Dawn swimmers brave the cold sea next to the car park.
“Are you coming in?”
This is the English Channel. At 7 am. In March. Am I starting to look like a crazy person?
Snug and warm in my four layers, I stroll along the inevitable shingle towards Newhaven. After the stunning Seven Sisters, I don’t have high expectations for the next 40 urban miles through Brighton, Worthing and Bognor Regis. How wrong. The fine weather makes everything more attractive, but there are a variety of landscapes and places of interest to explore, such as the derelict village of Tide Mills. Quite ingenious — the incoming tide is trapped and then released to drive the water wheels.
The East Pier of Newhaven Harbour demands another obligatory walk to the end.
The Seven Sisters ferry is docked.
The track winds up Castle Hill, past a 19th-century fort, into a nature reserve sandwiched between the cliff edge and encroaching housing developments spreading from the town. The sun and exertion from the climb have me down to my base layer. It’s a lovely, peaceful stretch of short grass, yellow heather, rabbits, and birds that defy my attempts to get close enough to identify them. The chalk clifftop is crumbling down into the sea at various places. A rusting vehicle lies in one of the depressions. How did it get there? The views are wonderful and eventually Peacehaven appears, with one end of the Undercliff Walk clinging to the cliff beneath it.
A bird of prey has circled me for some time and hovers directly overhead. Scanning my bird guide, it must be a buzzard. Wrong again. My good friend and bird consultant, Duncan, informs me that only Kestrels hover like this.
For a change of scenery, I take the stairs, hewn out of the rock, down to the promenade.
The Undercliff Walk runs to the huge marina at Brighton. A misguided trip along the breakwater adds another 1.5 miles to my journey. The return to shore gives a fine view of the green hills and an isolated group of buildings, a mix of functional blocks and attractive spires — an open prison perhaps? My apologies to the scholars of Roedean School. I blame the sun in my eyes.
The beachfront is home to a column of painted camper vans, parked along the faded Madeira Terrace covered promenade — the longest cast iron structure in Britain. Hopefully, the prominent crowdfunding campaign will be successful in allowing full restoration. I have plenty of time to wander round and take in the two piers before returning to the car.
Walk distance: 14 miles.
Total distance: 243 miles.
Peacehaven is a weird place, but I guess you were down on the under cliff promenade, so will have missed it. And the marker for the Greenwich Meridian, which runs close by. I found Brighton hard to cope with after miles of walking on my own. Well done for walking all those extra miles along piers and the marina!
I noted the Meridian marker in your post. Always choices to be made! Yes, even in these restricted times, Brighton was a whirl of joggers, skaters, cyclists, and dog walkers.
I have no intention of swimming either. Wild horses couldn’t drag me in 🥶
Oh, come warmer weather, sandy beaches, and after a hard day’s hiking, I will be in there!
A nice write up Tony and some lovely photos too. Don’t be put off by all the urban-ness ahead a lot of it is actually quite nice but I imagine the promenade between Brighton and Hove at least will be heaving! I do remember being quite shocked when looking at the map to releaise there is basically a continuous conurbation virtually all the way to Bognor (and even most of the way to Southampton) but I find it much more enjoyable and interesting than expected and a lot of the architecture is very nice too.
I was amused to see you took a pictures of Mr Bean’s path – “The Endless Stair” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCSQm86UB4 in case you don’t know what I’m talking about).
I think that is the joy of walking. You always find some details of interest even if the big picture looks a little bland. Thanks for the link, made me laugh. I did not realize they were so famous.
That looks like a really interesting section Tony. And as you say – the weather makes a difference. well done.
Let’s hope that British Summer Time heralds the start of nicer weather. I think we all deserve it.