Wednesday 8th October 2025

Even after yesterday’s tough hilly 11 mile walk, I’d mentally prepared myself for another long trek today but happy that Steve’s planning had assured us that after the first 3-4 miles things would get flat. And indeed that was correct. But unfortunately by the end of the day our spirits were equally flat – I will explain later!

Two bus journeys again to get us to the start but we discovered that if you get a bus with ‘X’ after the number there are limited stops, hence quicker. There were no buses all the way to Birling Gap so we alighted at East Dean and walked the mile through this pretty village, mostly downhill, to get to our starting point. Another Chinese hot spot, in fact there were bus loads of tourists of all nationalities, all milling around, soaking up the splendour of this dramatic chalk coastline.

We knew we had to tackle the infamous Beachy Head today but had no idea how far along the walk it would be. We were immediately faced with a steep climb and thought maybe this was it … but as we got to the top we saw a bigger climb looming and so on and so on – the climbs kept coming. About 3 miles in we were finally there, at the highest white chalk sea cliff in Britain, so so stunning but carrying the sadness of numerous deaths – both intentional and non-intentional. We stayed well back from the edge – although the coast path felt a little precarious at points. On our 3 mile climb up we seemed to be the only walkers going in that direction … but there were large groups heading downhill, many young people presumably on school trips. Discovering a car park at the top, we guessed that tourists are left to roam the 3 miles downhill and get picked up at the bottom – they must have thought we were bonkers!

After having dragged our weary bodies uphill for such a stretch, the path then took us dramatically downhill in a very steep descent. This lovely long easy flat section took us all the way into Eastbourne where we walked through elegant streets and then onto the promenade stretch where we stopped to enjoy our lunch, celebrating the fact that it would all be easy from here. The sea looked absolutely inviting and there were several swimmers and paddlers – this was more like it.

From here we walked on and on, all easy flat terrain and then in Pevensey Bay the path turned onto the pebble beach. We had walked about 9 miles at this point and did not feel up to a hard stretch of pebble walking, so using our OS app found a road option. Unfortunately we had not been aware of the magnitude of the Marina complex we were getting ourselves entangled in – 40 minutes later we reconnected with the path and looking back estimated the pebble torture might have lasted about 10 minutes! Lesson learnt.

But we hadn’t fully escaped – we kept being forced back to pebble walking – it was painful – our spirits were dipping. When we reached the village of Pevensey Bay we discussed stopping but thought another 3 mile push to Normans Bay would be a good option due to transport links. We were meeting our friend Bridget in Pevensey later but we still had plenty of time, to walk on and then get the train or bus back. Luckily it was mostly road with a few pebble sections thrown in for good measure. We clocked up 13 miles at Normans Bay and our legs, knees, hips had just about had it. The sight of the train station was like a mirage! But a sadness meant disaster for us – someone had chosen to jump on the railway line so all trains were cancelled. And a two hour wait for the bus. So it was a long, quietly fuming, 3 mile walk back to Pevensey village.

Happy to report an upward turn from here though. We took refuge in a wonderfully friendly Mediterranean bar/restaurant called ‘Massilia Bay’ where the tiresome day turned into a fun evening with our friend Bridget, great food, great beer, great company. And Bridget drove us all the way back to Hove – our hero. (So much relaxation that we forgot to take a photo – but hopefully we’ll be seeing Bridget again).

The official coastline covered today was 13 miles but we actually walked 17 miles with the extra bits. I think it might be a rest day tomorrow.