Our first trip of 2020 (and the last before the Covid-19 lockdown)
The weather was bright at the start of March and we decided to take a short trip away and walk some of the South Downs Way starting in Eastbourne. After much googling we worked out we could stay at in the car park at the Beach Head Hotel (provided we had dinner) and we decided to join the Caravan and Motorhome Club so we could stay at some of their sites and in particular the Certified Location (CL) at Alfriston on other nights.
We set off on a bright sunny day, on Friday March 6th, and arrived just after lunch in time for a super walk along the cliffs to Birling Gap, up to East Dean (where I had a summer holiday in the UK in the early 1970's before I went to prep school) and back towards Eastbourne via Eastbourne Downs Golf Club. I could see Eastbourne College at the end of the walk ... my school for O and A levels until 1979!
We had dinner that night at the hotel and the views were amazing at dusk! While it looks like we were the only people there there were a few other vans which turned up just before and over dinner.
The hotel was quite quiet which, with hindsight, might have been the start of a slow down?
After a bright start we decided to do a circular walk from the coast up to Alfriston and back and see where we were going to stay the night.
We drove a short way west to the Seven Sisters Country Park at Exceat and paid the princely sum of £8 to park for the day and set off to walk northwards.
Little did we realise just how wet things were - it had been raining all month but at home we were largely uneffected. The view back towards the car park shows the flooding of the Cuckmere River.
As we reached Litlington it was obvious we would not be able to walk as planned due to flooding and were not even sure we would cross the river.
Eventually we were able to walk down the bank of a flooded road north of Alfriston and walk back into town! The town was completely cut off from the north by car! We found our campsite - looked OK - and they were repairing the road in which was a good sign.
We traced our way back towards Cuckmere Haven with a few detours on the way due to flooding. The dogs were getting exhausted by this point so we made our way back to Vincent, fed them, and did a last bit of walking to Cuckmere Haven and back. It was a bit grey and dull by then.
At least we now knew we could drive to the campsite having walked it! We drove in and made ourselves at home and were the only ones there all weekend. The site was nice and quiet and an ideal spot for some more walking on Sunday!
Sunday was bright and breezy, with a shower or two forecast. We set off after breakfast to walk some of the downs to the west and made our way over the morning towards Firle, where we ended up about lunchtime in time for a drink at the Ram Inn Pub! Rather than climb back up to the top we made our way back along the lower slopes of the downs, having to shether in a barn for 10 minutes or so as a torrential downpour occured. Luckily we did not get too wet and the sun came out soon after and dried us out.
We thought about leaving to get home Sunday evening, as the forecast for Monday was dreadful, but after a bit of umming and arring we decided to stay and after all the walking slept well that night.
Monday turned out to be fine in the morning so we decided to squeeze in one short walk at Glyndebourne before driving home.
We were back home early afternoon and Vincent has been at home since (except for a short trip to have a bike rack fitted on the back!!)