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I decided to hike the coast today after all - in retrospect an ~8 mile hike the day after my arrival probably wasn't the best idea lol, but at least it was worth it beauty-wise!
I set off to Exceat to start the hike at Seven Sisters. The bus ride was amusing - most of the stops aren't street names, that's too pedestrian. I could have got off at the Goffs, The Lamb, or my personal fav, the Tally Ho! I had the prime front seat on the double-decker and enjoyed watching the countryside (along with all the branches...) go by.
At Exceat there's a Visitor Centre, but I just headed off to frolic with the sheep. So many sheep. As such, I also had to play "avoid the poo" as the sheep seem to think the walking path is their poop chute. The Cuckmere river runs through, so got some nice shots of that as I made my way to the cliffside. Walking through the valley, as I ate my sandwich, some curious sheep started to follow me. Sorry buds, I don't give my dogs scraps, you def aren't getting anything from me.
(Sidenote: someone drew some
pics and wrote "hello! have a great day" on one of the signposts for the trail and it was super cute)
The Seven Sisters walk was really beautiful, but def not a leisurely stroll. The "sisters" are the cliffs... so you're basically going up and down 7 cliff tops. I didn't expect to go fully down in between them - oooooh boy I'm going to feel it in my legs tomorrow.
The cliffs are white/chalk, much like in Dover. It's a beautiful juxtaposition against the water and all the colours just pop - green grass, vibrant blue water and sky (pretty much zero cloud cover today). I think West Bay is still my fav cliffside walk, but this was well worth the effort.
The first half of the hike was pretty quiet - basically just birds chirping, sheep letting out the occasional scream and the waves crashing down below. As I got closer to Birling Gap it did get quite a bit busier. As such, I decided to sit, eat my amazingly fresh strawberries and have fun people watching for a bit. As pretty much everywhere in the UK, there are no rails so people can get
Sheep
I like the shadows in this one as close to the edge as they wish. There are signs that note the cliffs are eroding but of course many tourists aren't big on the whole safety thing... tons of people right on the edge peering down. I stayed a bit further back thanks.
I wrapped up the walk at Beachy Head - great red and white lighthouse down below. I could have kept walking to Eastbourne but decided a bus was well merited. I was lucky... I thought the 13X run during the week since it's summer. Technically it does but only 3x a day - woops! My timing worked out as I only had to wait about 10 min. I would not have been pleased had I needed to add another mile and a half to my trek.
Back in Eastbourne, I had a proper dog day on the walk back to the bnb. I met Loki (ha!) the Malamute - now THAT is a dog. I also met Charlie the German Shepherd who was quite bear-like for being a Shepherd, but was a total suck.
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