Day one - Eastbourne to Birling Gap

Day one – Eastbourne to Birling Gap

I started the South Downs Way with a quick couple of photos by the wooden way marker. A union flag and the Sussex flag with the six golden martlets on a blue background was fluttering in the breeze. I will of course finish in a different county if I succeed in my attempt. Does Hampshire have a county flag? Well yes it does actually, but only since 2019. We shall see whether it is flying with pride at their end! I hope so. If not, someone should buy a flag pole!

Beginning with a steep incline and a traditional set of Sussex flint steps, does give you a brief moments pause for thought over what you have taken on, but actually this was probably the hardest slope of the whole walk today – maybe because I hadn't warmed up yet.

The buttercups are beautiful this year and look lovely and glossy in the sunlight. At one intersection they appeared to line the path: Follow the yellow buttercup road? Well no actually, as enticing as it was, the South Downs Way veered off slightly to the right and the coastline.

I watched the boat out in the channel for a while as I walked towards the sea and a little while later I came across a memorial for the RAF bomber command. As much as this area is renowned for its beauty, it also has sadder connections and many have lost their lives here. As the granite stated, beachy head was the last sight many of these pilots saw. Later I would meet a team of three chaplains, identified by their bright red uniforms with 'chaplain' written across their backs. They were walking in the other direction, patrolling the cliffs trying to preserve life in the present day.

Before this however, I followed the arrows for the SDW, while observing a woman who I had assumed was also walking it take the higher path. It was a little disconcerting when my path headed steeply down beside the cliff edge and through as-narrow-a-path as you could get. Surely the SDW is regularly walked and couldn't be this overgrown? I thought, but yes, much to my relief a post awaited me at the end confirming this was indeed the way. Meanwhile the other woman joined me having had a leisurely stroll along the open ground above! Okay, we had ended up at the same point, but I came to do the SDW and so had no regrets over possibly having endured the odd sting from a nettle and coming out adorned with a grass seed or two!

Onwards across the grassy cliff tops. I took the opportunity to look over the edge, admired the flowers on the sides of the drop and took another photo of beachy head lighthouse (I had gained my first glimpse back at the war memorial).

A little further on and there is another plaque of remembrance to a ranger who used to travel by horseback, risking his life many-a-time. Inside the hexagon-shape brick structure was seating, but I didn't enter for all the litter strewn on the floor.

I had got a little disoriented just before this, thinking there were cliffs on the other side of me – technically there were, but I just didn't realise the coast line curved round so much. Turns out the same cliffs that were on my right would become the later cliffs on my left.

From here on in was up and down with views of these white chalk cliffs outstretched before me, a beautiful view. I passed Belle Tout lighthouse and watched what I thought was a lady mopping or sweeping the top ‘balcony', for loss of the correct word!

When I reached the final downhill stretch to Birling Gap I could see people swimming in the sea below and the white of the waves running up the beach. It was a very hot day today and I would love to have been able to join them to cool off!