It looked gloomy leaving Eastbourne. Todays walk was going to be a hilly one, climbing up to Beachy Head then working my way along the cliffs to Seaford.
I reached the start of the South Downs path at the foot of Beachy Head and started to climb up. The rain then started to pour down. A long climb up wet muddy tracks finally got me to the open ground at the top of the cliffs.
I spotted two guys in high vis jackets heading along the cliff towards me . I took them to be council workers but they turned out to be chaplains. Their job is to help people who go to Beachy Head in order to end it all. Today due to the rain , I was the only person there and I was not planning to finish my walk there.
The views were wonderful and the sun emerging from the clouds gave some gorgeous light to the landscape. I got a good landscape with a couple of walkers on the skyline . I met these two Italians a few minutes later and they seemed to like their albeit distant portrayal.
From then on in was a lot of stop and starting taking photographs on the hilly cliffs. Due to sheer luck I reached Cuckmere at exactly low tide so was able to ford the river there saving me a two mile detour.
I met there a member of the local coastwatch on his day off. He was really helpful in pointing out some good photo spots and warning me of the dangers of the cliffs and being cut off by the tide.
I treat the sea with a lot of respect so I was well in tune with his ideas.
I walked on into Seaford where Pauline was very kindly putting me up for the night and feeding me. No mean feat as after all that climbing I was ravenous.