Greetings, and hello again from London. I am writing at the end of a lovely holiday, the Thursday of which I decided to head out and explore again, and am now writing up my blog entry for another lovely local day trip from London.
This time I headed southwards, to the south coast, to a lovely little seaside town called Eastbourne, and some nearby star attractions: Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters, both located in the corner of the expansive South Downs National Park. It was a highly enjoyable day, and I must admit I saw what I believe to be one of Englands most spectacular natural wonders. While England, to my mind, is an adorable country, of rolling hills, cute landscapes and quaint villages, I believe there are not too many spectacularly beautiful sights here. On Thursday, I would say I saw one of them though – the achingly beautiful and dazzling white chalk cliffs of Englands coast.
After having just bought a railcard, for a third off rail travel in the of England, I purchased a discounted day return ticket from East Croydon to Eastbourne, for just
less than £20. Once again, reminiscent of my trip last summer to Chichester, I pretty much had a whole carriage of the train to myself for the journey, and once again while passing Gatwick Airports car park, I was greeted with a forlorn sight of vast emptiness. I put to the back of my mind these sad reminders of the current situation, and determined to enjoy my travelling day ahead.
Around an hour later, we pulled in to Eastbourne Station, and the weather was notably cooler than in London, sunny, but with a very fresh breeze from the Clad only in shorts and I did find myself to be a little chilly during parts of the day, but judging from my face at the end of the day, I had certainly still caught the sun! My first stop was a bus stop right outside the train station, to wait for the bus listed as the ESS on Google maps. This ESS would take me to the distant Beachy Head coastline for the first part of my trip. The bus stops live screen, however, only showed your usual buses assigned numbers, and the ESS
bus was nowhere to be found. I asked a friendly local if she knew anything about the ESS – she was most friendly until that point, telling me about her lovely recent trip to the hospital and her current journey home, but looked at me as if I was mad when I asked her about this, and couldnt board the next bus quick enough to get away! I was beginning to doubt the existence of such a bus.
Fortunately though, not long after, the ESS bus did arrive, and it turned out to be an sightseeing bus which did a loop around the sights of Eastbourne and around – yay! ESS stands for Eastbourne Sightseeing, and I excitedly grabbed a seat at the back on the top deck, having bought a pass, and eagerly became a tourist for the day. To start with, it was just me and a couple towards the front, but when the bus pulled in to the Eastbourne Pier bus stop, it soon filled up with local tourists and happy families. There was a very jovial atmosphere on board, and it was lovely to see so many people smiling and enjoying
The bus set off along its route westwards across Eastbournes sea front, and then slowly climbed up into the adjacent beginnings of the South Downs National Park. It is here where the famous South Downs Way begins, winding its way 100 miles through the park and ending in the city of Winchester. During the day, I spotted a number of hikers who presumably were doing this route. One of Englands 10 national parks, the South Downs is also the countrys newest, created as recently as 2010, and is mostly made up of high, rolling hills and meadows, sitting on top of a huge layer of chalkstone. As this chalkstone reaches the sea on Englands coast, it gives rise to the countrys famed white cliffs, of which the White Cliffs of Dover are probably the most famous. My destination for the day was another famous area of white cliffs.
