The South Downs Way - Eastern Section

South Downs Way – 25-26 July 2014

We walked the last 33 miles of the South Downs Way from Ditchling Beacon to Eastbourne.

On the day prior to this we attended La Traviata at Glyndebourne.  Wonderful singing from Venera Gimadieva as Violetta.  Our outfits for the opera differed somewhat from our South Downs Way attire.

A slightly belated start because of the drive from one B&B to another and the hassle of getting a taxi back to our start point.  It’s a sweltering hot, hazy, sunny morning on the top of Ditchling Beacon as we start Eastwards.  Within a few yards, an amazing figure walks towards us.  He looks to be in his 40s, is wearing walking boots, socks and shorts and using walking poles.  But his gait indicates that he has severe spastic diplegia – a form of cerebral palsy.  His scissored legs mean that he makes progress by a major rotary action of his frame and has no real distance to each stride.  He is sweating profusely and has clearly covered a number of miles already this morning.  What an inspiration for us supposedly more able-bodied individuals.  If you ever read this, South Downs Way walker, I would love to know more about you.  Congratulations on your perseverance and obvious endurance.

Along the ridge at Plumpton Plain, the Way is mostly over soft springy turf.  In general, only where paths slope more steeply up or down hill is the Way eroded away sufficiently to make it the rough chalk and flint track so characteristic of the South Downs.  Patchworks of fields recall the blocks of colour and pattern created by Eric Ravilious or Paul Nash.

As we descend to Housedown Farm, the long hot spell has turned the wheat and barley to dry gold and the harvesters are out mowing the fields in a perfect geometric pattern, no doubt guided by GPS, clouds of chaff streaming like smoke from their interior.  At Housedown, a luscious plum tree has grown over the wall and provides refreshment, as does one of the occasionally sited taps for fresh water supplies on the Way.

A typical SDW view

Rising up the Newmarket Hill on the opposite side of the A27 we turn East again on Juggs Road, a track heading Southeast past a number of ‘bottoms’.  There is Loose bottom, Stump bottom, Home bottom and Long bottom.  We pass above attractive villages such as Kingston near Lewes, Ilford, and Rodmell.  The latter contains Monk’s House, the home of Virginia Wolf from 1919 until her suicide in the River Ouse in 1941.  Leonard Wolf lived on here until 1969.  Nearby Firle contains Charleston Farmhouse, the home of her sister Vanessa Bell.  Despite our wish to improve our knowledge of the Bloomsbury set, we have ‘miles to go before I sleep’ and stick to the ridge until we descend to the beautiful village of Southease.  This is where the route crosses the River Ouse, the railway, and the A26, all in quick succession.  The church at Southease is very old and has an unusual circular tower (unusual for Sussex).

Southease Church

Then on up Itford Hill, occasionally passing one of the famous ‘dewponds’, and along the ridge until after a total of 17 miles we reach Bo Peep Lane, the road that takes us down to our farmhouse B&B.  All along the field borders, the hedges contain a profusion of wild flowers, with ox-eye daisy, knapweed, and scabious prominent, but many I don’t know.

Before we descend we look to the northwest where behind the hill to the East of Lewes stands the wind turbine which supplies the rather unattractive and unmistakable grey roof of the opera stages and the circular tower of Glyndebourne opera house.

Glyndebourne from somewhere above Southease

Dinner is in the lovely Rose Cottage pub in the nearby village of Alciston.  Excellent, as is the Harvey’s Sussex bitter.

Nightfall at Bo Peep farm

On Saturday we can start walking straight from the farm.  Up the lane and onto the broad back of the downs at Bostal Hill.  Down into the pretty village of Alfriston.  As we exit the bridleway a man in a car labelled ‘Plod’ is directing us left and not straight on as the SDW sign indicates.  It turns out that the ‘Plod’ refers to a walk and not a policeman.  It’s in aid of a medical research charity.  Walkers started the previous midnight at Devil’s Dyke (West of Brighton) and are walking 40 miles to Beachy Head.  Assuring him we are not on the ‘Plod’ we walk on, but further on we come across some unfortunate plodders, by now mostly walking in agonized postures, though there are a few who still look as if they are just out for a weekend stroll.  Along the Cuckmere River in the valley it’s intensely hot.  At Lillington the ladies of the W.I are selling cakes which we buy.  Resisting the temptation to ask about their version of this year’s calendar we climb up and down in woodland until breaking out on the last hill we look down on the beautiful meandering Cuckmere River as it reaches Cuckmere Haven at the start of the Seven Sisters Country Park.

The White Horse of High and Over

The Cuckmere River reaches the sea.  Cuckmere Haven and Seven Sisters Country Park

Cuckmere Haven by Eric Ravilious

Up and down over the Seven Sisters (the famous undulating chalk cliffs leading to Beachy Head) we find that there seem to be more than seven.  Indeed the apparent lighthouse on the cliffs at the end of the skyline turns out to be Belle Tout lighthouse, the original 1831 light structure, and Beachy Head itself is another substantial haul along the cliffs, the smart red and white lighthouse of Beachy Head itself mounted on rocks in the waters below.  

Looking West on the Seven Sisters

Beachy Head at last.  Looking East

The End - or perhaps the Beginning?  As TS Eliot would say... or to paraphrase Churchill it is 'the End of the Beginning'

After this it’s a straightforward mostly downhill slog into Eastbourne, where we see the pier just a few weeks before it’s gutted by fire.  Taxi back to Bo Peep farmhouse where the lady owner has had a power cut and unfortunately has to cancel her Saturday bookings.  Improvements in the A27 mean we are back in Poole two hours later...  We will be back on the South Downs Way some time in the future.