Sunny six miles hilly.

Sunday proved to be a lovely day for our walk from East Dean to Beachy Head.

We set off up the slope from East Dean village in fine fettle, through the buttercup meadow and over the stone stile to the top of the downs.

       "Twinners with Stile"

Swallows and gulls flew overhead as we strode on to Birling Gap. After a brief comfort stop we set off up the next slope and were amazed to see banks of white dog roses and some aquilegia or columbine on either side of the path. Does their presence indicate a long lost garden? There is no trace of a wall but aquilegia is certainly an escapee.

             
"Sussex by the Sea"               

          "Below: Two Adonises"
The natural wild life of the chalk grassland was all around us. We saw the brilliant Adonis blue butterfly, only the male is blue so it was named after the Greek god of masculine beauty, and the burnet moth with bright red under wings. The red colouration warns predators that it is very poisonous, containing cyanide. I thought this rather too aptly appropriate for the area. We heard the black cap and whitethroat singing from the brambles and jackdaws performed their aerial acrobatics above our heads.

It is a long steady climb to the top of Beachy Head, 152 metres above the sea below and the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. We stopped to admire the view and catch our breath. If you look east, you can see the beaches and town of Eastbourne and then on to Pevensey Bay and Hastings. Inland the fields were flecked with red. Soon they will be ablaze with colour as the poppies all come into flower.

Lunch at the Beachy Head Pub was very welcome. The service and the food were both judged to be excellent by our band of experts, Sue and Roy, Alan and Vera, Ian and I. After a couple of beers and a pleasant chat we set off again. This time it was nearly all down hill to an accompaniment of skylarks. Who says they are becoming rare? Certainly here it doesn’t seem to be true. Half way down the hill, just past the dew pond, we startled a hare which bounded off across the field. This is a rare sight on the downs.

Back at East Dean we felt we had done very well and congratulated each other over tea and cakes at the Hikers Rest.

Next year we hope that our partners from France and Germany will be able to join us for a full weekend of walking and hope that the weather will again be idyllic.

Heather Booth