the butterfliers, but as I got close to Birling Gap hurried on just in case a swim there was possible. Reader, it was! Miraculously the sea in the bay was almost a flat calm, it being sheltered from the otherwise fairly relentless wind.
Even more surprisingly, a number of the group were on the beach and very kindly guarded my stuff while I had a 15 minute dip, the water an extraordinary milky green, the sky grey, the cliffs white - like being in an Impressionist painting. When I emerged another potential swimmer turned up, but realising the group was about to leave, sacrificed her personal preferences in favour of group cohesion (though actually, I am not sure we saw her again…).
The Beachy Head pubbers had said they would walk to Seaford, but thus far it had not been clear what option the main group would do. But on the rather autumnal beach the charms of the Tiger Inn in East Dean were strong. Nine of us went there, at least five had a late lunch at an outside table, and as we finished one joined us from the Beachy Head group.
Thus fortified, we walked on, losing two to the bus, the rest following the afternoon of the Eastbourne Circular - except four initially didn’t, insisting (against the advice of the walk author) that the GPX showed a slightly different route. We all met in the end, though.
Cresting the downs we briefly had some rain. We lost one to the bus here; the rest carried on into Eastbourne, down the downs and along suburban roads towards the station. Six went to the Bibendum pub for tea and drinks, one fairly briefly. Five of us stayed a bit longer getting the 18.05 train, which was busy, but emptier at the front. We had just the one bottle of wine, plus chips and humous, and were joined at Lewes by one of the Seaford finishers who told us he and a companion had been able to ford the river at Cuckmere Haven.
And so home to bed….
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