Eastbourne; Saturday, 10 December, 2011

Up early and out to a beautifully sunny morning. I had breakfast in a little café on the beach taking in the millpond still sea and the light glinting off the pier.

After breakfast I caught the bus out to Exceat and the start of the walk up over the seven sisters chalk formation.

It was quite a lot longer walk than I had originally expected, especially as the seven sisters are quite a lot steeper than I thought.

Just after midday I reached the National Trust tearoom at Birling Gap and stopped for a quite bite to eat and a cup of coffee. Fortified I headed off for the next leg of the walk, up past the Belle Tout lighthouse and then the big climb up to Beach Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in the country.

By the time I got to Beachy Head it was gone two so I popped into the pub for a late lunch. After lunch I remembered that it was actually December and not the middle of summer, and consequently, mid-afternoon is not actually far off from sunset and with the sun already hidden behind the cliffs it was distinctly cooler than it had been earlier.

I walked down from Beachy head getting back into town just as the sun was starting to set and had a nice walk along the prom and then an explore along the pier.

As I came back up the pier I could see the most stunning moon-rise coming up from the East and I watched that for a while before heading back to the hotel to freshen up before heading back out to meet my friends for dinner.