today’s the first day of our south downs way long distance walk! 180km lie ahead of us! to be honest, i am a bit worried whether i will make it — the distance is not what i am worried about, it’s the weight of my backpack (17kg!) and the fact that we have two “long days” ahead of us: one 30km and one 32km day. well…not guts no glory

after a quiet night (no roundabout next to this b&b…) we have breakfast and then start our adventure: we pass through meads village and make our way to the start of the south downs way another couple is just leaving as we get to the official starting point and offer to take our picture they are using a luggage carrying service and only have two small backpacks…

as we set off, the inevitable happens: it starts raining. at first it’s only a drizzle but then it becomes more serious about it and also calls in the help its friend, mr windy. strangely enough, though, i don’t really care: it just feels fantastic to be alive and part of the elements out there and i enjoy the day regardless of the rain!

 

from eastbourne until we turn land inwards towards exceat, we are following the coast line with its sheer drop to the channel on our left. and it’s a roller coaster walk: up and down and up and down. the wind picks up speed and force and soon we keep a respectful distance to the cliff edge as we are pelted with gale force gusts saturated with rain. as we get close to beachy head we see a police helicopter, lots of police, and a winch going over the cliff. some of the police men and women wear gloves and it looks like a forensic operation is under way. increase the distance to the cliff edge

the light is — inspite of the rain — rather interesting and the seven sisters are an amazing piece of coast!

when we reach cliff end it’s, well, the end of the cliffs for us and we turn inland towards exceat visitor center, which we reach after about 30min. the café looks eerily deserted, but we are wet, wet, wet and absolutely crave something hot — and, luckily, we can still order lunch while we wait for our soup of the day along with a pot of tea, the couple we met earlier this morning in eastbourne comes in from the rain, then a group of ladies who refuse to sit down and just stand in a huddle, a bloke with his dogs comes in for a cup of coffee — we are no longer alone.

eventually we are recharged enough to continue to alfriston — but before doing so we take a look at the rather interesting visitor centre with its execellent explanation of how the coast at exceat has changed rather dramatically back and forth over the last 100 years!

the walk to alfriston takes us through wood then over typical down hills and finally through litlington, where we unfortunately ignore the bridge over the cuckmere river in the erroneous belief that there will be another one closer to our b&b for tonight, the riverdale house b&b… we end up walking through a lovely peaceful valley along the meandering cuckmere river all the way to alfriston, past it almost until we reach a bridge across the river and then it’s all the way back through picturesque alfriston (picturesque but wet) back to along the cuckmere river until we reach the sign post for riverdale house. the permeating light rain has turned into a down pour by the time we reach riverdale house. our landlord and landlady for the night, rory and pippa menzies, are fantastic and help us get to grips with our soaked through clothing (the bottom compartment of my backpack has delveloped the ill-conceived notion that it’s a “spa”…) — our room is comfortable and newly decorated, we feel right at home.

after a hot shower we make our way into alfriston again — true to form, it has stopped raining! the george inn catches our fancy and we have a nice dinner!